United States Department of Giant Sequoia Agriculture Forest Service National Monument Giant Sequoia National Monument Draft Environmental Impact Statement August 2010 Volume 1 The U. S. 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, or marital or family status. (Not all prohibited 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, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Chapter 4 - Environmental Consequences Giant Sequoia National Monument, Draft Environmental Impact Statement Volume 1 1 Chapter 4 Environmental Consequences Volume 1 Giant Sequoia National Monument, Draft Environmental Impact Statement 2 Chapter 4 Environmental Consequences Chapter 4 Environmental Consequences Chapter 4 includes the environmental effects analysis. It is organized by resource area, in the same manner as Chapter 3. Effects are displayed for separate resource areas in terms of the direct, indirect, and cumulative effects associated with the six alternatives considered in detail. Effects can be neutral, beneficial, or adverse. This chapter also discusses the unavoidable adverse effects, the relationship between short-term uses and long-term productivity, and any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources. Environmental consequences form the scientific and analytical basis for comparison of the alternatives. Reasonably Foreseeable Actions A reasonably foreseeable action is defined as any project or activity for which the effects overlap in time and location with the effects of the project under consideration (i.e., this EIS). There are a number of reasonably foreseeable actions that will, or are likely to, occur which may affect resources in the Monument. A list of anticipated reasonably foreseeable actions was developed for resource specialists to use during their effects analyses. This list is based on these key assumptions: Each resource area may be affected in different ways and intensities by these potential activities. The timeframe is within the next 3–10 years, depending on the resource area. Activities would only be conducted after appropriate project-level NEPA analysis, if required. Reasonably foreseeable actions do not follow the management direction proposed in the action alternatives. The following types of actions should be considered (depending on resource area): Annual maintenance activities in the Monument, such as roads, trails, special use permits, and administrative and recreation sites. These are the activities necessary to maintain basic compliance with regulation and annual operating plans. Fuels management in the Monument, such as prescribed fire and managed wildfire, pile burning, maintenance of WUIs (including mechanical treatments), and additional fuels reduction activities as a result of other vegetation or site maintenance work (e.g., hazard tree abatement in campgrounds). Construction or reconstruction of administrative or developed recreation sites in the Monument, such as proposals for site maintenance or deferred maintenance that are listed in existing site management strategies. Grazing allotment management inside and outside of the Monument, such as cattle grazing, maintenance activities (including fence repair or construction), and water source maintenance. Road decommissioning inside and outside of the Monument, such as decommissioning roads or portions of roads that are part of the designated road system for the Sequoia National Forest. Tree removal on state, federal, tribal, or private lands adjacent to or outside of the Monument, including portions of enjoined timber sales in the Sequoia National Forest outside of the Monument, and tree removal for wood production on state, federal, tribal, or private lands. Giant Sequoia National Monument, Draft Environmental Impact Statement Volume 1 3 Chapter 4 Environmental Consequences Reforestation and plantation maintenance activities adjacent to or outside of the Monument, such as site preparation, planting, releasing planted trees from competing vegetation, and gopher baiting. Annual maintenance activities on state, federal, or tribal lands adjacent to the Monument, such as those for roads, trails, special use permits, administrative and recreation sites. These are the activities necessary to maintain basic compliance with regulations and annual operating plans. Fuels management on state, federal, or tribal lands adjacent to the Monument, such as prescribed burns and managed wildfires, pile burning, maintenance of WUIs, and fuels reduction activities as a result of other vegetation or site maintenance work (e.g., hazard tree abatement in campgrounds). Construction and maintenance activities on private lands adjacent to or surrounded by the Monument, such as home construction, fuels reduction, and ranch or other private business operations. Increasing public pressure (proportional to increasing general population) for recreation on and commodities from state, federal, and local agency lands (including the Monument and other ownerships in the vicinity), such as clean water, places to recreate, and special products. Cumulative Effects Analysis Criteria In order to understand the contribution of past actions to the effects of the proposed action and alternatives, this analysis relies on current environmental conditions that are a result, in part, of past actions. Existing conditions reflect the combined impact of all prior human actions and natural events that have affected the environment and might contribute to cumulative effects. The cumulative effects analyses in this chapter do not attempt to quantify the effects of past human actions by adding up all prior actions on an action-by-action basis. Several reasons exist for not taking this approach. First, a catalog and analysis of all past actions would be impractical to compile and unduly costly to obtain. Current conditions have been impacted by innumerable actions over the last century (and beyond), and trying to isolate the individual actions that continue to have residual impacts would be nearly impossible. Second, providing the details of past actions on an individual basis would not be useful to predict the cumulative effects of the proposed action or alternatives. In fact, focusing on individual actions would be less accurate than looking at existing conditions, because information is limited on the environmental impacts of individual past actions, and one cannot reasonably identify each and every action over the last century that has contributed to current conditions. Also, focusing on the impacts of past human actions risks ignoring the important residual effects of past natural events, which may contribute to cumulative effects just as much as human actions. By looking at current conditions, the residual effects of past human actions and natural events, regardless of which particular action or event contributed to those effects, are captured. Finally, the Council on Environmental Quality issued an interpretive memorandum on June 24, 2005 regarding analysis of past actions, which states, "agencies can conduct an adequate cumulative effects analysis by focusing on the current aggregate effects of past actions without delving into the historical details of individual past actions." The cumulative effects analysis in this EIS is consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Regulations (36 CFR 220.4 (f)) (July 24, 2008), which state, in part: Volume 1 Giant Sequoia National Monument, Draft Environmental Impact Statement 4 Chapter 4 Environmental Consequences CEQ regulations do not require the consideration of the individual effects of all past actions to determine the present effects of past actions. Once the agency has identified those present effects of past actions that warrant consideration, the agency assesses the extent that the effects of the proposal for agency action or its alternatives will add to, modify, or mitigate those effects. The final analysis documents an agency assessment of the cumulative effects of the actions considered (including past, present, and reasonable foreseeable future actions) on the affected environment. With respect to past actions, during the scoping process and subsequent preparation of the analysis, the agency must determine what information regarding past actions is useful and relevant to the required analysis of cumulative effects. Cataloging past actions and specific information about the direct and indirect effects of their design and implementation could in some contexts be useful to predict the cumulative effects of the proposal. The CEQ regulations, however, do not require agencies to catalogue or exhaustively list and analyze all individual past actions. Simply because information about past actions may be available or obtained with reasonable effort does not mean that it is relevant and necessary to inform decisionmaking (40 CFR 1508.7). For these reasons, the analysis of past actions in this draft EIS is based on current environmental conditions. Methodology