Mount Pinos Forest Health Project Los Padres National Forest Mount Pinos Forest Health Project Proposal Introduction The Los Padres National Forest proposes to implement a Forest Health project in the Mount Pinos area on the Mount Pinos Ranger District. The project area encompasses approximately 1,682 acres on the eastside shoulder of Mount Pinos between the Cuddy and Lockwood Valleys. The project area is located in both Ventura and Kern Counties, California (figure 1). The Mount Pinos Forest Health Project area lies within an Insect and Disease Treatment Designation Area1 where declining forest health conditions put the area at risk for substantial tree mortality. The purpose of this project is to reduce existing stand densities and alter stand structure and species composition to create landscapes more resilient to impacts of drought, insects, and disease.2 Figure 1. Mount Pinos Forest Health Project vicinity map This project would improve forest health by reducing existing stand densities and the risk of tree mortality through the removal or on-site treatment of small-diameter, less than 24-inch and dead trees from overstocked stands. Treatments would consist of either mechanical and/or manual thinning methods. 1 https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/farm-bill/area-designations 2References are available at: www.fs.usda.gov/main/lpnf/landmanagement/planning or are on file at the Mt. Pinos Ranger District in Frazier Park, California. 1 Mount Pinos Forest Health Project Los Padres National Forest Prescribed fire and pile burning would be used as needed. The proposed treatments would also benefit fire and fuels management by reducing surface, ladder, and crown fuels. High tree density levels, overlapping tree crowns, and a dense understory contribute to resource competition, leaving trees at risk from drought, insects and disease, and wildfire. Treating these areas will reduce competition, improve the health of the remaining trees, and increase the average stand diameter. The project, located in proximity to Cuddy Valley, extends to the upper slopes of Mount Pinos. The project area is approximately 1.5 miles southwest of the community of Pinon Pine Estates and approximately 2 miles southeast of the community of Pine Mountain Club. The legal description for the project area is T8N, R21W, Sections 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and T9N, R21W, Sections 26, 33, 34, 35, 36 San Bernardino Meridian; Kern and Ventura County, California (Figure 2). Figure 2. Mount Pinos Forest Health Project area The project area lies within a designated Insect and Disease Treatment Area where declining forest health conditions put the area at risk for substantial tree mortality over the next 15 years. In the 2014 Farm Bill, Congress authorized the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA 2003, amended 2018) Forest Service to prioritize work in these designated areas, and to expeditiously plan and implement those projects. The Farm Bill also specified that certain projects within insect and disease infested areas would be categorically excluded from the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The law specified that these categorical exclusion projects are exempt from the pre-decisional administrative review objections process, and to be considered the project must fall within the wildland-urban interface; or Condition Classes 2 or 3 in Fire Regime Groups I, II, or III, outside the wildland urban interface. This 2 Mount Pinos Forest Health Project Los Padres National Forest project falls within the areas to be considered as defined by the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (USDA 2003, as amended 2018). The Healthy Forest Restoration Act authority (USDA 2003, as amended 2018) would be used for this project. The purposes of the act relevant to this project include actions to: • reduce risk or extent of, or increase the resilience to, insect or disease infestation; • enhance efforts to protect watersheds and address threats to forest and rangeland health, including catastrophic wildfire, across the landscape; • reduce wildfire risk to communities, municipal water supplies, and other at-risk Federal land through a collaborative process of planning, prioritizing, and implementing hazardous fuel reduction projects; • protect California spotted owl habitat (Forest Service Sensitive Species) to the north of the treated area from the effects of catastrophic wildfire. Figure 3 shows the vegetation within a 1,500-foot buffer around the project area in relation to wildlife habitat (California Spotted Owl), created by a wildlife suitability model (Zeiner et al. 1998 and 1990). Figure 3. Wildlife suitability habitat map for the Mount Pinos Project 3 Mount Pinos Forest Health Project Los Padres National Forest Existing Condition (Affected Environment) and Desired Conditions Existing Conditions Vegetation A century of fire suppression, logging and grazing has influenced the present condition of vegetation in the Los Padres National Forest (Nigro and Molinari, 2019). As a result, many conifer forests now have tree densities that are much higher than pre-settlement levels (LMP Part 1 pages, 13, 21, 23; Taylor, 2007; Goforth and Minnich 2008). Additionally, species composition is trending away from shade-intolerant species, such as Jeffrey and ponderosa pine toward shade-tolerant species, such as white fir and incense cedar when compared to historic abundances. (USDA 2005, LMP Part 1). Densification has been occurring in southern California (Minnich et al, 1995; Taylor, 2007; Goforth and Minnich 2008) since the suppression of fire began at least 100 years ago. Adult tree density and basal area in the San Bernardino Mountains were nearly double that of the Sierra San Pedro Martir3. Because of this densification, exacerbated by drought conditions, there were three times as many standing dead Jeffrey pine and white fir in southern California as in Baja California. As a result of previous management actions, most trees in southern California established in the last 100 years; the maximum age of Jeffrey pine was around 285 years in southern California, whereas the oldest Jeffrey pine tree in the Sierra San Pedro was 448 years old (Gucker, FEIS report, 2007). Figure 4 (LMP Part 1 page 24) is an example of a representation of shade-intolerant Jeffrey and ponderosa pines. It illustrates the past versus the present conditions throughout its range. The current conditions in the project area are consistent with this trend of a higher percentage of the shade-tolerant white fir in present- day forests. Note: JP and PP = Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine; WF = white fir; BO = black oak; SP = sugar pine, and IC = incense cedar Figure 4. Historic and current percentages of tree species in western mixed conifer forests 3 The San Pedro Martir area of northern Baja, Mexico, has received minimal management activities unlike southern California and is used as a reference condition. 4 Mount Pinos Forest Health Project Los Padres National Forest Site reconnaissance of the project area showed a patchy, mosaic stand structure with some of the project area already similar to historic conditions with respect to desired stand density and structure. During project implementation, these areas would receive minimal or no treatment to the existing overstory trees (Figure 5). Figure 5. Example of area already at desired structure needing little or no overstory treatment However, approximately thirty eight percent4 of the project area is in excess of what was present historically (Minnich et al. 1995) due to densification (Figure 6). Overcrowding has accelerated and aggravated drought- caused mortality, making conifer forests susceptible to widespread insect and disease outbreaks that, combined with excessive fuel loading, has the potential for more large-scale mortality as a result of insects and disease, drought, and stand-replacing wildland fires. 4 Derived from stand exam data collected in the project area. 5 Mount Pinos Forest Health Project Los Padres National Forest Figure 6. Example of area needing treatment due to densification Stand exams taken in the project area coupled with walk-throughs by certified silviculturists and other Forest professionals5 confirm that existing stand density and structure put the area at risk from insects and disease as well as from wildfire. Historically, mixed conifer stands in southern California had approximately 93 trees greater than 4 inches DBH per acre (Minnich et al. 1995). Stand exam data show the project area averages 145 trees per acre greater than 4 inches DBH in mixed conifer stands, exceeding the historic level. Figure 7 is a good representation of forest densification at the Mt. Pinos snow play area that is within the project area. High stocking levels, overlapping tree crowns, and a dense understory contribute to competition that leaves trees and especially large trees more susceptible to bark beetle attacks (Fettig et al, 2012; Bennet et al, 2015; Bradford and Bell, 2017). The existing understory, close tree crowns, understory ladder and downed fuels and continued periods of drought also place the area at risk for wildfire. The existing conditions of the timbered stands do not meet the goals and desired conditions of the Los Padres National Forest Plan. Specifically, the existing conditions do not meet Forest Plan Goal 1.2: Restoration of Forest Health, Goal 1.1: Community Protection, with Forest Plan desired conditions for FH 2: Restoration of Forest Health and FH 4: Insect and Disease Management, and finally, National Strategic Plan Goal 1 – Reduce the risk from catastrophic wildland fire. 5 Mount Pinos Community Wildfire Protection Plan, National Insect and Disease Forest Risk Assessment, Strategic Fuelbreak Assessment, and the 2014 Farm Bill. 6 Mount Pinos Forest Health Project Los Padres National Forest Figure 7. Mount Pinos snow play area showing dramatic increase in density of trees, 2020 and 1963 7 Mount Pinos Forest Health Project Los Padres National Forest The project area has approximately 1,543 acres of Jeffrey pine, mixed conifer, and pinyon-juniper dominated stands. These stands are experiencing elevated levels of bark beetle activity and associated increasing tree mortality, which has been exacerbated by the ongoing drought.