White Mountain National Forest 71 White Mountain Drive Campton, NH 03223 Telephone 603 536-6133
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Oliverian United States Department of Agriculture Stewardship Forest Service Eastern Project Region Environmental Assessment Towns of Benton and Warren Grafton County, NH Pemigewasset Ranger District March 2010 For Information Contact: Brett Bayer Pemigewasset Ranger District White Mountain National Forest 71 White Mountain Drive Campton, NH 03223 Telephone 603 536-6133 White Mountain National Forest FAX 603 536-3685 Cover: Oliverian Pond with the dramatic Owls Head Cliff in the background. WMNF photo. This document is available in large print. Contact the Pemigewasset Ranger District Phone 603 536-6100 TTY 603 536-3665 The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) 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Printed on Recycled Paper Oliverian Stewardship Project — Environmental Assessment Contents Chapter 1 — Purpose and Need . .5 1.1 Introduction . .5 1.2 The Project Area . 5 1.3 Purpose and Need for Change . 6 1.4 The White Mountain National Forest Plan . .16 1.5 Decision to be Made . 17 1.6 Public Involvement . 18 1.7 Issues . 18 1.8 Proposals Changed Since Scoping . 20 Chapter 2 — Alternatives . .21 2.1 Introduction . 21 2.2 Alternatives . .21 2.3 Comparison of Alternatives . .24 2.4 Alternatives Considered but Not Fully Analyzed . .27 2.5 Design Features . .27 Chapter 3 — Environmental Effects . .35 3.1 Recreation . 35 3.2 Water . 42 3.3 Scenery . .59 3.4 Vegetation . 79 3.5 Wildlife . 95 3.6 Fire: Oak-Pine Habitat Restoration and Hazardous Fuel Reduction 127 3.7 Non-Native Invasive Plants . 134 3.8 Air Quality . .141 3.9 Soils . 149 3.10 Heritage . 164 3.11 Socio-Economic . 167 3.12 Aquatic Species and Habitat . .174 Appendix A — Response to Comments, 30-Day Comment Report . .183 Appendix B — Proposed Vegetation Management Activities Under Alternative 2 . .184 Appendix C — Glossary . .190 Appendix D — Literature Cited . .191 3 White Mountain National Forest — Pemigewasset Ranger District Map 1-1. Oliverian Stewardship Project Vicinity. White Mountain National Forest White Mountain National Forest Project Area 0 100 200 300 400 500 0 10 20 30 40 50 Miles Miles Project Area (!112 ¦§¨93 Lincoln Haverhill Benton Unorganized Territory (!118 Piermont Woodstock Waterville Valley Warren Ellsworth Orford Thornton (!25 Wentworth ¦§¨93 Campton Lyme Rumney Dorchester Sandwich Groton 0 2 4 6 8 10 Miles Plymouth Holderness Moultonborough 4 Oliverian Stewardship Project — Environmental Assessment Chapter 1 — Purpose and Need 1.1 Introduction The Pemigewasset Ranger District of the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) is proposing an integrated resource management action in the Towns of Benton and Warren, Grafton County, New Hampshire. The Oliverian Stewardship Project would enhance forest conditions, wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, and safety issues while bringing the project area closer to the desired future condition envisioned in the White Mountain National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (the Forest Plan). The actions considered in the proposed action and its alternatives are “tiered” to the Plan’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Record of Decision (ROD) and are site-specific implementations of the more programmatic Plan. All actions would be undertaken within the scope of the Forest Plan’s standards and guidelines. Specifically, the Oliverian Project’s proposed action would: • Use good forestry and silvicultural practices to maintain less common forest types such as oak-pine, aspen-birch, spruce-fir, and red pine; provide a sustainable yield of high quality forest products; and promote healthy ecosystems. • Maintain and improve wildlife habitat by increasing diversity in vegetation age class and habitat composition. • Maintain unique ecosystems and reduce hazardous fuel loads using pre- scribed burning. • Improve existing recreational use by constructing a new trailhead, parking lot, toilet, bridge, and a hiking trail that provides access to the base of Owls Head Cliff. • Control non-native invasive plants species on the National Forest and adja- cent state and private lands. • Manage existing Forest roads through maintenance, restoration, and recon- struction as appropriate, and update the White Mountain National Forest roads database. Chapter 2 of this document looks at these proposed actions in greater detail. 1.2 The Project Area The Oliverian Project Area encompasses the southern half of the Benton Range, a series of low-elevation mountains and hillocks that are, in essence, the west- erly foothills of Mount Moosilauke and the high peaks of the central White Mountains. The area of the Benton Range within the Oliverian Project Area begins with Sugarloaf Mountain to the north, runs southerly to include The Hogsback, Jeffers Mountain, and Blueberry Mountain, and ends at Owls Head, with its spectacular granite cliff visible from NH Route 25 and the village of Glencliff, NH. 5 White Mountain National Forest — Pemigewasset Ranger District An interesting fact about the project area is that it includes one of the oldest parcels of land on the Forest, Tract 59, purchased January 2, 1914, from E. Bertram Pike, and one of the newest parcels on the Forest, the 360-acre TPL Riveroaks Tract, transferred to federal government ownership in October 2007. The project area consists of approximately 5,188 acres of National Forest System (NFS) lands and approximately 100 acres of non-NFS lands located within Benton and Warren. The NFS lands are managed by the Pemigewasset Ranger District (see Map 1). The project area is bounded to the north by Sugarloaf Mountain; to the east by The Hogsback, Jeffers Mountain, and Long Pond Road (previously known as the North-South Road); to the south by NH Route 25; and to the west by privately-owned lands. The project area has a history of agricultural use dating back to the early 1800s, as evidenced by the presence of “old field” white pine, apple orchards, stone walls, cellar holes, and several stone culverts. These fea- tures are primarily located on the lower slopes of the project area where the land and access was more amenable to human use. During the early 1900s, the area reverted naturally to forest land, and since the 1940s it has been actively managed for wildlife habitat and forest products. Recent timber harvests that included portions of the project area were the Sugarloaf, Blueberry Mountain South, and North South timber sales, each of which took place in the 1990s. In addition to forest products, the area offers a variety of recreation uses, includ- ing hiking, camping, rock climbing, scenic vistas, snowmobiling, mountain biking, snowshoeing, hunting, wildlife watching, fishing, boating, mushroom gathering, Christmas tree cutting, and firewood gathering. Noteworthy features within the project area include Oliverian Brook, Oliverian Pond, the Blueberry Mountain Hiking and Snowmobile Trail, northern red oak and red pine communities, several deeryards, the southerly and westerly slopes of Sugarloaf Mountain, The Hogsback, Jeffers Mountain, Blueberry Mountain, Owls Head Cliff, several Forest System roads, and interesting heritage resource sites. 1.3 Purpose and Need for Change Forest Service management activities are designed to either maintain existing desirable conditions or help move the land closer to those desired conditions. (Forest Plan, USDA-Forest Service, 2005a, pp 1-7 to 1-22). The purpose of the Oliverian project is to accomplish many of the resource objectives defined in the Forest Plan. The need for change is identified by comparing the existing conditions on the ground with the site-specific desired conditions as described in the Plan. Below is a description, by resource area, of the desired future condition, the current condition, and the need for change required to attain or move closer to the desired future condition for that resource. It helps answer the questions “why here? why now?” 6 Oliverian Stewardship Project — Environmental Assessment Vegetation Forest Plan Guidance The Oliverian project area is within a General Forest Management Area (MA 2.1). The Plan’s desired condition for this MA includes ... a mix of deciduous and coniferous forest stands that vary in size, shape, height, and tree species. Both even-aged and uneven-aged harvest techniques will be used. As a result, two different conditions will occur among the stands: some stands will consist of trees of about the same age and size; the remaining stands will consist of a mix of tree sizes and ages ranging from seedlings to very large mature trees. (Forest Plan, p 3-3) Harvest prescriptions will consider land capability to promote species best adapted to specific sites. Land capability is the inclination of the land to grow a particular forest type given the soils, climate, geology, aspect, and elevation of the site. Timber harvesting within the Oliverian project area (see Table 2, Chapter 2) is intended to