Shasta-Trinity National Forest North Coast Region Watershed Program Status Prepared for North Coast Water Board Per Requirements of USFS Waiver Order No R1-2010-0029 December 2010 Shasta-Trinity National Forest North Coast Region Watershed Program Status Contents Introduction Purpose and Forest Setting Shasta-Trinity National Forest within North Coast Water Region Section 1 Key Watersheds Section 2 Watershed Assessments Section 3 Watershed Condition Land Management Plan Watersheds of Concern Watershed Disturbance Levels Section 4 Forest Restoration Priorities Section 5 Sediment Source Inventory Status Section 6 Watershed Restoration Plans Legacy work Future Restoration Planning in Progress Appendix A Priority Watersheds Appendix B Showcase of Completed Restoration Projects 2 Introduction Purpose and Forest Setting The Forest’s watershed restoration program focuses on attaining the requirements of the Clean Water Act and Regional Board Basin Plans, but also emphasizes overall watershed health and resilience to possible future climatic extremes, floods and fires. Three focal areas make up the Forest’s restoration program: 1) reducing erosion and sedimentation associated with roads; 2 ) aquatic organism passage; and 3) restoring fire adapted ecosystems. The road improvement work consists of a combination of decommissioning and drainage improvement, making roads better adapted for large storm events. The aquatic organism passage portion of the program promotes organism accessibility to suitable habitats and more natural transport of fluvial ecosystem elements. The fire adapted ecosystem sustainability portion is addressed primarily through fuels and vegetation management programs. The monitoring and reporting requirements of the “Categorical Waiver of Waste Discharge… On Forest Service Lands Order No R1-2010-0029” (June 10, 2010) called for a summary of the key elements of the forests watershed restoration program; these are identification of Key Watersheds, a summary of watershed assessments, a summary of watershed conditions, identification of priority watersheds for restoration, an indication of the status of inventories and restoration implementation plans. Shasta-Trinity National Forest within North Coast Water Region The Shasta-Trinity National Forest is comprised of roughly 2 million acres that lie within two different Water Quality Control Board Regions; the North Coast Region and the Central Valley Regions (see Figure 1.1). There are three sub-basins (4th-field watersheds) that drain the Forest in the North Coast Region; these are Shasta, Trinity and South Fork Trinity River. The Shasta-Trinity National Forest administers roughly 30% of the 7.3 million acres within these subbasins. 3 Figure 1.0 Shasta-Trinity National Forest Watersheds within the North Coast Region 4 SECTION 1 – KEY WATERSHEDS Key Watersheds Key Watersheds provide watershed scale refugia specifically managed for maintaining or recovering habitat for anadromous and resident fish species. These watersheds comprise nearly 40% of USFS lands within the North Coast Water Board Region. There are four Key Watershed Areas on the Shasta- Trinity National Forest that are designated in the Northwest Forest Plan; these are New River, North Fork Trinity River, Canyon Creek and SF Trinity River. Each key area is equivalent to a 5th-field watershed with the exception of South Fork Trinity River which is comprised of two 5th-field watersheds, Upper SF Trinity River and Middle South Fork Trinity River. Management activities focus on restoration and minimizing impacts from roads, with no new roads to be constructed in roadless areas and an overall reduction in existing road mileage. Nonpoint source activities in Key Watersheds receive heightened attention, providing additional water quality protection and improvement. Figure 1.2 Key Watersheds Table 1.1 Shasta-Trinity National Forest Watersheds (& Key Watersheds) Within the North Coast Water Board Region Klamath Basin via Trinity Klamath Basin via Trinity River River Watersheds (HUC5) Watersheds (HUC5) on the on the % USFS Shasta-Trinity National % USFS Shasta-Trinity National Forest Acres Admin Forest Acres Admin Grass Valley-Weaver 567,674 25% Upper Shasta River 314,755 25% Browns Creek 188,503 25% Whitney-Sheep Rock 339,092 33% Canyon Creek 317,613 25% Parks Creek-Shasta River 228,110 25% North Fork Trinity River 389,612 25% Willow Creek 224,666 25% New River 448,094 33% Julien-Shasta River 42,214 0% Burnt Ranch 537,844 25% Little Shasta River 81,473 0% Lower Trinity River 387,873 50% Lower Shasta River 78,839 0% Upper South Fork Trinity River 301,675 33% Main Trinity River 350,985 33% Middle South Fork Trinity River 355,879 33% Coffee Creek 223,938 33% Upper Hayfork Creek 317,298 33% East Fork Trinity River 147,764 50% Lower Hayfork Creek 426,046 33% Stuart Fork 264,493 33% Lower South Fork Trinity River 387,550 33% Trinity Reservoir 317,572 33% Total Watershed Area Key Watersheds 1,812,874 25% Draining From NFS Lands 7,239,563 30% 5 SECTION 2 – WATERSHED ASSESSMENTS Watershed Assessments Watershed Analyses for 5th field watersheds that follow the Federal Guide for Watershed Analysis (Regional Interagency Executive Committee and the Intergovernmental Advisory Committee 1995) are complete over 77% of the watersheds on the forest; 80% of the watersheds in the Trinity River portion of the Klamath Basin is complete and 75% of the watersheds in the Sacramento River portion of the forest. Watershed Analyses are required in the Northwest Forest Plan to conduct activities proposed in Key Watersheds or Riparian Reserves. Copies of these assessments are available to the public online at www.fs.usda.gov/ Links to National Forests by state are available there; after selecting California, then Shasta-Trinity ,a search for “Watershed Assessments” will lead to the Watershed Assessment page (or follow the following hotlink Shasta-Trinity National Forest- Home.) Some of the Watershed Assessments include analyses for more than one watershed and are not necessarily named by watershed. Table 2.1 can be used to determine which documents describe which watersheds and which watersheds remain to be analyzed. Figure 2.1 below displays the status of Watershed Analyses on the forest. Table 2.1 Watershed Analysis Status and Cross walk from Watershed Name to corresponding Watershed Analysis Document ANALYSIS WATERSHED WA NAME ANALYSIS WATERSHED WA NAME BEEGUM CREEK COTTONWOOD CR MIDDLE HAYFORK CREEK M HAYFORK & SALT CR BROWNS CREEK (Incomplete) NORTH FORK TRINITY N. FORK TRINITY RIVER BURNT RANCH SOLDIER BURNT RANCH PLUMMER S. FORK TRINITY RIVER BUTTER CREEK BUTTER CR RAMSHORN U. TRINITY CANYON CREEK NF TRINITY, EFNF TRINITY & CANYON CR RATTLESNAKE CREEK S. FORK TRINITY RIVER CLEAR CREEK U CLEAR CR SALT CREEK M HAYFORK & SALT CR COFFEE CREEK U. TRINITY SHASTA SW (Incomplete) CORRAL CREEK (Incomplete) SHOTGUN-SLATE SHOTGUN-SLATE EAST FORK NEW RIVER NEW RIVER SMOKY S. FORK TRINITY RIVER EAST FORK NORTH FORK TRINITY N. FORK TRINITY RIVER SOLDIER SOLDIER BURNT RANCH EAST FORK SOUTH FORK TRINITY S. FORK TRINITY RIVER SOUTH FORK COTTONWOOD CREEK (Incomplete) EAST FORK TRINITY U. TRINITY STUART FORK U. TRINITY EAST TRINITY RES U. TRINITY SWIFT CREEK U. TRINITY ELTAPOM CREEK (Incomplete) UPPER HAYFORK CREEK U HAYFORK FRENCH FRENCH CREEK UPPER NEW RIVER NEW RIVER HAPPY CAMP S. FORK TRINITY RIVER UPPER PILGRIM (Incomplete) HEADWATERS HEADWATERS SACRAMENTO UPPER SACRAMENTO RIVER MCCLOUD FLATS HIDDEN VALLEY S. FORK TRINITY RIVER UPPER SOUTH FORK TRINITY S. FORK TRINITY RIVER HYAMPOM (Incomplete) UPPER TRINITY U. TRINITY LEWISTON U. TRINITY WEAVERVILLE WEAVERVILLE LOWER HAYFORK LOWER HAYFORK WEST TRINITY RES U. TRINITY LOWER NEW RIVER NEW RIVER WHITNEY (Incomplete) MIDDLE FORK COTTONWOOD COTTONWOOD CR WILLOW-PARKS (Incomplete) 6 Additional concurrent Watershed Assessment methods include the USFS Region 5, Fifth Field Watershed Condition Assessment (R5 USFS 2000) and a new National Watershed Condition Assessment (Oct 2010) that is designed to evaluate watersheds at a sub-watershed or 6th-field scale. The national assessment protocol was recently finalized and is expected to be iterative with initial assessments complete in late spring of 2011. These assessments are intended to evaluate all watersheds on Forest Service lands throughout the entire state and nationwide using a consistent process; by utilizing a consistent approach it is intended to enable better overall program management by improving the Forest Service’s ability to compare restoration priorities throughout the state and nationally. Watershed condition is also assessed routinely in environmental planning analyses that consider past, present and foreseeable future activities to evaluate the potential for off-site cumulative watershed effects. An equivalent roaded acre disturbance model is used for these evaluations; the results of these assessments are displayed in the following section in Figure 3.2 below. 7 Figure 2.1 Watershed Analyses Status, December 2010 8 SECTION 3 – WATERSHED CONDITION Land Management Plan Watersheds of Concern Watersheds of concern designated in the Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP)( USDA 1994) are Hyampom, Butter Creek, Plummer Creek, Rattlesnake Creek and East Fork South Fork Trinity River; all lie within the South Fork Trinity River Subbasin. Figure 3.1 Shasta-Trinity LRMP Watersheds of Concern Excessive sedimentation within the South Fork Trinity River is being addressed thru the TMDL for South Fork Trinity River and Hayfork Creek (EPA 1998) which