Ochoco NF Biologists Honored With NWTF Habitat Management Program Award

A pair of Forest Service wildlife biologists based in Central Oregon have received a national award for conservation work benefitting a popular game bird and other huntable species.

Robbie Piehl and Monty Gregg of the Ochoco National Forest were recently honored with the National Wild Turkey Federation‘s Habitat Management Program Award, which recognizes accomplishments benefitting gobbler habitat over a period of years.

The duo worked to secure funding for what’s known as the Sunflower Project near Paulina and which is where turkeys were released in 2000 and 2006.

“It feels amazing to win this award because we started off with $30,000, and this project going forward has gained close to $300,000, which we can leverage for another $1 million with our next partner,” said Piehl in an NWTF press release. “What started as something small has become a 2,000-acre project, when we originally thought we’d only get a couple hundred.”

The project’s focus is to remove western juniper, which has been expanding in Central Oregon, and restoring sagebrush and bitterbrush habitat, work that not only benefits turkeys but native species such as mule deer, elk, pronghorn and pronghorn antelope.

Its first phase began last October, about a year after a stewardship agreement was signed with NWTF, and successfully accomplished despite delays caused by last summer’s historic wildfire season, according to the organization.

Piehl and Gregg secured funding from multiple partners, including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Oregon chapter of NWTF.

Gregg termed NWTF a “tried-and-true partner” whose administration capacity was helpful for the project.

The duo received their awards as part of NWTF’s 49th annual Convention and Sport Show in Nashville earlier this month, during the Making Tracks segment with the Forest Service, which “recognizes people and projects that best incorporate conservation education, partnerships and wild turkey management.” Five staffers from the Chiloquin Ranger District in Southern Oregon, Judd Lehman, Emerson Cogburn, James Kolesar, Kevin Keown and Todd Clement, also received awards for a pilot forest health project.

It’s not the first time Piehl and Gregg have been honored by a sportsman’s organization. In 2020, Piehl was named the Oregon Hunters Association’s Conservationist of the Year for working with three OHA chapters linking work parties with worthy projects and the material to complete them, while Gregg received a similar honor that year from the Oregon Wildlife Society.

Also winning an award at this year’s NWTF convention, the Seattle-area’s South Sound Strutters Chapter for the Cedar River Cleanup Event it has participated in the past three years.