CouesWhitetail Report post Posted March 21, 2007 Mills Ridge Water Catchment - April 14-15, 2007 Tonto Basin The AZ Deer Association will host a steak dinner on Saturday night and a Sunday breakfast of green chili biscuits and gravy for all attendees. This new water catchment project is the result of an ADOT mitigation action to decrease or eliminate the number of deer being killed by vehicles on Hwy 188 as they move towards Roosevelt Lake to water. Two 18' x 3' fiberglass ring tanks will be installed with a 3' fiberglass walk-in trough set at the same level. Above the tanks, a 24' x 96' steel collection apron will be assembled to provide both quality water to the system, and protect the underlying tank components. A perimeter steel pipe rail fence will be erected to provide access to only wildlife. Much of the excavation work will be accomplished with a backhoe prior to volunteer arrival. Volunteer work will primarily start on Saturday morning and consist of the installation and backfilling of the plumbing, masonry work in the trough, assembly of the collection apron, and installation of the pipe rail fence. Any remaining work including raking of the entire site will be completed on Sunday. Volunteers arriving before Saturday will be given other associated preparatory work tasks to complete. For more information, visit www.azdeer.org Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
azcouesandelk Report post Posted March 22, 2007 I would go but I am having my wisdom teeth removed on the 13th! So I will be laying around the house recovering and complaining Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted April 9, 2007 Just a reminder that this work project is coming up this weekend! Anyone going? It's a great time of year to get out and camp near Roosevelt lake. The ADA is providing a very nice steak dinner SAT night. This is a good project, so come on out if you can! See link below for more info. http://www.azdeer.org/Projects/mill%20ridge%20project.pdf Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted April 17, 2007 Here are a few pics from the project this past weekend. What a ton of fun! If you guys ever get a chance to do a project like this, jump on it. You get to meet some neat people, get some good exercise and do some good for wildlife. I got to visit with a few other CW.com'ers there (Dan Hoffman, Terry Herndon and Jed Nitzo). There were also many other volunteers there including several ADA board members and their friends. We also had a hunter bring his two teenagers and it was great talking with them! The ADA provided a steak dinner on Friday night that was delicious! and then some great biscuits and gravy on Sat morning. The basic plan was to provide water for mule deer on the SW side of the highway so deer don't have to cross the highway to get water at Roosevelt Lake. I heard that up to 60 mulies are killed in that area on the highway annually! Wow. What a pointless loss of deer. Hopefully this water project will help with that. AGFD personnel worked up there for days before the volunteers got there to help out on the weekend. They dug a hole big enough to bury two large tanks that can hold something like 5500 gallons of water a piece (hope I am remembering that figure correctly). There is pvc pipe running from the tanks to a trough that the deer can drink from. An apron of sheet metal catches rainwater and funnels it into the underground tanks. The drinker and tanks are exactly level so that the amount of water in the drinker is equivalent to the amount of water in the tanks. I forgot to bring my camera, but luckily TLH did and he took some pics on Sat. Unfortunately, I don't have pics from Sunday when there was water in the drinker. They pumped water into the tanks from a few loads of a water truck. Very satisfying to watch that water flow into the drinker. Here are a few pics. The last pic shows Dan, Jed and I hanging out in the shade. It's great to meet folks who love this website! Got to hear about all kinds of hunting adventures Jed has had. Jed is an avid archer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
azryan Report post Posted April 17, 2007 good to see thanks for the pics Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ScottAdams Report post Posted April 18, 2007 Great pictures Amanda. The Southeastern Arizona Sportsmans club helped put two of those in unit 28 earlier this year. It's hard work but accomplishes much. Thanks for the report. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
