Red Knight Restoration Project DRAFT EA June 19, 2013
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Red Knight Pacific Northwest Region Restoration Project Environmental Assessment Chemult Ranger District Fremont-Winema National Forest Klamath County, Oregon Responsible Official: Fred Way, Forest Supervisor Fremont-Winema National Forest 1301 South G Street Lakeview, OR 97630-9701 541 947-2151 The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation or marital or family status (Not all bases apply to all programs). Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audio tape, etc.) should contact the USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, director, Office of Civil rights, 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). *Photo by Weaver: In T29S, R11E, Section 15 in the Red Knight area circa 1958. In stand #8921082 Red Knight. Red Knight Restoration Project DRAFT EA June 19, 2013 USDA Forest Service is an equal opportunity provider and employer. 2 Red Knight Restoration Project DRAFT EA June 19, 2013 Table of Contents Chapter 1 Need for Proposal 5 1.1 Introduction 5 1.2 Historic Condition 6 1.3 Existing and Desired Future Condition 7 1.3.1 Existing Conditions 8 1.3.2 Desired Future Conditions 16 1.4 Need for Proposal 22 1.5 Proposed Actions 22 1.5 Decision Framework 24 1.7 The Collaborative Restoration Process 24 1.8 Project Record 27 Chapter 2 Alternatives 28 2.1 Formulation of Alternatives 28 2.2 Alternatives Considered in Detail 28 2.2.1 Alternative 1 No Action 28 2.2.2 Alternative 2 Proposed Action 29 2.3 Resource Protection and Mitigation Measures 40 2.3.1 Soil, Hydrology, and Riparian Areas 40 2.3.2 Wildlife 43 2.3.3 Invasive Plant Prevention Plan 47 2.3.4 Sensitive Plants 47 2.3.5 Air Quality 48 2.3.6 Disease Control 48 2.3.7 Roads and Recreation 48 2.3.8 Heritage Resources 49 2.4 Summaries and Comparison of Alternatives 50 Chapter 3 Affected Environment and Effects 52 3.1 Activities that May Contribute to Cumulative Effects 52 3.1.1 Past Management Activities 52 3.1.2 Current and Reasonably Foreseeable Activities 52 3.2 Affected Environment and Effects Related to Consultation and General Issues Received During Scoping 53 3.2.1 Treaty Resources and Other Concerns of the Klamath Tribes 53 3 Red Knight Restoration Project DRAFT EA June 19, 2013 3.2.2 Yamsay Mountain as a Cultural Landscape 55 3.2.3 Protection and Enhancement of Late Successional and 63 Old Growth Ecosystems 3.3.1 Threatened, Endangered, and Sensitive Terrestrial Wildlife Species 83 3.3.2 Terrestrial Management Indicator Species (Old Growth Ecosystems) 91 3.3.3 Birds of Conservation Concern 107 3.3.4 Klamath Tribes’ Wildlife Species of Interest 120 3.3.5 Small and Large Mammals 120 3.3.6 Special Wildlife Features 123 3.3.7 Big Game 127 3.3.8 Aquatic Species and Habitat 132 3.3.9 Threatened, Endangered, Sensitive, and MIS Aquatic Species 137 3.3.10 Threatened, Endangered, and Sensitive Plants 144 3.3.11 Invasive Plants 153 3.3.12 Plant Species of Interest to the Klamath Tribes 154 3.3.13 Cultural Resources 156 3.3.14 Soil and Hydrology 157 3.3.15 Smoke Management and Air Quality 168 3.3.16 Climate Change 169 3.3.17 Transportation System 171 3.3.18 Inventoried Roadless Areas, Undeveloped Areas, and 175 Potential Wilderness 3.3.19 Scenery and Visual Resources 182 3.3.20 Recreation 185 3.3.21 Irreversible and Irretrievable Effects 187 3.3.22 Farmland, Rangeland, and Forestland 188 3.3.23 Floodplains and Wetlands 188 3.3.24 Forest Plan Consistency 188 3.3.25 Civil Rights and Environmental Justice 191 Chapter 4 192 4.1 Agencies and Governments Consulted 192 4.2 Persons and Organizations Consulted 192 Chapter 5 193 5.1 Interdisciplinary Team 193 5.2 Support and Review 193 4 Red Knight Restoration Project DRAFT EA June 19, 2013 Chapter 1 - Need for Proposal 1.1 - Introduction This document presents a summary of environmental analysis conducted within the Red Knight project area. The environmental analysis was conducted to evaluate management approaches for the Red Knight Restoration Project and aid the Forest Supervisor in determining the type of action that best meets the need for proposal. Restoration The proposed action was developed based on a need to move forest stands towards more resilience to wildfire, insects, and disease by reducing stand densities and ladder fuels, and increasing spatial heterogeneity. The main objective of the Red Knight project is to restore more characteristic historical structure and composition of fire-adapted dry forests. Restoration takes time and investment and an initial treatment may not meet restoration objectives. It is anticipated that the vegetation treatments would take place over the next 5-10 years and that the effects would last 10-15 years after treatment occurs. Restoration treatments would be planned to set the project area on the trajectory towards the range of desired conditions. Project Area The Red Knight Restoration Project area is 32,309 acres of predominantly ponderosa pine stands in the southeastern portion of the Chemult Ranger District, Fremont-Winema National Forest (see the map on the cover page 1). This project would use underburning, small tree thinning, commercial harvest, and other methods (see pages 22-24 for more detail) to restore the health, diversity, and productivity of the forest, streams and riparian areas in the Red Knight area, and to make them more resilient to a variety of stresses and pressures, including climate change, altered disturbance regimes, non-native invasive species and increasing pressures from an expanding human population that could lead to a large-scale loss of forested habitat. The project is bordered on the east by the Fremont National Forest and private lands, on the west by the Silver Lake Highway, on the north by private lands, and on the south by the Modoc Restoration Project area. The area is bordered on the southeast by the Yamsay Mountain Semi- primitive Recreation Area, and the Yamsay Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area. The southwestern boundary borders the Williamson River valley and numerous private cattle ranches. The entire area falls within the former Klamath Indian Reservation lands. There are no private lands within the Red Knight project area. There is an active sheep allotment within the project area. There are no threatened, endangered, sensitive, or native fish in any of the streams in the project area. The entire project area is mule deer summer range. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service federally threatened, endangered and proposed species list was reviewed for species that may be present on the Fremont-Winema National Forest. The listed species (Northern spotted owl) has no habitat in the project area. Most of the Red Knight project is within the Williamson River Watershed, while the northeast portion of the project is within the Summer Lake Watershed. There are few meadows in the area with the largest being Long Prairie. McCarty Flat is a large scab flat (322 acres) on the east boundary of the project. Elevation ranges from 6,500 feet in the southeast corner near Yamsay Mt. Semi-Primitive Recreation Area to 4,600 feet at the Jackson Creek diversion ditch near 5 Red Knight Restoration Project DRAFT EA June 19, 2013 private property in the southwest corner of the project area. There are three major plant association groups in the Red Knight area including dry lodgepole pine (approximately 4,342 acres), dry ponderosa pine (approximately 24,178 acres) and dry mixed conifer about 3,046 acres). Direction This environmental assessment (EA) is tiered to the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Winema National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan, as amended (Winema LRMP). This action will incorporate the management direction of the Winema LRMP, as amended. Amended direction includes the Decision Notice for the Revised Continuation of Interim Management Direction Establishing Riparian, Ecosystem, and Wildlife Standards for Timber Sales (Eastside Screens, 1995), and the Decision Notice for Inland Native Fish Strategy (INFISH, 1995). This project is not located in the Northwest Forest Plan portion of the District, so direction for the Eastside Screens and INFISH applies. The Pacific Northwest Region Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Invasive Plant Program culminated in a Record of Decision (R6 2005 ROD) that amended the Winema LRMP by adding management direction relative to invasive plants. This project will be consistent with the amended management direction by incorporating prevention measures for invasive plants into the action. The Winema LRMP identified standards and guidelines that are applicable to specific management areas (MAs). The MAs in the Red Knight project area are displayed in Table 1 on page 18-20. The Red Knight project area MAs are illustrated in Map 1 on page 21. There is also a Plant Association Map on page 14. The Fremont-Winema Forest Supervisor has directed that landscape restoration efforts on former reservation lands be consistent with the 1999 Memorandum of Agreement between the Klamath Tribes and the Forest Service (amended 2005), the management goals of the Tribal Forest Plan, the Forest Service multiple use mission including commitments to local communities, and accelerated landscape restoration objectives (Way, 2013). The Chief of the Forest Service has asked the Forest Service to increase restoration and to sustain the goods and services forests provide with emphasis on the economic feasibility of our timber sale and stewardship offerings.