The Lookout Mountain project is part of an ongoing effort by the Bureau of Land Management to improve habitat conditions for wildlife and livestock, and reduce the risk of wildfires and forest disease on a landscape scale. Several phases have been implemented since 2005 in collaboration with several partners, including several BLM programs (including fuels, fire, range, forestry, and wildlife), Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Colorado State Land Board, Habitat Partnership Program (HPP), Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and the National Wild Turkey Federation. More than 1,000 acres have been treated with mastication or other mechanical equipment, 620 acres have been hand thinned and piled, and approximately 450 acres have been treated by prescribed fire (pile burning). There is a lot of private property near the treatment area, and the local DWM was receiving complaints about big game damage to irrigated hay meadows.

This project was completed in March of 2020. Mechanical mastication of trees was completed on a total of 140 acres in order to create openings in dense pinion/juniper forest. The BLM also provided a guzzler to provide additional water to wildlife and make the habitat even more attractive for big game.

The habitat has improved greatly and there has been a large increase in deer and turkey using the treatment area. The improved wildlife distribution has increased hunting opportunities on public lands, and the local DWM has not received any game damage complaints from neighboring agricultural fields. Grazing permittees on the BLM property have also seen the benefits of better forage quality and quantity, and their livestock are now able to graze in areas that they previously couldn’t access.