OCR Text |
Show '303 C.0IIOO f 0? Between 1971 and 1975 the Division of Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Forest Service cooperated on an Abert squirrel study in San Juan County. Its intent was to maintain or increase the habitat and population of the squirrel while achieving an adequate timber harvest. THE SQUIRRELS use heavy stands of ponderosa pine in the Abajo Mountains and on Elk Ridge. Since the study, logging operations have been planned with the squirrels' habitat in mind. According to Jordan Pederson, a regional game manager with the DWR and a participant in the study, about 12 nest boxes were installed in-stalled in the pine forests and several were used by Abert squirrels. PEDERSON SAID that the nest boxes have also provided shelter for other species besides the Abert squirrel. Only the second or third recorded nesting in Utah of a flammulated owl occurred in one of the boxes. Red squirrels, a flicker and a hive of bees were found in other boxes. Due to the success of these : nest boxes, 20 more were in- , stalled in early July by the Young Adult Conservation Corps (YACC) as part of a Forest Service project. Although the squirrels build nests in August and September, Sep-tember, Pederson doesn't expect ex-pect nesting success in these new boxes for another two years. |