Supplement to Calapooia River Watershed Analysis
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U.S Forest Service Supplement to the Calapooia River Watershed Analysis completed by the Weyerhaeuser Company August 1998 Sweet Home Ranger District Willamette National Forest February 1999 Table of Content Prelude ThePlace National Forest Management Issues and Key Questions Fire/Hazard Level Relationships Key Questions Sustainable Communities/Adaptive Management Key Questions Access and Travel Management Key Questions Heritage Resources and the Native American Communities Key Questions Forest Connectivity and Biological Diversity Key Questions 10 Reference and Current Conditions 10 Fire 10 Biological Domain 11 Vegetation 11 Aquatic Wildlife 16 Terrestrial Wildlife 16 HumanDomain 18 Synthesis and Interpretation Fire Suppression 19 Timber Harvest 19 Connectivity 19 Conclusions 20 Recommendations 20 Fire/Hazard Level 20 Access and Travel Management 21 Sustainable Communities 21 Native American Communities 21 Forest Connectivity and Biological Diversity 22 Connectivity 22 Diversity 22 Riparian Areas 22 Noxious Weeds and Invasive Non-native Plants 22 Monitoring 22 Data Needs 23 References 24 Prelude The Northwest Forest Plan directs that watershed be analysis completed prior to significant management activities on Federal lands within watershed In order to understand how activities affect the within management may ecosystem processes watershed it is necessary to consider all lands in watershed regardless of jurisdiction or ownership National Forest lands in the Caiapooia Watershed amount to less than 11 percent of the total acres The Weyerhaeuser Company owns approximately68 percent of the lands within the watershed Due to the mutual of the Forest Service and the for interests U.S Weyerhaeuser Company scientifically sound information and coordination of analysis at the watershed scale the two parties entered into Challenge Cost-Share agreement to produce Watershed Analysis of the Calapooia Watershed The Weyerhaeuser Company completed an analysis of the watershed based on the Standard Methodology for Conducting Watershed Analysis Version 4.0 Washington Forest Practices Board 1997 This methodology concentrates on five areas of iuterest mass wasting surface erosion riparian functioning hydrology and anadromous fish and their habitat The Synthesis section this of analysis contains review of land ownership patterns and land use history This supplement to the Calapooia Watershed Analysis will incorporate the findings of the Weyerhaeuser analysis as well as information germain to National Forest management in order to identify key issues and management recommendations for management of National Forest lands in the watershed It incorporates information from reports written or data collected for each It is core topic somewhat general in nature but is based on great amount of detail that is found in these reports or analysis files They are listed in the Appendix of this document and can be obtained from the Sweet Home Ranger District office or the Willamette National Forest Office if Supervisors more in-depth information is desired The Federal Guide for Ecosystem at the Watershed Analysis Scale version 2.2 provided guidance for the process The Place The portion of the Calapdoia watershed under Federal ownership is located in eastern Linn in the County Oregon headwaters of the Calapooia River Figure The Calapooia is watershed tributary to the Willamette Basin which is part of the Columbia River system Approximately 11% of the watershed is managed by the Willamette National Forest and the the majority of remainder is owned by industrial timber companies most notably the The District of the Bureau of Land Weyerhaeuser Company Eugene Management manages less than 3% of the watershed The watershed is within the Western Cascades totally physiographic province and the range of the Northern Spotted Owl USFS Supplement to the Calapooia Watershed Analysis Figure Calapooia Watershed LEGEND Private Land $Shcdd 1-5 ____ Willamette National Forest Bureau of Land Managennt Cn11111tY Brownsville lo Set Home IoIIey LI \JtC1NI1Cd Analysis Arca DA 1012345 Miles National Forest Management There are several land allocations within the watershed as established by the Willamette National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan as amended by the Standards and Guidelines for Management of Late-Successional and Old-Growth Forest Related Species Within the Range of the Spotted Owl hereafter referred to as the Forest Plan The Federally owned portion of the Calapooia watershed is entirely within the Central Cascades Adaptive Management Area CCAMA There are three 100 acre Late-successional Reserves centered around known Northern spotted owl locations Underlying the CCAMA allocation are 1990 Willamette National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan LRMP allocations including the Gold Hill SIA and portions of pileated/pine marten areas retained to provide connective habitat for late-successional depandent species Figure The Forest Plan also includes management direction for each of these allocations Most of these will standards and guidelines are applied on project level basis and not be restated in this analysis Other-Federal Lands There are approximately 1633 acres of Bureau of Land Management lands within this watershed They are managed by the Eugene District under the 1994 Resource Management Plan Issues and Key Questions The issues and key questions were initially developed by Sweet Home Ranger District personnel at meeting on August 1998 The Core Team further sorted developed and refined those issues and key questions Fire/Hazard Level Relationships Conditions in this watershed indicate that large high intensity stand replacement fires 1000s of acres occur infrequently Moderate intensity fires are more frequent and have created patches 5-5 00 acres of younger stands within these large blocks The watershed is nearing the end of the current large fire return interval 400-600 years as well as the moderate intensity fire return interval 150-200 years Fire suppression activities of the last century may have allowed more down wood to accumulate on south-facing slopes and more understory to develop than would be found under natural fire regime Due to an abundance of flashy fuels there is high fire hazard level on private lands in the western part of the watershed that is expected to also exist in the future when commercial thinning operationstake place on these lands USFS Supplement to the Calapooia Watershed Analysis Figure Land Mnagement Allocations Co Co Calapooia River LEGEND General Forest Gold Hill ___ Special Interest Area Late-Successional Reserve 0.5 05 W-- Pileated/Pine Marten Areas DA iI OthnersIip USFS Supplement to the Calapooia WaterihedAnalysLs Key Questions PH How will projected management activities affect the fuel loadings risk of ignition and spread of fire in the future FH2 What is the appropriate suppression action for this watershed especially considering juxtaposition of Federal and private lands FH3 What is the critical road system required for fire suppress ion needs Sustainable CommunitieslAdaptive Management intertwined with the forested Local Communities The economy of east Linn County is lands have that are included in the County Changes in management of Federal lands changed the relationship between these lands and the people who live work and recreate in the National Forest Timber harvest opportunities have diminished along with access to firewood for home heating The decline of timber industry-based employment has increased the harvest both legal still to off the forest and illegal of special forest products as people are trying make living 119 active resources Mining still occurs in the upper Calapooia There are currently claims both in the placer and lode in the watershed Although there are no established campgrounds upper from Calapooia the area nonetheless is used by many different kinds of recreationists mountain diversification bikers to big game hunters which contributes to the areas economic Central Cascades Adaptive Management Area The Adaptive Management Areas were established by the Northwest Forest Plan to facilitate the tie between resource management and research on Federal lands and economically sustainable communities The Federal portion of this work in creative watershed is entirely within the AMA and provides an opportunity to ways to needs of the local and animal communities and the integrate the communities tribes plant larger social framework of the state and the nation Key Questions the watershed sustainable SC What type of commodities can be produced by on land basis where can they be produced and how many acres of National Forest can provide wood fiber and of what kmd for this watershed9 SC2 What type of watershed restoration investment is appropriate SC3 What management activities in this portion of the AMA respond to are supportive of anlor help implement local community Strategic Plan Goals and Objectives USFS Supplement to the Calapooia Watershed Analysis SC4 What activities/projects/opportunities can be worked on or developed in the AMA to bring together research resource managers and the communities Access and Travel Management There three main road which the are systems access upper Calapooia FS 2022 line from Canyon the Creek to the north FS 1509 from Blue River to south and 2820 from the east Road 2820 is cost share road with Weyerhauser Inc This road is the main access for both recreation and forest management activities and is particularly used by Weyerhauser to access their lands There is limited