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South Red Bird Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project

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South Red Bird Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project SOUTH RED BIRD WILDLIFE HABITAT ENHANCEMENT PROJECT UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOREST SERVICE PREPARED BY REDBIRD RANGER DISTRICT SOUTHERN REGION DANIEL BOONE NATIONAL FOREST DANIEL BOONE CLAY, BELL, AND LESLIE COUNTIES, KENTUCKY NATIONAL FOREST KENTUCKY February 2020 For Information Contact: Randy Swilling Daniel Boone National Forest Redbird Ranger District 91 Peabody Road Big Creek, Kentucky 40914 https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=52340 1 South Red Bird Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project Environmental Assessment 1.0 PURPOSE AND NEED FOR THIS PROJECT 1.1 INTRODUCTION The Redbird District Ranger of the Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF) is proposing to diversify wildlife habitat, restore forest health, increase hard mast production, enhance oak recruitment, and provide forest products through the implementation of the South Red Bird Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project (hereafter “South Red Bird Project” or “SRB”). This environmental assessment (EA) has been prepared to disclose and analyze the environmental consequences of the proposed South Red Bird Project on the DBNF near Big Creek, Kentucky. By preparing this EA, the DBNF is fulfilling agency policy and direction to comply with the NEPA. The public had an opportunity to review a draft of this EA during a 30-day review period between November 6 and December 6, 2019, and provided 70 comment letters for the Forest Service to consider. Substantive comments have been addressed in a Response to Comments, available online at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=52340. Several commenters asked for clarification or more detailed rationale for our findings to ensure potential environmental impacts from the proposed action have been thoroughly examined. The EA and supporting documents have been revised to incorporate the concerns of the public, and we have added design criteria to reduce the risk of impacts. These changes are noted in this revised EA. The South Red Bird Integrated Resource Management Area (IRMA) encompasses approximately 55,750 acres, of which nearly 32,275 acres are National Forest System (NFS) lands, spanning portions of Clay, Leslie, and Bell Counties, Kentucky. The IRMA is located within the Red Bird River Watershed and is composed of four smaller subwatersheds, or sixth-level Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUCs): Lick Fork, Phillips Fork, Bowen Creek, and Elisha Creek (see Figures 1 for a map of the project area). In accordance with 40 CFR 1500.4, §1508.28-Tiering, and §1502.21-Incorporation by reference, this EA will incorporate by reference the Group One Proposal - Red Bird River Vegetation Management Project EA (2008a), the Spring Creek Vegetation Management Project EA (2015), the Redbird Fuels Treatment Plan EA (2012), and the Elisha Creek Stream Restoration EA (2008b), all of which analyzed impacts of many of the same actions proposed for the South Red Bird Project (see Figure 2). All referred documents are available online and in the project record. Any activities not analyzed in previous documents will be fully analyzed in this EA. The South Red Bird Project record contains all analysis conducted for this project. 2 South Red Bird Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project Environmental Assessment 1.2 PURPOSE OF AND NEED FOR ACTION The purpose of and need for the South Red Bird Project is to improve wildlife habitat with a wider variety of age class distribution, plant composition, and structural diversity than currently exists. Since the 1990’s, the scarcity of disturbances on NFS lands, such as commercial and non- commercial harvests, has resulted in a skewed age class distribution and relatively static structural characteristics within the South Red Bird IRMA. Fire suppression and the present impacts of hemlock wooly adelgid and emerald ash borer have and continue to change species composition and structure in stands. Further, this project is needed to make progress towards the Desired Future Conditions (DFCs) of the Land and Resource Management Plan for the Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF) (USDA 2004, hereafter “Forest Plan”). Information gathered in the project area identified several areas in the watershed that do not currently meet desired resource conditions defined in the Forest Plan. For example, elk, turkey and ruffed grouse foundations are concerned about the lack of early seral habitat (vegetation 10 years old and younger) across the forest. Early seral habitat is important to wildlife because it provides forage diversity for a wide variety of wildlife, breeding and nesting habitat for many migratory and resident bird species, and hiding cover for many game species. Since 2004, when the Forest Plan was approved, the DBNF has implemented the Integrated Resource Management Strategy (IRMS), a systematic process for determining existing resource conditions. Data gathered through the IRMS process was conducted between 2006 and 2017 to determine the current condition of the IRMA (refer to the Affected Environment document in the project record). The existing conditions were then compared to the Forest Plan’s goals, objectives, and for each resource. Where gaps between the existing condition and DFC exist, recommendations were developed to move the resource closer to DFC. Where applicable, these recommendations became the activities proposed for this project. All of these data were then compiled into the South Red Bird IRMS reports in the spring of 2017 (see Table 1 for an example of the IRMS process). An IRMS table was created for each resource and all are available in the project record and referenced throughout this document. Additional information and data gathered since 2017 and the date of this publication have been analyzed and added to the project record. Table 1 summarizes the IRMS process by showing one example of how the IRMS reports were used to develop wildlife habitat enhancement projects. 3 South Red Bird Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project Environmental Assessment FIGURE 1. THE PROPOSED ACTIONS OF THE SOUTH RED BIRD HABITAT ENHANCEMENT PROJECT. Note: Acreages provided on Figure 1 are from a Forest Service database. Actual acreage of proposed actions may vary on the ground through layout and marking, though will never be more than is proposed. 4 South Red Bird Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project Environmental Assessment FIGURE 2. THE VICINITY OF PREVIOUS REDBIRD RANGER DISTRICT PROJECT EAS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE. 5 South Red Bird Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project Environmental Assessment TABLE 1. EXAMPLE OF THE IRMS PROCESS. Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Category: Attribute; Comparison of Recommendations Description of Desired Forest Description of Existing Existing and Proposed Condition from the Plan Goal Condition Desired Actions / Design Forest Plan or Conditions Criteria Objective Vegetation: Maintain 5 to 6 % within As of 2017, no early Desired future Action 1: Early Early Seral each 5th level watershed in seral/ young forest 0-10 condition calls for Seral Habitat— Habitat (0- the 0-10 age class, years old exists on the an additional 3.1% shelterwood 10 years including the effects of IRMA. Approx. 65 to 4.1% (2,246- treatments old); catastrophic events. Site- acres will be established 2,971 acres) of Action 9: Salvage specific stand conditions in the southern portion early seral habitat Objective treatments will determine timing of of the Red Bird River to achieve this 1K – 1.A harvest. Rotations are watershed through the Objective within Design criteria: expected to normally range Spring Creek the Red Bird River Leave butternut between 140 and 190 Vegetation 5th level trees and pitch pine years. Stands with a Management Project, watershed. when harvesting or predominance of trees that starting in 2019. burning. Use have a shorter life directional felling expectancy or are in poor to protect rare condition should have communities. shorter rotations. Stands with a predominance of trees that have a longer life expectancy and are in good condition should have longer rotations. Collaboration with partners and the public also identified deficient forest conditions and wildlife habitat concerns that need to be addressed within the watershed (see Chapter 4 for a list of consultants and collaborators). Specific issues regarding the need for wildlife habitat enhancement that were identified through scoping and collaboration include the following, which have been brought forward for analysis in this EA: 1. There is no early seral habitat for wildlife in the South Red Bird IRMA. 2. Oak recruitment is declining, which threatens sustaining oak species as a major component of future forests and could limit hard mast forage for wildlife that eat acorns (elk, deer, squirrels, bears, and many avian species). 6 South Red Bird Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project Environmental Assessment 3. Past decades of fire suppression have altered the natural evolution of the plant composition and structure in the Appalachians. Prescribed fire is needed to reestablish fire-mediated forest species composition and forest condition. 4. Age class and vegetation structure across the IRMA is trending toward older-aged, closed canopy stands. Active management is needed to create diverse habitats for a wide suite of wildlife species. 5. The Redbird Crest Trail is currently causing resource damage, and some places are unsafe due to traffic or slope. The trail needs to be removed from trafficked roadways and sustainably rerouted into the forest. 6. More than 600 acres of forest in the South Red Bird IRMA were badly damaged from wildfire in 2016 and need to be salvaged to prevent insect invasion and disease. 7. The existing road leading to Steel Trap/ Shamrock Mine Complex needs to be designated as a NFS road to authorize reconstruction and annual maintenance of this important access road into the Steel Trap area. 2.0 PROPOSED ACTION (MODIFIED) The Proposed Action was developed to address inadequacies between the current condition of the South Red Bird IRMA and the DFC described in the Forest Plan. It was further developed to address issues identified by the interdisciplinary team (IDT), partners, and the public through collaborative meetings and field trips.
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