Five Rivers Landscape Management Project
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Five Rivers Landscape Management Project Final Environmental Impact Statement Waldport Ranger District Siuslaw National Forest Lincoln and Lane Counties, Oregon Lead Agency: USDA Forest Service Responsible Official: Gloria D. Brown, Forest Supervisor Siuslaw National Forest 4077 Research Way (P.O. Box 1148, 97339) Corvallis, OR 97333 For Information Contact: Doris Tai, District Ranger Paul Thomas, Project Team Leader Waldport Ranger District 1049 SW Pacific Hwy. (P.O. Box 400) Waldport, OR 97394 (541) 563-3211 E-mail address: [email protected] [email protected] The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326- W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Abstract: The Waldport Ranger District proposes management actions in the Five Rivers watershed in response to direction in the Northwest Forest Plan, the Siuslaw Forest Plan as amended, and recommendations in the Lobster-Five Rivers Watershed Analysis. Public comments on the draft were considered in developing this final environmental impact statement. The proposed actions, designed to restore terrestrial and aquatic habitats in the Five Rivers watershed, include designating 12 management study areas as part of a learning design; commercial thinning older plantations; reopening some temporary and system roads, building temporary roads, and closing and decommissioning system roads; precommercial thinning of younger plantations; planting shade-tolerant conifer and various hardwood trees in riparian areas; maintaining existing meadows and plantations in early-seral conditions; and issuing a special-use permit for building and maintaining a private road. Three alternatives were fully developed and considered: Alternative 1, the actions described, including road building, reopening, and repair; Alternative 2, the actions described, but without road building, reopening, or repair; and Alternative 3, no action. Alternative 1 is the Forest Service’s preferred alternative. Cover design: Graphics, Dan White; Photos, Bernard Bormann (landscape), George Moeller (scientist and managers), Dave Pilz (people and fungi), Jack Sleeper (riparian planting). Why is this project needed? Why is this project needed, and what evidence CHAPTER 1 established these needs? Chapter titles are framed as questions intended to focus the writing and to alert readers to judge whether the answers provided are adequate. For readers accustomed to earlier environmental documents, chapter 1 is equivalent to the “Purpose and Need for Action” section. Note: This EIS and its appendices contain information that differs from or was not in the draft EIS. The changes respond to new information, public comment, advice from regulatory agencies, and corrections. For example, chapter 2 contains additional material that responds to public preference for more specific information on the alternatives. Chapter 3 contains information requested by the public and regulatory agencies about existing road and water-quality conditions, existing road maintenance and costs, and updates the biological assessment. Chapter 4 contains added material about sedimentation from roads, water quality, public and management access, economics, and updates discussions on bald eagles, northern spotted owls, and marbled murrelets. Additional tables provide more-specific information by subwatershed, and effects on aquatic conservation objectives and environmental justice were also added. Appendices 1 through 5 of the draft are now A through E. Appendices A through C have been modified to include additional or more-specific information requested by the public. The Planning Area The area included in the Five Rivers Landscape Management Project lies within the Five Rivers- Lobster Creek fifth-field watershed of the Alsea River basin. The planning area is about 34 air miles southwest of Corvallis and 40 air miles northwest of Eugene, Oregon (map 1); it includes eight subwatersheds and covers about 37,000 acres. About 13% of the planning area is privately owned, and the rest is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The Proposed Project The Five Rivers Landscape Management Project is a package of associated terrestrial and watershed restoration projects. They include commercially thinning plantations now less than 50 years old, decommissioning roads, placing large conifer trees--up to 36 inches in diameter at breast height--in streams, and planting conifers and hardwoods in riparian areas. A management study, designed to compare management strategies, is part of the proposal. The Problems To Be Addressed Based on available information, and direction from the Northwest Forest Plan (the Plan), previous Forest Supervisor Jim Furnish identified the following problems (USDA 1999): 1 Why is this project needed? Not enough is known for people to agree on a single approach to meet the goals of the Northwest Forest Plan, partly a result of ineffective past monitoring strategies. Especially poorly known is how plantations, riparian zones, and roads can be efficiently managed together through time. Thus, he saw a need to speed learning by comparing a variety of strategies for achieving late-successional conditions and aquatic conservation. The shortage of late-successional habitat in the Pacific Northwest limits recovery of old- growth-dependent species such as the northern spotted owl and the marbled murrelet. Thus, he saw a need to speed development of late-successional habitat in late-successional and riparian reserves. The shortage of properly functioning aquatic habitat in the Oregon Coast Range limits recovery of cold-water species such as coho salmon. Thus, he saw a need to improve watershed function. The Northwest Forest Plan called for substantial timber production from the matrix lands, but murrelets are almost always found in surveyed mature forest on the Siuslaw matrix lands, which are then redesignated as late-successional reserves. Thus, he saw the need to simultaneously produce timber from plantations and meet late-successional objectives on matrix lands. Evidence Used by the Forest Supervisor in Deciding to Address These Problems The record of decision (USDA, USDI 1994b) for the Northwest Forest Plan--based on physical, biological, and societal evidence provided in the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Team report (USDA, USDI, et al. 1993) and described in the Plan’s environmental impact statement (USDA, USDI 1994a)--is intended to provide for: Healthy forest ecosystems, including protecting riparian areas and waters; A suitable supply of timber and other forest products to help maintain local and regional economies predictably over the long term; and Adaptive management--described as a process of action-based planning, monitoring, researching, evaluating, and adjusting--to improve future land management decisions. The Plan identified concern for northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets, and anadromous fish in the Oregon Coast Range Province (which includes the Siuslaw National Forest) because of its isolation and harvest history (chapters 3 and 4; p. 21). The record of decision, which amended the Siuslaw Forest Plan, allocated federal lands in the Five Rivers watershed into one or more of the following: Late-successional reserve; Riparian reserve; or Matrix (lands not included in the other two allocations). The Plan identified specific environmental conditions and appropriate commodities and amenities to be produced and maintained in each land allocation. It also outlined the rules and limits governing possible activities for achieving desired conditions in each allocation. The Assessment Report for Federal Lands in and Adjacent to the Oregon Coast Province (USDA 1995a) shows the planning area in the central interior block (block 6). The mature conifer stands 2 Why is this project needed? in block 6 have been extensively clearcut, and few patches of functional late-successional forest remain. The central interior block once supported the largest unfragmented patches of late- successional forest in the Province. The Report recommends managing to accelerate successional development and to aggregate small patches into larger ones. The Report describes the in-stream fish habitat on federal lands throughout the Province as being in marginal to poor condition. It recommends specific actions to improve fish habitat on federal land by: Stabilizing, decommissioning, or obliterating roads; Restoring immediate habitat conditions by adding large wood to streams; and Restoring long-term habitat by reestablishing natural riparian areas through actions such as riparian planting. For needing to learn The need to learn, for individuals and society as a whole, is strongest when uncertainty exists about how events will unfold. The current extent and intensity of debate among managers, scientists, and citizens over outcomes of land-management strategies provide strong evidence that sufficient