Environmental Assessment for the Peaks Allotment United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Southwestern Region Coconino National Forest June 2010 The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY). To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Director of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TTY). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Printed on recycled paper – June 2010 Environmental Assessment for the Peaks Allotment Coconino National Forest Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 – PURPOSE AND NEED ...................................................................................... 1 DOCUMENT STRUCTURE ............................................................................................................... 1 PROJECT LOCATION ...................................................................................................................... 1 BACKGROUND .............................................................................................................................. 3 PURPOSE AND NEED ..................................................................................................................... 5 PROPOSED ACTION ....................................................................................................................... 5 APPLICABLE LAWS AND REGULATIONS ........................................................................................ 6 DECISION FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................................ 8 PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT ................................................................................................................. 8 ISSUES .......................................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 2 – ALTERNATIVES ............................................................................................. 10 ALTERNATIVES ........................................................................................................................... 10 ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED BUT ELIMINATED FROM FURTHER ANALYSIS ................................ 16 COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVES ................................................................................................. 16 CHAPTER 3 – AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES ..................................................................................................................... 23 SOIL AND WATER ........................................................................................................................ 23 VEGETATION ............................................................................................................................... 29 SENSITIVE PLANT SPECIES ......................................................................................................... 35 NOXIOUS OR INVASIVE WEEDS ................................................................................................... 40 WILDLIFE ................................................................................................................................... 42 ECONOMY .................................................................................................................................. 64 CHAPTER 4 - MONITORING ................................................................................................. 68 IMPLEMENTATION MONITORING ................................................................................................. 68 EFFECTIVENESS MONITORING .................................................................................................... 69 CHAPTER 5 - CONSULTATION AND COORDINATION ................................................... 71 ID TEAM MEMBERS ................................................................................................................... 71 FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL AND AGENCIES ............................................................................ 71 TRIBES ....................................................................................................................................... 71 CHAPTER 6 – GLOSSARY ...................................................................................................... 72 CHAPTER 7 – LITERATURE CITED .................................................................................... 79 APPENDIX A – ESTIMATED GRAZING CAPACITY ......................................................... 85 List of Figures Figure 1. Vicinity map and boundary for the Peaks Allotment .............................................................. 2 Figure 2. Map of the Allotment Area and Proposed Action ................................................................... 4 Figure 3. Actual Use and Permitted Use within the Peaks Allotment from 1995 to 2009 .................... 5 Environmental Assessment for the Peaks Allotment Coconino National Forest ii List of Tables Table 1. Livestock Grazing Activities by Alternative ........................................................................... 17 Table 2. Alternative Comparison by Purpose and Need ...................................................................... 17 Table 3. Summary of environmental consequences by alternative ....................................................... 18 Table 4. Sixth code watershed acres that the grazed project area occurs within. Acres are gross acres and include private land. .............................................................................................................. 26 Table 5. Vegetation Communities Within Area Grazed by Livestock .................................................. 29 Table 6. Summary of Vegetation Condition and Trend ....................................................................... 31 Table 7. Threatened, Endangered and Sensitive Plants on the Peaks Range Allotment. ..................... 35 Table 8. Noxious or invasive weed species occurring within the allotment ........................................ 40 Table 9. List of Sensitive species or habitat on the Peaks Grazing Allotment .................................... 43 Table 10. Management Indicator Species within the allotment with their indicator habitats and forest trends. ........................................................................................................................................... 54 Table 11. Economic effects for Coconino County ................................................................................ 65 Table 12. Investment Analysis ............................................................................................................. 66 Table 13. Estimated Gross Annual Revenue ........................................................................................ 66 Environmental Assessment for the Peaks Allotment Coconino National Forest iii Chapter 1 – Purpose and Need Chapter 1 – Purpose and Need Document Structure The Forest Service has prepared this Environmental Assessment in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other relevant federal and state laws and regulations. This Environmental Assessment discloses the direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental impacts that would result from the proposed action and alternatives. Federal actions such as the authorization of grazing must be analyzed to determine potential environmental consequences pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and the Rescission Act (P.L 104-19, 1995). The Council on Environmental Quality regulations define an environmental assessment as a “concise public document” that “shall include brief discussions” of the need for the proposal, alternatives to the proposal, discussion of environmental effects based on the substantive issues, and a listing of agencies and persons consulted (40 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] 1508.9). In order to meet the intent of the regulations with respect to “concise” and “brief”, the text of this environmental assessment will contain references to the contents of the analysis record whenever possible. Supporting documentation, including more detailed analyses of project-area resources, may be found in the project planning record located at the Peaks Ranger Station in Flagstaff, Arizona. The document is organized into the following chapters: Purpose and Need: The section includes information on the history of the project proposal, the purpose of and need for the project, and the agency’s proposal for achieving that purpose and need. This section also details how the Forest Service informed the public and the permittee of the proposal and how the public responded. Alternatives: This section provides a more detailed description of the agency’s proposed action for achieving