Ryan Torland of ODF&W's John Day Office has been actively pursuing juniper eradication in the Phillip W. Schneider Wildlife Area near Aldrich Mountain for wildlife habitat improvement, especially for the Big Horn Sheep. He has provided oversight to contractors cutting juniper, some of which was funded by GIA requests from OR-FNAWS He also collaborated with OR-FNAWS' Larry Jacobs and Walt Van Dyke to plan and conduct hands on projects for OR-FNAWS and others to cut juniper in the Olive Creek drainage at the foot of Aldridge Mtn. in Grant County. The first OR-FNAWS hands on project for cutting junipers there was held in March of 2009.

The second project was held this February 26-28 in the same area as last years work. There were 11 folks that worked various times Saturday and Sunday and included Larry Jacobs, Dave Geelan, Larry Sides, Mike Boethin, Brent Tannock, Bob Welsh, Ryan Torland, Jim Torland all members of OR-FNAWS; Kevin Childs and Tim Untewagner (who we hope to corral into being members of OR-FNAWS); also, Matt Bagett who works for Trout Unlimited (and performed the training exercise before the cutting) helped with this habitat improvement project.

It is estimated another 10-12 acres were cut. The area has two large meadows and a creek, but there are bands of juniper that separated the area and did not provide open country for the sheep and other wild life to access the meadows and water without being jeopardized by predators. The areas to be cut were targeted by Ryan to open up the area so the sheep ranging on Aldrich Mtn and other wildlife could access the meadows and stream through open areas.

Ryan provided those coming from away access to the Murderers Creek Ranch House which provided a wood heated shelter out of the rain on Friday night. The spring did not give running water this year, but there were two chick sails in the meadow and a generator for electric lights. He also brought a grub stake and he, Jim Torland, Larry Jacobs, Larry Sides and Dave Geelan, teamed up for the cooking chores. The gang was well taken care of and thanks go out to Ryan, Larry Jacobs and others for the planning, logistics and food. It was another` successful weekend with progress made on the goals of the juniper eradication project in the PWS Wildlife Area.