Greys River Ranger District Completes Burn on Star Valley Front
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation contributed a $10,000 grant in 2026 to purchase chemical spheres known as dragon eggs, funding precision drone ignitions that cleared a 1,200-acre prescribed burn near Smoot in March 2026 to restore vital big-game winter range on the Star Valley Front.
Restoring Decades of Overgrown Habitat Along the Salt River Range
Spanning roughly 60 miles north and south on the western side of the Salt River Range, south of Jackson, Wyoming, the Star Valley Front offers tens of thousands of acres of public land utilized by big game and hunters. Yet wildlife habitat across this terrain has become less than optimal due to decades of fire suppression. Decades of suppressing natural fires caused the aspen stands and shrublands critical to moose, mule deer, and elk to age, decay, and suffer from conifer encroachment.
In 2021, the Greys River Ranger District of the Bridger-Teton National Forest launched a large, multi-year initiative to use prescribed fire on over 31,000 acres within a project area spanning nearly 65,000 acres along the front to reverse this degradation.
Deploying Drones and Chemical Spheres Across Rugged Terrain
The $10,000 grant from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation purchased “dragon eggs”—spheres about the size of ping-pong balls filled with high-grade potassium permanganate powder. Unmanned aerial drones disperse these spheres onto the landscape. Just before dropping an egg, the drone injects the sphere with ethylene glycol, triggering a chemical reaction that causes the ball to ignite upon hitting the ground.
This method allows land managers to place precision ignition points over a large area, including steep or remote locations that would be extremely difficult or dangerous to reach on foot. The Greys River Ranger District utilized this aerial technology to ignite the 1,200-acre burn near Smoot in March 2026. The resulting fire helps restore a balance of age classes to sagebrush and aspen communities, securing critical forage for wintering elk and mule deer.