Photos by Jeff Fontana
24 volunteers, most of them members of the Mule Deer Foundation, made the trek to far eastern Lassen County on Saturday to take part in Field and Stream Magazine’s Conservation Hero for a Day project, planting 1,200 bitterbrush plants across an 8.5 mile area devastated by last year’s Rush fire.
The group of workers met early Saturday morning at the BLM’s Eagle Lake field office and then caravanned the 40 miles to the two planting sites near the Nevada border.
This project is part of the BLM’s ongoing work to help the landscape recover after the 315,000-acre Rush fire, the second largest in California history, stripped the ground bare last August.
The bitterbrush plants were donated by the Mule Deer Foundation, who covered each young sapling with a protective Vexar mesh tube to protect it from foraging animals.
A video crew from Field and Stream’s Hero for a Day program was on site, along with Hero for a Day program host Bob Marshall.
An extension of Field and Stream’s Heroes of Conservation initiative, Hero for a Day highlights grassroots conservation projects in local communities across the country, and then connects the magazine’s readers with opportunities to help restore or improve wildlife habitat. The bitterbrush is critical ground cover for sage grouse and chukars and a food source for mule deer and pronghorns.
Most likely Field and Stream will be publishing the story in May and we will make sure we let you know when and where to look for it here on SusanvilleStuff.
