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APPENDIX B: ECOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONSIDERATION Table of Contents Administrative Uses (AU) ...................................................................................................................... B-1 Aquatic, Riparian Zone, and Water Quality (AQ) .................................................................................. B-1 Civil Rights and Environmental Justice (CR) ....................................................................................... B-13 Commodity Production – Timber Management (TM).......................................................................... B-13 Cultural and Heritage (CH) ................................................................................................................... B-15 Economics (EC) .................................................................................................................................... B-16 Ecosystem Functions and Processes (EF) ............................................................................................. B-22 General Public Transportation (GT) ..................................................................................................... B-27 Minerals Management (MM) ................................................................................................................ B-29 Protection (PT) ...................................................................................................................................... B-30 Range Management (RM) ..................................................................................................................... B-30 Recreation– Road Related (RR)............................................................................................................ B-30 Recreation – Unroaded Recreation (UR) .............................................................................................. B-32 Special Forest Products (SP) ................................................................................................................. B-33 Special – Use Permits (SU)................................................................................................................... B-33 Social Issues (SI)................................................................................................................................... B-33 Terrestrial Wildlife (TW) ...................................................................................................................... B-34 Water Production (WP)......................................................................................................................... B-47 Table of Tables Table B- 1: National Forest Service Roads in the KEF TAP Area ......................................................... B-2 Table B- 2: KEFTAP Area Streams – Protected Uses and Classifications ............................................ B-7 Table B- 3: 2011 Regional Forester Sensitive Species List for ANF ................................................... B-10 Table B- 7: NNIP Plants Found in the KEF TAP Area ........................................................................ B-27 Table B- 8: Road Corridors with NNIP Plants ..................................................................................... B-27 Table B- 9: Roads Partially or Completely Grassed Over .................................................................... B-37 Table B- 10: Roads Built and Maintained at a Higher Standard .......................................................... B-37 Table B- 11: Roads Seasonally Closed to Protect Wild Turkey Brood Habitat ................................... B-38 Table B- 12: Roads Closed or Restricted that Help Reduce Direct Impacts on Wildlife ..................... B-40 Table B- 13: Roads Needed to Maintain Minimum Hunter Access ..................................................... B-41 Table B- 14: KEF TAP Area – Forest Roads ....................................................................................... B-43 Table B- 15: Gate and Hunter Access Recommendations – Regarding Wildlife ................................. B-47 Appendix B: Ecological, Social And Economic Consideration (Sept 2015) B Administrative Uses (AU) AU (1): How does the road system affect access needed for research, inventory, and monitoring? The existing road system provides for cost and time efficient travel for research projects, and inventory and monitoring efforts in the KEFTAP Area. Kane Experimental Forest is the principal use in this project area. As such, most roads within this project area are used to access research projects. (Appendix A – Map 9). AU (2): How does the road system affect investigative or enforcement activities? Please refer to FWRAP (USDA-FS 2003a pp. 103). Aquatic, Riparian Zone, and Water Quality (AQ) AQ (1): How and where does the road system modify the surface and subsurface hydrology of the area? Forest Roads modify surface and subsurface hydrology by intercepting and concentrating ground and surface water and diverting flows from their natural flow paths. Surface and subsurface water, which previously moved downhill as diffuse flow, is captured by road ditches and routed to culverts. This mechanism of erosion is exacerbated when road drainage is not properly designed and maintained. These changes in routing can result in increases in peak flows by both a volumetric increase and changes in the timing of storm runoff to streams. During large precipitation and snowmelt events, concentrated volumes of water may become routed to unstable fill slopes below the road and trigger landslides or gullies. The position of a road on a hillside can be an indicator of the potential impacts roads can have on surface and subsurface hydrology. In general, the lower on the valley slope a road is located, the greater the chance roads may negatively impact streams and floodplains. Some of these effects are discussed in the streamside roads section (AQ (9)). Roads located at the upper position of valley hillsides and ridge tops are often the most stable, since they are located the furthest from perennial streams, tend to have convex, well drained slopes, and have the lowest potential for direct impacts. Reducing the miles of road in a watershed will reduce the degree of connectivity because almost all roads have some features that increase connectivity. The extent of hydrologic connectivity is extremely important to roads analysis because it determines whether a geomorphic or hydrologic process will affect the aquatic environment. Connectivity may affect both biological and ecological processes in stream and riparian systems. At the landscape scale, certain definable geometric interactions involving peak flows (floods) and debris flows (rapid movements of soil, sediment, and large wood down steep stream channels) are influenced by the arrangement of the road network relative to the stream network. Although disturbance patches are created by peak-flow and debris-flow disturbances in higher gradient landscapes without roads, roads can alter the landscape distributions of the starting and stopping points of debris flows, and they can alter the balance between the intensity of flood peaks and the stream network's resistance to change. A hydrologically connected road can be defined as any road segment that has a continuous surface flow path to a stream channel. Inboard ditches that drain to road-stream crossings are the most obvious road segments that are connected. Other situations that connect roads to streams are cross drains that create overland flow to channels, roads with fill slopes that encroach on stream channels, and landslide scars that create a surface flow path to a channel. Appendix B: Ecological, Social And Economic Consideration (Sept 2015) B-1 While almost all roads have some features that increase connectivity and therefore modifying surface and subsurface hydrology, the following are of greatest concern in the KEF TAP area. Based upon GIS analysis five road segments are located on steep hillslopes (SH) greater than 40% (Table B- 1) and are therefore the most likely to modifying surface and subsurface hydrology in their immediate areas. The following roads had the greatest portion of their roads on steep slopes: Forest Roads 123, 185, 185E, 191, 290, 334, and 458. In addition, the cross drains and ditch lines of 37 KEF Forest Roads are more than likely hydrologically connected (HC) and contributing overland flow directly to area streams (Table B- 1). As a result, each is modifying surface and subsurface hydrology to some degree. Best Management Practices implemented through road maintenance reduce the impacts at these locations. The following roads had the greatest portion of their roads on riparian corridors: Forest Roads 123, 185, 191, 290, 332, 334, and 458. Table B- 1: National Forest Service Roads in the KEF TAP Area Occurrence Mass Hydrologic West Soils Forest Stream Stream Special Steep Wasting Connections Occurrence Road Crossing Name Code Uses Hillslopes Occurrence Occurrence (WS) >40% (SH) (MW) (HC) FR123 UNT Hoffman Run 50618 CWF 8 26 30 Hoffman Run 50618 CWF UNT Little Mill HQ- FR185 50527 11 11 3 Creek CWF FR185E 3 13 FR185F 1 7 FR185FA 1 1 FR185G 1 UNT Hoffman Run 50618 CWF FR191 Hoffman Run 50618 CWF 48 80 23 2 Hoffman Run 50618 CWF UNT Big Mill HQ- FR239 50422 3 9 Creek CWF UNT Big Mill HQ- FR239A 50422 1 1 Creek CWF HQ- FR285 UNT Wolf Run 55399 1 5 1 CWF FR289 7 2 FR289A 1 FR289B 2 FR290 UNT Hoffman Run 50618 CWF 28 14 10 Hoffman Run 50618 CWF FR290A