Chetco Bar Fire Timber Salvage Project

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Chetco Bar Fire Timber Salvage Project United States Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management Coos Bay District Myrtlewood Field Office 1300 Airport Lane Coos Bay, OR 97459 Categorical Exclusion Review Chetco Bar Fire Timber Salvage Project DOI-BLM-ORWA-C040-2018-0002-CX BLM Office: Myrtlewood Field Office Lease/Serial/Case No. : DOI-BLM-ORWA-C040-2018-0002-CX Proposed Action Title: Chetco Bar Fire Timber Salvage Project Location of Proposed Action: Township 39 South, Range 13 West, Sections 1, 2, 11, 13-15, 22, 23, 25-27, Willamette Meridian, Curry County, Oregon (see attached Map2 and Map3). Background Reported on July 12, 2017, the Chetco Bar Fire started in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness on U.S. Forest Service Land from lightning strikes. The fire burned within the 2002 Biscuit Fire and 1987 Silver Fire scars between Brookings, Oregon to the west and Cave Junction to the east. Winds pushed the fire southward towards Brookings and onto private and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administered lands in Curry County. The fire burned on approximately 185,920 acres of which 6,501 acres are BLM-administered lands. The fire burned on steep slopes (elevations range from 3,420 ft. on ridge tops to 1,200 ft. in drainages) within two watersheds (North Fork Chetco River and South Fork Pistol River). The BLM assigned a Burn Area Emergency Response (BAER) team to BLM-Administered land effected by the Chetco Bar Fire. The BAER team created a Burned Area Reflectance Classification (BARC) map and field reviewed the area to create a soil burn severity (SBS) map. SBS maps identifies fire-induced changes in soil and ground surface properties that may affect infiltration, run-off, and erosion potential (Parsons et al. 2010). Much of the fire progression on BLM-Administered lands occurred during the large runs in mid-August. The BAER report reflects this in the extent of moderate and high severity SBS acres on BLM administered lands (See Map1). While the SBS map focuses on fire effects to the soil, the Coos Bay BLM wildlife and forestry staff reviewed mapped severities and found generally consistent correlations with vegetation effect: High Severity: areas with high SBS had an altered dominate vegetation class and greater than 75 percent loss of canopy cover and tree mortality. Moderate Severity: areas with moderate SBS had an altered dominate vegetation class and greater than 75 percent loss of canopy cover and tree mortality. These stands had slightly greater number of live trees than high severity burned areas, but still below 75 percent canopy cover. Low Severity: areas with low SBS retained greater than 75 percent canopy cover. Most stands were underburned with signs of scorch in the upper canopy and occasional pockets of torching where canopy was lost. The SBS map indicates that approximately 55 percent (3,688 acres) of BLM-Administered lands within the fire perimeter showed effects of high and moderate fire intensity (USDI-BLM 2017). In September/October, the Coos Bay District Myrtlewood Field Office (Field Office) decided to explore the possibility of proposing timber salvage activities of marketable timber located throughout the BLM-administered Page 1 of 16 lands effected by the fire. The intent of this salvage is to harvest stands that would deteriorate rapidly due to the decomposition process experienced during large-scale stand replacing fires such as this one, and to begin site preparation for reforestation. Description of Proposed Action On October 23, 2017, Field Office forestry staff first visited the fire area to begin verifying the tree mortality in the high and moderate SBS. Staff used criteria established by Lowell et al. (2010) to distinguish trees and stands impacted by the fire that have a low probability of survival and still provide enough economic value for contractors to harvest. The Field Office determined the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation to adopt by evaluating variables such as stand age (stands greater than 50 year old), stand composition, operability, access and field verifying the land use allocations. With the provided information, the Field Office decided to move forward with categorically excluding this project. The BLM is proposing a post-fire salvage on 140 acres of BLM-administered land. The salvage would occur on 12 units ranging in size from 1 to 37 acres in Moderate Intensity Timber Area Harvest Land Base land use allocation as defined in the Northwestern and Coastal Oregon Record of Decision and Resource Management Plan (2016 ROD/RMP). Land use allocations excluded from salvage in this project are the Riparian Reserve, District Designated Reserve, and Late-Successional Reserve. Salvage treatments would remove dead or dying trees from the proposed units. For the purpose of this categorical exclusion, the BLM is adopting the definition of a dying tree from the BLM NEPA Handbook (H-1790-1). The BLM defines a dying tree as a standing tree that has been severely damaged by forces such as fire, wind, ice, insects, or disease, and that in the judgement of an experienced forest professional or someone technically trained for the work, is likely to die within a few years. The proposed salvage is located within a mixed conifer forest primarily dominated by Douglas-fir. Other common tree species include knobecone pine, madrone, and tan oak. Understory vegetation is variable and includes evergreen huckleberry, salal, swordfern, blue blossom ceanothus, and beargrass. Salvage harvest would consist of 50 acres of cable yarding in Units 1, 7, 8, 9 and 10, with the remainder of the units (90 acres in total) harvested using ground-based yarding methods. Stands are designed to have five percent of the pre- harvest basal area (nine total acres) per harvest unit in live trees or snags. No additional snag creation or retention is required for salvage harvest. Three yarding corridors would be required to bring logs through Riparian Reserves with two full suspension yarding corridors required over an intermittent stream. No salvage harvest would occur within the Riparian Reserve (160 feet site potential tree height). All streams, seeps, and wetlands have been field verified and are excluded from the proposed action areas. With this proposed project, the BLM would maintain 24 miles of haul roads and renovate 0.55 miles to haul road standards, as well as construct and decommission 0.5 miles (2.3 acres) of temporary roads in Units 1, 7, and 8 (See Map2 and Map3). All work would be carried out during the dry season (May 16th through October 14th). Once work on these roads is completed, the proposed temporary roads would require decommissioning and reestablishment of vegetation cover within the construction footprint to minimize erosion in the disturbed areas. The BLM would replace two culverts with longer and larger diameter pipes along the haul route where the proposed temporary roads intersect the main haul road. The BLM would leave slash remaining in units after salvage operations are complete in a discontinuous horizontal pattern near the ground. The material would decompose faster in this arrangement and minimize the amount of time slash would be available to influence fire behavior. Retaining slash would ameliorate impacts to sensitive burned soils by decreasing the chance for off-site erosion and increasing retained nutrients on-site. The BLM would oversee the piling and burning of slash found at landings. Excessive slash in ground-based areas may be spot piled and burned as necessary to mitigate fire risk while still providing for soil protection. Following salvage operations, the BLM would evaluate for any additional site-preparation within the units for reforestation. Page 2 of 16 Purpose and Need The BLM designed the post-fire salvage project to recover economic value and to minimize commercial loss or deterioration of damaged trees where the BLM determined that removal is economically viable (2016 ROD/RMP p. 63). Timely salvage is critical to capture a portion of remaining merchantable timber before further deterioration occurs. Salvaging dead or dying trees would allow the BLM to retrieve some economic value from these trees while retaining levels of basal area in live trees and snags to meet 2016 ROD/RMP standards and guidelines. The BLM would evaluated each unit and prepare them for both natural and artificial reforestation. Best Management Practices and Project Design Features Project Design Features (PDFs) are an integral part of the proposed project. They are developed to avoid or reduce the potential for adverse impacts to resources. These PDFs include seasonal restrictions on many activities that help minimize erosion and reduce disturbance to wildlife. PDFs also outline protective buffers for sensitive species and delineate many measures for protecting sensitive Riparian Reserves throughout the project. Where applicable, PDFs reflect Best Management Practices (BMPs). The applicable BMPs are cited in parentheses; the numbers (e.g., SP-05, TH-08) correspond to the BMP numbers listed in Appendix C of the 2016 ROD/RMP. The PDFs would be incorporated into the BLM timber sale contract and be monitored to ensure that contract specifications are implemented as designed. The BLM has included applicable BMPs to prevent and reduce nonpoint source pollution and maintain water quality at the highest practicable level to meet water quality standards and Total Maximum Daily Level loads as set by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The specific BMPs for this project are selected from Appendix C of the 2016 2016 ROD/RMP, p. 140. Common to All Proposed Actions Objective 1: Prevent and contain hazardous material spills • During operations require the operator to have a BLM-approved spill plan or other applicable contingency plan. In the event of any release of oil or hazardous substance, as defined in Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) 340-142-0005 (9) (d) and (15), into the soil, water, or air, immediately have the operator implement the site’s plan.
Recommended publications
  • Chetco Bar BAER Specialist Reports
    Chetco Bar BAER Specialist Reports Burned Area Emergency Response Soil Resource Assessment Chetco Bar Fire OR-RSF-000326 Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest October 2017 Lizeth Ochoa – BAER Team Soil Scientist USFS, Rogue River-Siskiyou NF [email protected] Kit MacDonald – BAER Team Soil Scientist USFS, Coconino and Kaibab National Forests [email protected] 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Chetco Bar fire occurred on 191,197 acres on the Gold Beach and Wild Rivers Ranger District of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, BLM lands, and other ownerships in southwestern Oregon. Approximately 170,321 acres of National Forest System (NFS) land, 6,746 acres of BLM land and 14,130 acres of private land were affected by this wildfire. Within the fire perimeter, approximately 14,012 acres burned at high soil burn severity, 64,545 acres burned at moderate soil burn severity, 76,613 acres burned at low soil burn severity, and 36,027 remain unburned. On NFS-managed lands, 10,684 acres burned at high soil burn severity, 58,784 acres burned at moderate soil burn severity, 70,201 acres burned at low soil burn severity and 30,642 acres remain unburned or burned at very low soil burn severity (Figure 1). The Chetco Bar fire burned area is characterized as steep, rugged terrain, with highly dissected slopes and narrow drainages. Dominant surficial geology is metamorphosed sedimentary and volcanic rocks, peridotite and other igneous rocks. Peridotite has been transformed into serpentine through a process known as serpentinization. This transformation is the result of hydration and metamorphic transformation of ultramafic (high iron and magnesium) rocks.
    [Show full text]
  • EAFONSI Template
    Environmental Assessment Chetco Bar Fire Salvage Project Fisheries and Aquatic Biota The following is a summary of the Aquatic Biota Biological Evaluation. The entire report is incorporated by reference and can be found in the project file, located at the RRSNF, Gold Beach Ranger District, Gold Beach, Oregon. Regulatory Framework In compliance with Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Forest Service Biological Evaluation (BE) process for Endangered, Threatened, Proposed or Sensitive fish species (Siskiyou LRMP S&G 4-2; page IV-27), the USDA Forest Service Region 6 Sensitive Species List (updated July 13, 2015) was reviewed and field reconnaissance was conducted in regard to potential effects on any of these species by actions associated with the Chetco Bar Area Salvage Project. Affected Environment The Action Area, as defined by the Endangered Species Act (ESA), is all areas to be affected directly or indirectly by the federal action and not merely the immediate area involved in the action [50 CFR § 402.02]. The Action Area not only includes the immediate footprint of the proposed salvage and road related activities, but any downstream reaches which may be affected indirectly. The ESA Action Area is also analyzed for Forest Service Sensitive Species. The proposed project is located within the Chetco River and Pistol River 5th field watersheds. All proposed project activities would occur within the South Fork Chetco River, Nook Creek, Eagle Creek, East Fork Pistol River-Pistol River, South Fork Pistol River, and North Fork Pistol River 6th field subwatersheds. All potential effects are also expected to occur within the boundaries of these subwatersheds.
    [Show full text]
  • Chetco Bar Fire Salvage Project Comment Analysis Page 1 Of
    Chetco Bar Fire Salvage Project Comment Analysis Response and Concern Status Report Generated: 6/22/2018 12:48 PM Project: Chetco Fire Salvage Project (53150) Comment Period: Other - 30-Day Comment and ESD Comment Period Period Dates: 4/16/2018 - 5/16/2018 and 5/18/2018 - 6/18/2018 Name Comment Text Response Text Comment # ESD Comments Received 5/18/2018 - 6/18/2018 Vaile, Joseph 1-2 An ESD may prove counterproductive to the goals of the agency, if it The Forest Service has been engaging the public in a robust and thorough process since the prevents meaningful mitigation measures to the proposed action. The Chetco Bar fire began. Refer also to the response to comment 1-1 for more information on use of the ESD may prevent the Forest Service from engaging the public design criteria and evaluation for feasibility. in a robust and thorough planning process that could be accomplished through an objection process. Page 1 of 341 Chetco Bar Fire Salvage Project Comment Analysis Name Comment Text Response Text 1-5 Please note that the discussion of the agency's desire for an ESD at page The EA states "An additional consideration is the health and safety of forest visitors and 2-6 of the Chetco Bar Fire Salvage EA makes reference to a concern for nearby private landowners due to numerous dead trees, as well as Forest Service staff and "the health and safety of forest visitors." We wholeheartedly agree that forest industry workers working in the Chetco Bar Fire Salvage project area. Traveling or this is a legitimate concern.
    [Show full text]
  • Taming the Wild – Understanding Risks and Responses to Water Supplies from Wildfires
    TAMING THE WILD – UNDERSTANDING RISKS AND RESPONSES TO WATER SUPPLIES FROM WILDFIRES Glen Leverich 1 Rodrigo Prugue 2 2 0 19 P N WS - AWWA Conference, Vancouver, WA May 3, 2019 1 2 OUTLINE OF TALK Photo of City of Brookings, OR (courtesy of City of Brookings) OVERVIEW OF WILDFIRE ACTIVITY AND RISKS IN THE NORTHWEST Photo of Chetco Bar Fire (courtesy of USFS) Spatial frequency of recorded burn events in OR and WA: 1908–2017 Annual total acres burned in OR and WA: 1908–2018 Vancouver Chetco R. Source data: BLM, 2017 Source data: BLM, 2018 GIS analysis: Stillwater, 2018 Analysis: Stillwater, 2019 Conceptualization of sediment yield and associated vegetation and litter recovery • Wildfires can lead to during the fire-induced “window of accelerated rates of runoff disturbance” and erosion Increasing vegetation cover • Exposed, burned soils influence of erosion-limiting during storms are more factors litter cover susceptible to mass wasting and sediment- fire-induced sediment laden runoff—the Fire- yield Flood-Erosion sequence ‘background’ (Neary et al., 2005, USDA) E R I F sediment yield • “Window of disturbance” S E D I M E N T Y I E L D occurs for months to years window of disturbance until natural system T I M E recovers (Prosser and Adapted from Shakesby and Doerr, 2006, Williams, 1998, Hyd. Proc.) Earth Sci. Rev. Photo of burned area of Chetco watershed (Stillwater Sciences) Photo of Montecito Debris flows following Thomas Fire in Santa Barbara County, CA, Jan 2018 (photo courtesy of Scripps Institute) WILDFIRE EFFECTS TO DRINKING WATER SUPPLY Photo of burned area of Chetco watershed (Stillwater Sciences) WILDFIRE EFFECTS TO DRINKING WATER SUPPLY •Two-thirds of freshwater resources in the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Forest Health Highlights in Oregon 2017
    Forest Health Highlights in Oregon 2017 DRAFT Oregon Department of Pacific Northwest Region Forestry Forest Health Protection Forest Health Program for the greatest good AGENDA ITEM 4 Attachment 2 Page 1 of 36 Forest Health Highlights in Oregon 2017 Joint publication contributors: Christine Buhl¹ Zack Heath² Sarah Navarro¹ Karen Ripley² Danny Norlander¹ Robert Schroeter² Wyatt Williams¹ Ben Smith² ¹Oregon Department of Forestry ²U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender Cooperative Aerial Survey: 2017 Flight lines DRAFT The aerial survey program is changing! Give us input to better serve your needs. Front cover image: Orange hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum), a European exotic, was first identified in Oregon in 2017 in Clatsop County (Photo by Peter Dziuk). AGENDA ITEM 4 Attachment 2 Page 2 of 36 Table of Contents SUMMARY .........................................................................................................................................1 AERIAL AND GROUND SURVEYS .........................................................................................................2 ABIOTIC STRESSORS ...........................................................................................................................4 Climate and Weather ...................................................................................................................4 Drought .......................................................................................................................................5
    [Show full text]
  • Final Rogue Fall Chinook Salmon Conservation Plan
    CONSERVATION PLAN FOR FALL CHINOOK SALMON IN THE ROGUE SPECIES MANAGEMENT UNIT Adopted by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission January 11, 2013 Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife 3406 Cherry Avenue NE Salem, OR 97303 Rogue Fall Chinook Salmon Conservation Plan - January 11, 2013 Table of Contents Page FOREWORD .................................................................................................................................. 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 6 RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER NATIVE FISH CONSERVATION PLANS ................................. 7 CONSTRAINTS ............................................................................................................................. 7 SPECIES MANAGEMENT UNIT AND CONSTITUENT POPULATIONS ............................... 7 BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................... 10 Historical Context ......................................................................................................................... 10 General Aspects of Life History .................................................................................................... 14 General Aspects of the Fisheries ..................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Chetco Bar Fire Timber Salvage
    United States Department of the Interior BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT Coos Bay District Office 1300 Airport Lane, North Bend, OR 97459 Web Address: http://www.blm.gov/or/districts/coosbay E-mail: [email protected] 1792/5400 (ORC040) DOI-BLM-ORWA-C040-2018-0002-CX Chetco Bar Fire Salvage Scoping Document Dear Citizen: The Coos Bay District Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Myrtlewood Field Office is in the process of planning the salvage of dead or dying trees that burned in the Chetco Bar Fire earlier this year. Reported on July 12, 2017, the Chetco Bar Fire started in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness on U.S. Forest Service Land from lightning strikes. The fire burned within the 2002 Biscuit Fire and 1987 Silver Fire scars between Brookings, Oregon on the west and Cave Junction on the east. Winds pushed the fire southward towards Brookings and onto private and BLM administered lands in Curry County. The fire burned on approximately 185,920 acres of which 6,501 acres are BLM administered lands. The fire burned on steep slopes (elevations range from 3420 ft. on ridge tops to 1200 ft. in drainages) within two watersheds (North Fork Chetco River and South Fork Pistol River). A Burned Area Emergency Response Team (BAER) produced a Burned Area Reflectance Classification (BARC) map and field reviewed it to create a soil burn severity map. Soil Burn Severity (SBS) acres for BLM administered lands equated to 2,143.65 acres (High SBS), 1,227.02 acres (Moderate SBS), 992.81 acres (Low SBS), and 2,136.97 acres unburned.
    [Show full text]
  • Chetco Bar Fire Executive Summary………………….……………………………….16
    Facilitated Learning Analysis Packer’s Cabin Serious Near Miss “I was afraid we were going to come back to burnt engines and tinfoil on the ground.” Helicopter Co-Pilot 1 Contents The Story .................................................................................................. 3 Packer's Cabin Timeline………………………………………………………………………..8 What Went Right ...................................................................................... 9 Lessons Learned By Participants ............................................................ 10 Areas of Further Inquiry…………………………………….……………………………….11 FLA Team Members…………………………………………………………..……………….15 Chetco Bar Fire Executive Summary………………….……………………………….16 To protect the privacy of the individuals involved in this incident, all names are fictional. Structure prep at Packer's Cabin. 2 The Story “Do you see any good deployment sites?” Engine Boss “Nothing is adequate for a deployment site.” Helicopter Pilot The situation deteriorated very quickly once the wind changed directions and ignited spots across the road. Everyone’s eyes were shedding tears and their lungs were burning due to the highly irritating tan oak smoke. Everything seemed fine until there was fire over the road in both directions. The engine and crew were cut off. The helicopter pilot said to get out of the area, but there were no good options for leaving. On July 12 a lightning started wildfire was reported in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon. That fire was named the Chetco Bar Fire. Initial attack was unsuccessful due to steep terrain and dense foliage with no safety zones. Over the next month, the fire slowly grew while fire indices rose. The Forest requested and received severity money from the region to increase firefighter resource staffing in order to help with what looked like an intense fire season.
    [Show full text]
  • Storm Petrel Kalmiopsis Audubon Society Curry County, Oregon Volume 43, Number 4 Fall 2020
    Storm Petrel Kalmiopsis Audubon Society Curry County, Oregon Volume 43, Number 4 Fall 2020 ▲ Belted Kingfisher Red-shouldered Hawk ► Peregrine Falcon bathing at Arizona Beach ▼ Birds of the South Coast Photographs by Rowly Willis ◄ ▼ ► ◄ ▼ ► ◄ ▼ ► ◄ ▼ ► ◄ ▼ ► Given the continued need for coronavirus precautions, we’ve put off planning in-person programs and events. Please sign up for the KAS email HOOT OUT or follow the Kalmiopsis Audubon Facebook page for upcoming virtual events and opportunities related to nature and conservation. November–December 2020, Kalmiopsis Audubon Society Annual Raffle Please keep your eyes out for this year’s annual raffle mailing, which will be sent in late November. Page 2 The Storm Petrel Fall 2020 of expert birder Tim Rodenkirk). In this issue, I am From the President’s Desk pleased to welcome Mark Lanier, who will be writ- ing a new column about local birds called “Winging he tens of thousands of Cackling Geese flying It.” Mark began birding in his teens, tromping around T south overhead signal the turn of time as we get his grandparents’ central Oklahoma farms. He worked ready to welcome the season of rain and green, for 25 years on six National Wildlife Refuges in the mushrooms and salmon, kinglets and varied thrushes, Rocky Mountains, taught high school science for a shorter days and longer nights. I hope that everyone couple of years in Montana, and has been dabbling in is weathering the challenges of the coronavirus pan- writing and enjoying the South Coast with his wife demic as well as possible. Tina, since moving here in 2013.
    [Show full text]
  • Curry County Echoes ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Apr
    A Quarterly Publication of the Curry Historical Society Curry County Echoes ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Apr. 2010 – Jun. 2010 P.O. Box 1598 Gold Beach, Or 97444 Vol. 38 No. 2 MAX BRAINARD Inside This Issue THE GOLD BEACH YEARS second and third class mail being Max Brainard Story 1 Max was born in Enfield, Conn. used to fill a chuck hole so the first th Nov. 21, 1889 He completed the 8 class could go through. Mission Statement 2 grade and began working on cod The Gold Beach bank closed dur- 2 fishing boats for Several years. He ing the depression and teachers had Board of Directors joined the U.S. Navy in 1908 and to turn in their county warrants for Letter To Members 3 served 13 years. He spent his time on 20% of their value. To survive, peo- various ships and on ship-and-shore ple planted gardens, saved seeds and Cover Story - cont. 4 stations during WWI and saw ser- lived off the land. They could catch President’s Message 5 vice in Cuba and South America. fish, dig clams, gather mussels, His other tours of duty varied and acorns, hazelnuts, and of course Cleve LeClair Story 6-7 even included 1 ½ years with the there was wild life. There was no Financial Report 8 French Navy . On one job he worked vandalism or thievery in those days, on special electrical fire control people trusted and helped each Artifacts Donated 8 equipment. other. Book of Remembrances 9-10 In 1931, while reading an article In Gold Beach, Max got an old in an old copy of Field and Stream Corona typewriter and began writ- Membership Renewal 11 magazine about a cabin on the head- ing free articles for the paper and waters of Pistol River, Oregon, he later sold items to other papers in the made a decision to head home and county under the name “Gold Beach IMPORTANT DATES research Curry County.
    [Show full text]
  • Chetco Bar Fire Salvage Project Final Environmental Assessment
    United States Department of Agriculture Chetco Bar Fire Salvage Project Final Environmental Assessment Rogue River-Siskiyou Gold Beach Forest Service National Forest Ranger District June 2018 For More Information Contact: Jessie Berner, Chetco Bar Fire Coordinator, Powers District Ranger Gold Beach Ranger District Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest 29279 Ellensburg Ave. Gold Beach, OR 97444 Phone: (541) 439-6201 Website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=53150 Email: [email protected] Fax: (541) 439-7704 Cover photo: Chetco Bar Fire on the Gold Beach Ranger District of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity, in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all programs). Remedies and complaint filing deadlines vary by program or incident. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language, etc.) should contact the responsible Agency or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339. Additionally, program information may be made available in languages other than English.
    [Show full text]
  • Chetco River Gage Was Obtained, Where Available, to Provide Context Regarding Hydrologic Influences in a Nearby Watershed
    PISTOL RIVER WATERSHED ASSESSMENT Prepared for The Pistol River Watershed Council Prepared by Mike Maguire South Coast Watershed Council June 2001 South Coast Watershed Council PO Box 666 Gold Beach, Oregon 97444 (541) 247-2755 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………...…i INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE………………………………………………..…..ii I WATERSHED CHARACTERIZATION………………………….…………..1 INTRODUCTION AND SUBWATERSHEDS……………………..………………………..…1-2 LAND USE AND OWNERSHIP………………………………………………………………..2-3 II WATERSHED ISSUES………………………………………………………….4 BACKGROUND, INTRODUCTION AND RESULTS…………………………………………..4 III HISTORICAL CONDITIONS………………………………………………….5 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………………5 SUMMARY……………………………………………………………………………..……….5-8 IV ECOREGIONS………………………………………………………………..…9 BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION……………………………………………..……..9-10 DESCRIPTION OF ECOREGIONS………………………………………………………….10-20 V CHANNEL HABITAT TYPES……………………………………………..…21 BACKGROUND……………………………………………………………………………..…..21 INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY………….……………………………………..21-22 CHANNEL SENSITIVITY / RESPONSIVENESS…………………………………………..22-23 DESCRIPTION OF CHANNEL HABITAT TYPES………………………...………………24-32 RESULTS……………………………………………………………………………….…….32-33 KEY FINDINGS………………………………………………………………………………….34 VI FISH & FISH HABITAT…..…………………………………………………..36 BACKGROUND……………………………………………………………………………...36-40 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………….40-45 KEY FINDINGS……………………………………………………………………………...46-47 VII WATER QUALITY…………………………………………………………….48 BACKGROUND……………………………………………………………………………...48-51 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………….51-53
    [Show full text]