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Show BLM deer herd control planning in Iron County making progress doer, whereas sheep prefer browse plants in direct competition com-petition with the deer. Water and Forage In cooperation with Division Divis-ion of Wildlife Resources, Maple Spring was developed and piped one mile into troughs and will result in more efficient use of the range both by cattle and deer. Also 2000 seedlings of bitter-brush, bitter-brush, a highly preferred plant by deer, have been ordered or-dered and will be hand planted plant-ed in March or April of this year.. Studies Additional studies were initiated in-itiated in cooperation with Division of Wildlife Resources which will help determine a optium population level of deer for the area. Then the deer can be manipulated either eith-er up or down to reach this level, Isaacson added. ' According to Cedar City District Manager Harold E. Isaacson, one phase of planning plan-ning in the Cedar Unit is fast becoming a reality. The unit generally includes east of Interstate In-terstate 15 to the forest boundary boun-dary and north of Kanarra-ville Kanarra-ville to Paragonah. At a public meeting held last May, BLM received several sev-eral recommendations pertaining pertain-ing to the management of this area. One of the most frequent fre-quent discussed items was the deer winter range problem along the Parowan Front. The deer-tight fence along 1-15 between Cedar City and Summit Sum-mit reduced the size of the wintering area, thus increasing increas-ing the burden of the vegetative veget-ative plants to produce sufficient suf-ficient forage for the existing deer herd as well as the livestock. live-stock. In attempting t o resolve this problem, the following alternatives al-ternatives were considered at the public meetings: reduce deer numbers, change class of livestock from sheep to cattle, and provide additional forage. The recommendation was I made that BLM first consider I the change in class of livestock live-stock to see if this would solve sol-ve the problem. Action Taken The ELM contacted the five remaining sheep operators and encouraged a change from sheep to cattle. In each case the operator responded favorably. In the future, spring cattle grazing will be used as a tool to enhence the deer winter range. Cattle grazing will remove the grasses which compete with browse plants; this will provide more feed for the |