2/11/11 Updated Coconino National Forest Wilderness Need Evaluation Introduction Anything in this document that has been changed since the last version has been highlighted in Green. The purpose of the Wilderness Need Assessment is to identify the need for additional wilderness on the Coconino National Forest and in the US Forest Service’s Southwest Region (Region 3 or Region) based on a variety of factors including visitor demand, the need to provide protections for various fish, wildlife, and plant species, and provididsng a reasonable representation of landforms and ecosystems within the National Wilderness Preservation System. Forest Service Handbook (FSH) 1909.12, Subsection 72.3 describes the factors that are to be considered. The following report provides the complete documentation of consideration of these factors following the Forest Service’s Southwest Region working group guidance. Because most of these factors are intended to be evaluated at a regional scale, the majority of table and figures were created using data from the Region 3 Wilderness Needs Evaluation (Forest Service 2007a). Factor #1 Factor #1, Item #1 The location, size, and type of other wildernesses in the general vicinity and their distance from the proposed area. 1. How many, what size (# of acres), and what types of other wilderness areas exist within the general vicinity of your forest (within 100 air miles)? There are 15 wilderness areas within the Coconino National Forest (the Forest or Coconino NF) and there are 32 Wilderness Areas within 100 air miles of the Coconino NF, including those on other National Forests (Tonto, Prescott, and Kaibab National Forests), National Park Service (NPS) administered lands, and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administered lands (Table 1). These Wilderness Areas total approximately 1.3 million acres. 2. How far from the potential wildernesses are these other areas? Each potential wilderness has many Wilderness Areas within 100 miles (Table 2). The potential wilderness areas are on average 50-60 miles from surrounding wilderness, however, several are neighboring existing wilderness (0 miles). Strawberry Crater, Abineau, White Horse, Bismark, Railroad Draw, East Clear Creek, and Barbershop potential wilderness areas have the fewest acres of existing Wilderness within 100 miles. 1 Coconino NF Wilderness Needs Assessment - DRAFT 2/17/2011 2/11/11 Table 1: Existing Wilderness Areas in the General Vicinity of the Coconino National Forest Wilderness Area Name Acres Administered by: Kachina Peaks Wilderness 18,857 Coconino NF Strawberry Crater Wilderness 11,268 Coconino NF Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilderness 50,312 Coconino NF Munds Mountain Wilderness 17,997 Coconino NF Sycamore Canyon Wilderness 58,818 Prescott/Coconino NFs West Beaver Wilderness 6,721 Coconino NF Woodchute Wilderness 5,790 Coconino NF West Clear Creek Wilderness 26,291 Coconino NF Kendrick Mountain Wilderness 8,200 Kaibab/Coconino NF Saddle Mountain Wilderness 41,815 Kaibab NF Kanab Creek Wilderness 775 Kaibab NF Fossil Springs Wilderness 10,754 Coconino/Tonto NF Mazatzal Wilderness 248,858 Coconino/Tonto NF Hellsgate Wilderness 38,845 Tonto NF Salome Wilderness 18,688 Tonto NF Four Peaks Wilderness 60,487 Tonto NF Cedar Bench Wilderness 16,585 Prescott NF Pine Mountain Wilderness 18,656 Prescott NF Granite Mountain Wilderness 9,850 Prescott NF Apache Creek Wilderness 5,435 Prescott NF Juniper Mesa Wilderness 7,575 Prescott NF Castle Creek Wilderness 24,477 Prescott NF Petrified Forest National Wilderness Area 9,620 NPS Hassayampa River Canyon Wilderness 12,672 BLM Hells Canyon Wilderness 9,841 BLM Upper Burro Creek Wilderness 18,235 BLM Tres Alamos Wilderness 8,034 BLM Arrastra Mountain Wilderness 129,167 BLM Harcuvar Mountain Wilderness 25,465 BLM Harquahala Mountain Wilderness 22,559 BLM Rawhide Mountains Wilderness 38,208 BLM Hummingbird Springs Wilderness 30,038 BLM Big Horn Mountains Wilderness 21,444 BLM Aubrey Peak Wilderness 15,898 BLM Swansea Wilderness 17,073 BLM Wabayuma Peak Wilderness 38,561 BLM East Cactus Plain Wilderness 15,001 BLM Sierra Estrella Wilderness 14,746 BLM Eagletail Mountains Wilderness 100,511 BLM Gibraltar Mountain Wilderness 18,731 BLM Warm Springs Wilderness 5,349 BLM Signal Mountain Wilderness 13,125 BLM 2 Coconino NF Wilderness Needs Assessment - DRAFT 2/17/2011 2/11/11 Table 2: Proximity of potential wilderness to existing Wilderness Areas within the general vicinity of the Coconino National Forest Potential Number of Existing Acres of Existing Wilderness Wilderness Wilderness areas within within 100 miles1 100 Miles Strawberry Crater 19 667,981 PW-03-04-001 Abineau 20 745,868 PW-03-04-002 White Horse 20 750,764 PW-03-04-003 Bismark 20 739,626 PW-03-04-004 Railroad Draw 24 104,1621 PW-03-04-006 Deadwood Draw 26 779,120 PW-03-04-018 Walker Mountain 27 895,102 PW-03-04-019 Cedar Bench 28 1,054,022 PW-03-04-022 Black Mountain 29 1,061,003 PW-03-04-023 Cimmaron- Boulder 30 1,235,215 PW-03-04-025 Hackberry 33 1,149,791 PW-03-04-026 Tin Can 28 938,754 PW-03-04-027 Davey’s 30 1,117,015 PW-03-04-028 East Clear Creek 24 941,457 PW-03-04-036 Barbershop 25 960,849 PW-03-04-037 *Average Distance is the average of the distances between the potential wilderness center and the center of each existing wilderness. Factor #1, Item #2 Accessibility of existing and potential wildernesses to population centers and user groups. 1 Acres of private inholdings were removed from wilderness acres. 3 Coconino NF Wilderness Needs Assessment - DRAFT 2/17/2011 2/11/11 1. How accessible are existing and potential wilderness areas in the vicinity to population centers in the planning area? Current Wilderness Distribution Southwestern Region In Region 3, out of a total of 20.8 million acres of Forest Service lands, 2.7 million are designated Wilderness, representing 13 percent of the Forest Service landbase within the Region. Compared to the national figure, there are about five percent fewer wilderness acres in Region 3. For wilderness acres in the region to be at the national average would require the addition of about 1 million acres. In Arizona, most wilderness is located in the southwestern quadrant of the state (see Table 3 below). The least amount of wilderness is in the northeast quadrant. Wilderness within the northwest and northeast quadrants, which contain the Coconino NF, are below the national average of 17 percent of federal lands designated as wilderness. Therefore, although the state of Arizona as a whole is close to the national average, existing Wilderness is less accessible to the communities of Northern Arizona than it is to communities in other parts of Arizona. Table 3: Wilderness Acres by Quadrant, Arizona, 2007 Quadrant of Managing Agencies Number of Total Federal Wilderness Arizona Wilderness Acres (BLM, Acres/Total Acres in FWS, FS, NPS Federal Acres Quadrant only) (BLM, FWS, FS, NPS only) Northwest BLM, FWS, FS, NPS 1,028,820 12,508,980 8% Northeast BLM, FS, NPS 173,036 2,855,187 6% Southwest BLM, FS, FWS, NPS 2,287,391 7,564,100 30% Southeast BLM, FS, NPS 1,232,699 7,628,459 16% Accessibility to Wilderness for Coconino National Forest Communities Table 4 shows the acres of Wilderness within 100 miles of the major population centers in and around the Coconino NF. Communities were chosen based on their size, proximity to the Forest and National Visitor Use Monitoring data. The Flagstaff population is underserved, compared to other surrounding communities. Strawberry Crater, Abineau, Whitehorse, Bismark, and Railroad Draw potential wilderness are best able to meet that need as they are the closest to Flagstaff. An argument can also be made that the Phoenix Metropolitan area is underserved base on the size of the area’s population compared to the acres of available wilderness. The approximately 1.5 million acres of wilderness serves a population of 4,160,999 people (US Census 2008). Overcrowding in wilderness areas close to Phoenix is a common concern of resource managers throughout central Arizona. Table 4: Wilderness Acres within 100 Miles of Coconino National Forest Communities Population Center Acres of Wilderness within 100 miles 4 Coconino NF Wilderness Needs Assessment - DRAFT 2/17/2011 2/11/11 Cottonwood-Verde Valley 1,165,257 Flagstaff 696, 936 Payson 919,485 Prescott 1,228,043 Prescott Valley 1,267,444 Sedona 901,566 New River (North Phoenix Metro) 1,495,368 Factor 1 Rating Criteria: Potential wilderness that were both distant from existing Wilderness and could serve underserved populations (Flagstaff) were rated as “high” need. Potential wilderness that were both distant from existing Wilderness or could serve the Phoenix Metropolitan area were rated as “medium” need. Those potential wildernesses that had more than a million acres of Wilderness area within 100 miles and were not within close proximity to underserved communities were rates as “low” need. Factor 1 Results: Table 5: Factor 1 Wilderness Need Ratings for Coconino National Forest Wilderness Areas. Potential Wilderness Factor 1 Rating Strawberry Crater PW-03-04-001 High Abineau PW-03-04-002 High White Horse PW-03-04-003 High Bismark PW-03-04-004 High Railroad Draw PW-03-04-006 High Deadwood Draw PW-03-04-018 Med Walker Mountain PW-03-04-019 Med Cedar Bench PW-03-04-022 Med MaybBlack Mountain PW-03-04-023 Med Cimmaron-Boulder PW-03-04-025 Med Hackberry PW-03-04-026 Med Tin Can PW-03-04-027 Med Davey’s PW-03-04-028 Med East Clear Creek PW-03-04-036 Med Barbershop PW-03-04-037 Med Generally, those areas in the Northern part of the Forest (Strawberry Crater, Abineau, Whitehorse, Bismark and Railroad Draw potential wildernesses) were rated as High Need for Factor 1.