Panther Creek Timber Management Project Environmental Assessment and Unsigned Finding of No Significant Impact
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The Panther Creek Timber Management Project Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)1 for Environmental Assessment: DOI-BLM-ORWA-N040-2017-0003-EA Summer, 2018 United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office Northwest Oregon District, Tillamook Field Office Yamhill County, Oregon Responsible Agency: USDI - Bureau of Land Management Responsible Official: Karen Schank Field Manager Tillamook Field Office 4610 Third Street Tillamook, OR 97141 (503) 815-1100 For Further Information, contact: Landon Rhodes Tillamook Resource Area 4610 Third Street Tillamook, OR 97141 (503) 815-1460 Introduction The Tillamook Field Office, Northwest Oregon District Bureau of Land Management (BLM), has conducted an environmental analysis for the Panther Creek Timber Management Project (Panther Creek Project). In the Panther Creek Project, the BLM has analyzed three action alternatives, and a No Action alternative, which examine varying methods of conducting forest management activities on approximately 781 acres of BLM lands, which includes commercial timber sales, within the Panther Creek 6th-field subwatershed of the North Yamhill River watershed. The action alternatives include regeneration harvest and commercial thinning within the Harvest Land Base-Moderate Intensity Timber Area land use allocation, and commercial thinning within the Riparian Reserve land use allocation. The action will occur in forest stands in various conditions. Some stands are at or above the age which produces maximum average annual growth over the lifetime of the stand; some stands are within an age group that currently makes up a preponderance of acres within the Harvest Land Base in the Tillamook Field Office; other stands are underproductive due to disease infestations or they are stocked with less desirable commercial species; while still other stands are overly dense and in need of thinning to continue healthy growth 1 This unsigned FONSI is included here along with the Panther Creek Timber Management Project EA in order to provide the public the opportunity to review and comment on both documents. After a public comment period, the Tillamook Field Manager will consider comments received and if appropriate, will finalize and sign the FONSI. FONSI for EA# DOI-BLM-ORWA-N040-2017-0003-EA – Panther Creek Timber Management Project rates and to improve stand value and merchantability as well as the development of structural complexity. The Riparian Reserve stands proposed for treatments are overstocked with a single aged Douglas-fir overstory that lacks the structural layering characteristic of older stands, including large trees with complex crowns and shade tolerant tree species in the mid and understories. All action alternatives also include construction, maintenance and improvement of roads and culverts, rock sourcing through quarry operations, planting native conifer and hardwood species following regeneration harvest and commercial thinning treatments, snag creation, Riparian Reserve post-harvest tree felling, and the treatment of a portion of the fuels created by the harvest operations. The area where the Panther Creek Timber Management Project will occur is approximately 9 miles northwest of the town of McMinnville, Oregon. The project area includes BLM-managed lands within sections 17, 19, 29, 33 and 34 of Township 3 South, Range 5 West, and sections 13, 23, 24 and 25 in Township 3 South, Range 6 West, (Willamette Meridian) in Yamhill County, Oregon. The analysis in this EA is site-specific and the proposed timber management activities have been designed to conform to the Northwestern and Coastal Record of Decision and Resource Management Plan. The EA and unsigned FONSI will be made available for public review from August 10, 2018 through September 10, 2018. Comments received by the Tillamook Field Office of the Northwest Oregon District Office, 4610 Third Street, Tillamook, Oregon, 97141, on or before Septermber 10, 2018 will be considered in making the final decision for this project. Finding of No Significant Impact Based upon review of the Panther Creek Timber Management Project Environmental Assessment (EA) and the supporting project record, I have determined that this project is not a major federal action and will not significantly affect the quality of the human environment, individually or cumulatively with other actions in the general area. No environmental effects meet the definition of significance in context or intensity as defined in 40 CFR 1508.27. There are no site-specific impacts that will require supplemental/additional information to the analysis done in the Western Oregon Proposed Resource Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement, March 2016 (RMP/FEIS). Therefore, an environmental impact statement is not needed. This finding is based on the following discussion: Context. The proposed project is a site-specific action directly involving a total of approximately 781 acres of BLM administered land, along with actions occurring on various haul roads. These actions will affect about 6.7% of the 11,653 acre Panther Creek 6th field subwatershed and by themselves do not have international, national, region-wide, or state-wide importance. The discussion of the significance criteria that follows applies to the intended actions and is within the context of local importance. The EA details the effects of the action alternatives; none of the effects identified, including direct, indirect and cumulative effects, are considered to be significant and do not exceed those effects described in the RMP/FEIS. Intensity. The following discussion is organized around the Ten Significance Criteria described in 40 CFR 1508.27. The discussions below apply to the proposed action contained within the Panther Creek Timber Management Project EA. 1. Impacts may be both beneficial and adverse: The effects of the timber management project are unlikely to have significant (beneficial and/or adverse) impacts (EA Section 3.2) for the following reasons: Vegetation and Forest Resources (EA section 3.2): Effects to these resources will not have significant impacts because: 2 FONSI for EA# DOI-BLM-ORWA-N040-2017-0003-EA – Panther Creek Timber Management Project Regeneration harvest in the Harvest Land Base will contribute to the Salem Sustained Yield Unit Allowable Sale Quantity; begin to generally balance age class groupings within the project area, providing sustained-yield treatment opportunities into the future; and increase the productivity of stands currently infested with root rot disease and/or heavily composed of hardwood species and otherwise capable of growing conifers. Commercial thinning in the Harvest Land Base will contribute timber volume to the Salem Sustained Yield Unit Allowable Sale Quantity; increase the value and merchantability of stands for future harvest by increasing residual tree growth and providing large logs to the market; and enhance stand structural complexity and vegetative diversity. Variably spaced commercial thinning, underplanting of shade tolerant native conifer species, snag creation, and tree felling in portions of the Riparian Reserve will develop greater structural complexity and vegetative diversity in a reduced amount of time. Wildlife Resources - (Includes ESA listed species and BLM Special Status Species): (EA section 3.3) Effects to this resource will not have significant impacts because: ESA Listed Species All habitat for northern spotted owls that will be modified by the project has been surveyed to protocol and determined to be unoccupied. Per the survey protocol, spot check surveys will continue to occur until project implementation begins, and if occupancy is determined in the project area through these continued survey efforts, coordination with the USFWS will ensure no take as defined by the ESA will occur. The Haskins Creek site is the only spotted owl known site within the analysis area; it was last known to have been occupied in 2008. Proposed treatment will maintain existing habitat conditions within the nest patch and will improve the development of nesting-roosting habitat within the core area of this site, consistent with the ROD/RMP conservation measure guidance of Appendix A (ROD/RMP, p. 108). All habitat for the marbled murrelet that will be modified by the project will be surveyed to protocol by September 2018 and prior to any timber sale Decision for this project. If any occupied marbled murrelet sites are discovered during protocol surveys, or during project implementation, they will be protected by a change in the Land Use Allocation of the occupied stand to Late Successional Reserve (ROD/RMP, p. 52 and 98). Should any occupied marbled murrelet sites be discovered, the project will be evaluated and through a combination of daily time restrictions, restricting seasons of operation, and/or dropping treatment units, protection of the occupied marbled murrelet sites will be ensured. Although there will be potential for disturbance to spotted owls and/or marbled murrelets as a result of the project, there will be no disruption. Spotted owls and/or marbled murrelets, if present, may be distracted from their normal activity but the Panther Creek Project will not create a likelihood of injury or loss of reproduction. BLM Special Status Species: (EA section 3.3) All habitat for the red tree vole and Bureau Sensitive (BS) mollusk species that may be affected by the project have been surveyed to protocol. Sites where Bureau Sensitive mollusk species were