Logo Department Name Agency Organization Organization Address Information United States Forest Coconino National Forest 8375 State Route 179 Department of Service Red Rock Ranger District Sedona, 86351 Agriculture FAX: 928-527-36207539

File Code: 1950 Date: July 19, 2019

To: Interested Forest Service Parties

Project: Emory Oak Restoration Open for Comment: July 19 to August 18, 2019

The Forest Service in partnership with the Yavapai-Apache Nation, Tonto Apache, San Carlos Apache, and White Mountain Apache tribes are developing proposals to manage and restore culturally important Emory oak (Quercus emoryi) groves across the Coconino, Tonto, and Prescott national forests. In this specific project proposal, the Coconino National Forest and the Tonto National Forest have identified eight Emory oak groves—seven on the Coconino’s Red Rock Ranger District and one on the Tonto’s Payson Ranger District—to select for restoration and management. This Forest Service proposal is part of the Emory Oak Collaborative Tribal Restoration Initiative (EOCTRI) efforts to restore and protect Emory oak groves. The objective of this restoration project is to improve recruitment, increase resilience, and encourage conditions that favor acorn production of Emory oak trees for tribal use in order to ensure long-term persistence of this ecocultural resource.

Background Emory oak is a cultural keystone species in Arizona forests and savannas. For the Western Apache people, Emory oak acorns are an important food source, and, in the past, they were a household staple-- always on the table like salt and pepper. Acorn gathering excursions for Western Apaches were social events that brought families and, frequently, clans together at larger oak stands, providing tribal people with both a nutritious food and a product that could be traded for specialty items, like medicinal plants, or sold for income. For the past 15 years, elders of the Western Apache tribes have observed a decline in Emory oak acorn production on Forest Service lands and have voiced increased concern about the scarcity of young oak trees and regeneration within oak groves. Federal management has altered Arizonan forests through practices like fire suppression and introduction of livestock grazing, thereby, impacting cultural resources. Changes to the landscape in response to these management practices have likely suppressed Emory oak regeneration, threatening the long-term persistence of this species.

Purpose and Need Site visits and assessments of the Emory oak groves have determined there is a need to improve the health and vigor of oak groves by removing non-desirable competing vegetation; re-introducing fire though broadcast burning; and fencing off areas to protect and increase seedling establishment from cattle grazing and recreation impacts. To mitigate losses of traditional importance to Western Apache people, tribal members have identified Emory oak groves located on Forest Service land to be considered for restoration treatments. Logo Department Name Agency Organization Organization Address Information United States Forest Coconino National Forest 8375 State Route 179 Department of Service Red Rock Ranger District Sedona, 86351 Agriculture FAX: 928-527-36207539

Proposed Action Restoration of eight Emory Oak groves on Forest Service land will be accomplished through a number of potential actions: The eight Emory oak grove locations, identified in this Coconino National Forest project, include: 1. Loy Canyon—14 acres 2. Hartwell Canyon—15 acres 3. Long Canyon—28 acres 4. Dry Creek—12 acres 5. Dove Springs—175 acres 6. Needle Rock—12 acres 7. West Fork—18 acres 8. Fossil Creek (managed jointly by the Coconino and Tonto national forests)—9 acres Potential actions at all eight locations include:

• Hand thinning (and potentially hand piled or chipped) • Mastication • Burning of hand piles or broadcast burning • Fencing • Direct seeding Emory Oak grove restoration would be initially addressed through removal of non-desirable over-story and under-story species by hand thinning and/or mastication. Thinning activities would consist of hand falling trees and shrubs; the resulting slash would be either lopped and scattered, hand piled, chipped, or masticated in place. Mastication is the chipping, crushing, and or shredding of unwanted standing trees and shrubs. This can be accomplished by using a mastication machine to grind standing or felled trees and shrubs or by chipping the braches and tops of trees and whole shrubs by feeding it through a chipper machine. The grinded pieces would be spread across the forest floor providing a mulch like layer. All treatments would be followed up with burning of any hand piles and/or a broadcast burn of the grove. Broadcast burning is burning a larger area that follows a prescription. Most large trees greater than 20 inches diameter at root collar or identified as an old tree (typically greater than 150 years old) will be retained. Primary species that would be removed are junipers, Arizona cypress, ponderosa pine, mesquite, and gray oak. Understory species to be removed are scrub oaks, manzanita, and acacia. Cottonwoods and Arizona sycamores will not be cut. Pinyon pine, hackberry and other important species of trees and shrubs for wildlife and traditional gathering would only be cut if directly competing with existing Emory oaks. Logo Department Name Agency Organization Organization Address Information United States Forest Coconino National Forest 8375 State Route 179 Department of Service Red Rock Ranger District Sedona, 86351 Agriculture FAX: 928-527-36207539

Fencing will be used where necessary to exclude livestock grazing from oak groves or to limit undesirable recreation impacts in the groves. Where seedling recruitment is insufficient, acorns will be directly seeded into the ground within and adjacent to the groves. To facilitate understanding of how the proposed actions affect Emory oak groves, the EOCTRI will be working with researchers to replicate treatment designs and methods across multiple groves, including establishing no treatment controls, to evaluate the effects, and effectiveness of various treatments on acorn production and seedling establishment.

Categorical Exclusion

The Forest Service National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Regulation 36 CFR 220.6 provides that a proposed action may be categorically excluded from further analysis and documentation in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or Environmental Assessment (EA) only if there are no resource conditions related to the proposed action and if:

• The proposed action is within one of the categories in the Department of Agriculture (USDA) NEPA policies and procedures in Title 7, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 1b (7 CFR part 1b) or • The proposed action is within a category listed in Title 36 CFR 220.6(d) or (e).

Based on past experience with similar projects, a categorical exclusion is the proposed level of analysis for this project. This project falls under 220.6(e)(6): Timber stand and/or wildlife habitat improvement activities that do not include the use of herbicides or do not require more than 1 mile of low standard road construction. Resource Reviews Archaeological and tribal monitor surveys will be completed for the project area and will be reviewed by Forest Service specialists. Under the Region 3 Programmatic Agreement, activities that authorize ground disturbance or have the potential to affect historic or traditional cultural properties are considered undertakings that are subject to standard consultation with the Arizona SHPO. The primary mitigation for archaeological sites and traditional cultural properties includes identification and avoidance of site locations. If treatment is to take place in the vicinity of a historic property the following protocols would be required; cutting is accomplished using hand tools only, large diameter trees are felled away from surface features, and no dragging of logs or trees across or within known site boundaries. Additional input will be provided from the Forest Service hydrologists, engineers, and other specialists. Implementation Timeline Implementation of the proposed project would occur over several years, likely beginning in fall 2019, depending on funding and partner support. Opportunity to Comment We invite you to provide substantive comments regarding the proposed action. “Substantive comments” are within the scope of the project and the decision to be made, are specific to the proposed activities in the project area, and have a direct relationship to the project.

Emory Oak Restoration - Vicinity Map

Red Rock Ranger District - Coconino National Forest (! Proposed Emory Oak Treatment Locations Payson Ranger District - Tonto National Forest Major Roads Forest Boundaries District Boundary Private Indian Res. 0 5 10 20 Miles ± State Trust

Flagstaff Ranger District West Fork (! Loy Canyon ¤£89A (! Long Canyon COC-90 Hartwell (! Canyon (! (! Dry Creek Sedona 17 89A ¦¨§ ¤£ COC-3

Coconino National Forest Dove Spring

AZ-89A AZ-179 (!

YAV-50 I-17N ¤£89A YAV-78 YAV-70 Mogollon Rim Ranger District YAV-77 I-17S COC-211

Prescott National Forest Red Rock Ranger District

Àx169 Àx169 Àx260 AZ-260

AZ-87

Needle Rock Àx260 (! Àx87 (! Fossil Creek

Àx69 Payson Ranger District Tonto National Forest