United States Department of Agriculture Upper Trinity River Forest Service Watershed Analysis Shasta-Trinity National Forest March 2005 Including Watershed Analysis for: Main Trinity River Watershed Coffee Creek Watershed East Fork Trinity River Watershed Stuart Fork Watershed Trinity Reservoir Watershed Granite Peak and the Trinity Alps, looking north into the Upper Trinity River Watershed. 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, and 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). 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Upper Trinity River Watershed Analysis Upper Trinity River Watershed Analysis Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Characterization of the Watershed ............................................................. 3 The Trinity River Sub-Basin....................................................................................................... 3 Watershed Setting of the Upper Trinity River ............................................................................ 5 Watershed Setting of the Main Trinity River.............................................................................. 6 Watershed Setting of Coffee Creek............................................................................................. 6 Watershed Setting of the East Fork Trinity River....................................................................... 6 Watershed Setting of Stuart Fork................................................................................................6 Watershed Setting of Trinity Reservoir ...................................................................................... 7 Land Allocations and Prescriptions for the Upper Trinity River Watershed .............................. 7 Chapter 2: Identification of Issues and Key Questions............................................. 11 Issue: Vegetation Management................................................................................................. 11 Issue: Port Orford Cedar Protection.......................................................................................... 11 Issue: Fire Protection and Fuels Management .......................................................................... 12 Issue: Watershed Condition ......................................................................................................12 Chapter 3: Current Conditions..................................................................................... 15 Vegetation Management ...........................................................................................................15 Port Orford Cedar...................................................................................................................... 20 Fire and Fuels............................................................................................................................ 22 Watershed Conditions............................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 4: Reference Conditions ................................................................................ 49 Vegetation Management ...........................................................................................................49 Fire and Fuels............................................................................................................................ 50 Watershed Condition................................................................................................................. 52 Chapter 5: Interpretations ............................................................................................ 55 Vegetation Management ...........................................................................................................55 Port Orford Cedar...................................................................................................................... 57 Fire and Fuels............................................................................................................................ 58 Watershed Condition................................................................................................................. 59 Chapter 6: Management Opportunities....................................................................... 63 Vegetation Management ...........................................................................................................63 Port Orford Cedar...................................................................................................................... 64 Fire and Fuels............................................................................................................................ 65 Watershed Condition................................................................................................................. 66 References..................................................................................................................... 69 Shasta-Trinity National Forest - i Upper Trinity River Watershed Analysis Appendix A: HUC 6 and HUC 7 Watersheds in the Upper Trinity River Basin........ 73 Main Trinity River (1801021101)............................................................................................. 73 Coffee Creek (1801021102)...................................................................................................... 74 East Fork Trinity River (1801021103)...................................................................................... 75 Stuart Fork (1801021104)......................................................................................................... 76 Trinity Reservoir (1801021105) ............................................................................................... 77 Appendix B: Road Density and Cumulative Risk Rating for 7th Field Watersheds in the Upper Trinity River Basin .................................................................................. 79 ii – Table of Contents Upper Trinity River Watershed Analysis Introduction The watershed analyses for the five 5th field watersheds in the Upper Trinity River provide a broad, landscape-scale evaluation of the watersheds that allow public, private, and government agencies to plan for future management of resources at a project level scale. Wherever possible the document has been arranged in a manner that will allow the five individual watersheds to be evaluated separately. This watershed analysis can be considered one step of an iterative process for developing our knowledge about the physical and ecological conditions and processes that occur within the Upper Trinity River ecosystem. Existing conditions are compared with historic conditions to evaluate impacts, describe trends and infer the possible causes of change through time. Not all resources or possible issues have been addressed in this iteration of watershed analysis. The scope of the time scale evaluated has also been limited to ten years. As such the opportunities that have resulted from this analysis should be adequate to provide sufficient direction to land managers as to the highest priority work needed in the next decade. This analysis should be amended in the future as new information from surveys, inventories, monitoring reports, and other analyses are made available; or if other issues beyond the ones covered are being addressed. New information may describe impacts from natural events and/or management activities, and compare those impacts against baseline conditions described herein. In response to the new information and analyses, future additions to this watershed analysis will also enable adaptive management of watershed activities and conditions. The Upper Trinity River Watershed Analysis followed the six-step process of analysis as described in the Ecosystem Analysis at the Watershed Scale - Federal Guide for Watershed Analysis, version 2.2 (Regional Interagency Executive Committee 1995). The six-step process ensures that the watershed analysis will include the following: • A characterization of the watershed that identifies the dominant physical, biological, and human processes and features of the watershed that affect ecosystem functions and conditions; • A description of issues and key questions regarding issues most relevant to natural resource management in the watershed; • A description of the current range, distribution, and condition of ecosystem elements in the watershed; • A description of how these ecosystem elements have changed through time as a result of human influence and natural disturbances; • A synthesis and interpretation of information which compares existing and reference conditions of specific ecosystem elements and explains significant differences, similarities, trends and causes;