United States Proposed Action for the Department of Agriculture Foothills Landscape Forest Service Project October 2017 Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests Dawson, Fannin, Gilmer, Habersham, Lumpkin, Murray, Rabun and White Counties, Georgia For More Information Contact: Angie Bell, Foothills Team Leader Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests 1755 Cleveland Hwy, Gainesville, GA 30501 [email protected] FOOTHILLS LANDSCAPE PROJECT PROPOSED ACTION In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity, in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all programs). Remedies and complaint filing deadlines vary by program or incident. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language, etc.) should contact the responsible Agency or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339. Additionally, program information may be made available in languages other than English. To file a program discrimination complaint, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, AD-3027, found online at http://www.ascr.usda.gov/complaint_filing_cust.html and at any USDA office or write a letter addressed to USDA and provide in the letter all of the information requested in the form. To request a copy of the complaint form, call (866) 632-9992. Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by: (1) mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; (2) fax: (202) 690-7442; or (3) email: [email protected]. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. 2 | P AGE FOOTHILLS LANDSCAPE PROJECT PROPOSED ACTION Table of Contents Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 Location ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 Purpose and Need and Proposed Action ....................................................................................................... 5 Connection to the Restoration Plan ........................................................................................................... 5 Adaptive Management Approach ............................................................................................................. 6 Biologic Integrity ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Resilience to Disturbance ....................................................................................................................... 18 Connectivity ............................................................................................................................................ 22 Improvements to Soil and Water Quality ............................................................................................... 29 Proposed Changes to the Project Boundary ............................................................................................ 37 Connected Actions ...................................................................................................................................... 40 Project Design Criteria ................................................................................................................................ 42 Citations ...................................................................................................................................................... 45 Apppendix A: Old-growth Designation Stands .......................................................................................... 47 3 | P AGE FOOTHILLS LANDSCAPE PROJECT PROPOSED ACTION OVERVIEW The Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests is planning an effort designed to restore the biological integrity, resilience to disturbance, connectivity, and soil and water quality across the Foothills Landscape. The Forest Service is preparing an Environmental Assessment (EA) that proposes to conduct restoration activities within the 143,500 acre project area that is part of the Conasauga, Blue Ridge and Chattooga River Ranger Districts. The Foothills Landscape project is a restoration project intended to assist in the “recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. Ecological restoration focuses on reestablishing the composition, structure, pattern, and ecological processes necessary to facilitate terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems sustainability, resilience, and health under current and future conditions” (FSH 2020.5). The restoration is framed by the Forest Service Strategic Goal “to protect National Forest System watersheds by implementing practices designed to maintain or improve watershed condition, which is the foundation for sustaining ecosystems and the production of renewable natural resources, values, and benefits” (FSM 2520). The Chattahoochee-Oconee Forest Plan (2004) outlines a need to manage, or restore where necessary, watersheds to provide resilient and stable conditions to support the quality of water necessary to protect ecosystem functions (page 2-20). The Southern Appalachian Assessment (1996) points out that watershed health represents the integration of terrestrial, aquatic, atmospheric and social aspects of the ecosystem. Williams et al. (1997) described the five characteristics of a healthy watershed as having a high biologic integrity, being resilient to disturbance, being highly connected, supporting high water quality and soil productivity in the long-term, and providing essential ecosystem services. The Foothills Landscape project was developed with collaborative input stretching from October 2016 to October 2017. There were two rounds of Community Conversations, four integrated workshops, five small group meetings and seven field trips convened during this time. The purpose of the engagement was to discuss and debate the restoration needs on the landscape and the potential tools to improve the ecosystem’s resilience to disturbance and sustainability. LOCATION The Foothills Landscape is located on the Conasauga, Blue Ridge, and Chattooga River Ranger Districts of the Chattahoochee National Forest in northern Georgia. The project is located in the area where the mountains are visibly reduced to the foothills. The project area includes portions of the Cohutta Wildlife Management Area and Dawson, Fannin, Gilmer, Habersham, Lumpkin, Murray, Rabun and White Counties. 4 | P AGE FOOTHILLS LANDSCAPE PROJECT PROPOSED ACTION Figure 1: Vicinity map showing the general location of the project area relative to major cities and highways in Georgia. PURPOSE AND NEED AND PROPOSED ACTION The proposed action for the Foothills Landscape project is organized to first describe the overall need of the project. A need is the overarching theme that was discovered while comparing the existing environmental conditions to the desired, achievable future conditions. In order to identify the underlying purpose of the project regarding the four primary needs, the interdisciplinary team incorporated the objectives from the Forest Plan, the US Forest Service Watershed Condition Framework, Georgia’s State Water Regional Plans, the Georgia State Wildlife Action Plan, Community Wildfire Protection Plans, Georgia’s Forest Action Plan, Shortleaf Pine Restoration Plan, Recovery Plans for Threatened and Endangered Species in the project area and information provided through the collaborative effort. The range of actions intended to meet the above mentioned purpose has been developed by the interdisciplinary team using best available science, expertise and input from the collaborative community. A more detailed description of the proposed treatments can be found in the Foothills Landscape Restoration Plan. The description of the range of actions includes the description of where the action would occur, how it would be accomplished and how much (acres, miles, sites, etc.) is being proposed. Connection to the Restoration Plan This proposed action represents the culmination of all of the input from the collaborative effort and the work by the interdisciplinary team to outline the need for restoration, gather the best available science and their professional judgement and experience. The Foothills Landscape Restoration Plan (https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd544658.docx) was an intermediate step to document the logic and background between the inception of the project and the official proposed action. It was designed as a tool to help improve transparency, solicit feedback about the process and detail the logic that was used to generate this proposed action. You will see sidebars with links to the Restoration 5 | P AGE