CHATTAHOOCHEE-OCONEE NATIONAL FORESTS CHAPTER 3 AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES INTRODUCTION PURPOSE AND ORGANIZATION The purpose of Chapter 3 is to present before and after views of the Forest environment. The environment is described as it is currently and as it would be if the alternatives were implemented. The Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences disclosures are required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which implements regulation under 40 CFR 1500. Each resource is first described by its current condition. These descriptions are limited to the background information necessary for understanding how forest plan alternatives may affect the resource. The resources listed and their sub-headings are designed to address issues raised throughout the planning process. After each discussion of the current condition of a resource, the potential effects (environmental consequences) associated with implementation of each alternative are discussed. All significant or potentially significant effects — including direct, indirect, and cumulative effects — are disclosed. Where possible, the effects are quantified. Where this is not possible, a qualitative discussion is presented. Environmental consequences related to the significant issues are discussed in the short and long term. Although a Forest Plan based on any alternative would guide management for 10 to 15 years, the longer term implications of implementing an alternative must be considered. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT AREAS The Southern Appalachian Assessment (SAA) is a collaborative effort among Federal agencies, state agencies, universities, special interest groups and private citizens. Due to the relationship of the national forests and other Federal lands to the biological, social, and economic conditions in the assessment area, more comprehensive and more scientifically credible data were needed for land FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT 3-1 CHAPTER 3 CHATTAHOOCHEE-OCONEE NATIONAL FORESTS management planning. The assessment supports individual forest plans at a regional level by determining how the lands, resources, people, and management of national forests interrelate within the larger context of the surrounding lands. This information serves as a baseline for some of the analysis documented in this chapter. Management areas are defined as watersheds. The watershed management areas (WSMAs) are much smaller than the broader area included in the SAA. They are 5th level watershed designations, which on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, average about 25,000 acres each. Most represent the headwaters of larger streams that flow from the Forests into much larger streams in the Southern Appalachian region. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AREAS AND MANAGEMENT PRESCRIPTIONS The WSMAs do not have any unique direction that is not already available in the plan. They are being used strictly as areas that provide a “sense of place,” as well as presenting additional information related to objectives and management prescription (MRx) allocation. They generally will be utilized as boundaries for project level cumulative effects analysis and activities. Management prescriptions are not limited to individual WSMAs; they generally apply to landscapes that cross numerous management areas. Some MRxs may actually fall entirely within a WSMA, but would not necessarily be tied directly to that WSMA. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROGRAMMATIC AND SITE-SPECIFIC ANALYSIS For estimating the effects of alternatives at the programmatic Forest Plan level, the assumption has been made that the kinds of resource management activities allowed under the prescriptions will, in fact, occur to the extent necessary to achieve the goals and objectives of each alternative. However, the actual location, design, and extent of such activities are generally not known at this time. Those will be site- specific (project-by-project) decisions. Thus, the discussions here refer to the potential for the effect to occur, realizing that in many cases, these are only estimates. The effects analysis is useful in comparing and evaluating alternatives on a Forestwide basis, but is not to be applied to specific locations on the Forests. TYPES OF EFFECTS Environmental consequences are the effects of implementing an alternative on the physical, social, and economic environment. Direct environmental effects are defined as those occurring at the same time and place as the initial action. Indirect effects are those that occur later than the action or are spatially removed from the activity, but would be significant in the foreseeable future. Cumulative effects result from the incremental effects of actions added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable actions, regardless of what agency (federal or non-federal) or person undertakes the other actions. Cumulative effects can result from individually minor, but collectively significant, actions taking place over a period of time. 3-2 FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT CHATTAHOOCHEE-OCONEE NATIONAL FORESTS CHAPTER 3 PHYSICAL ELEMENTS The physical environment is the non-living portion of the environment upon which the living organisms depend – air, soil, water, geology, and climate. This section begins with a description of the ecological classification of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests. Ecological classification is a system which classifies land and water at various scales through integrating information about climate, geology, landform, soils, water, and vegetation. This classification is a tool to provide a more ecological and scientific basis in land and resource management planning. Ecological classification is useful for: • Evaluating the inherent capability of land and water resources. • Predicting changes occurring over time. • Evaluating effects of management. • Allocating land to management areas. • Selecting appropriate management indicators. • Discussing and analyzing ecosystems and biodiversity at multiple scales. DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICAL UNITS In 1992, the Forest Service issued a commitment to using an ecological approach to managing the National Forests and Grasslands of the United States. This concept, termed ecosystem management, focuses on blending the needs of people with management that will sustain forest ecosystems (Robertson, 1992). A key point of this directive from the Chief of the Forest Service, Dale Robertson, was to use ecosystem management to better understand the complex ecosystems that occur on national forests. A critical first step in planning the ecosystem management concept was the development of a consistent approach to ecosystem classification and mapping (McNab and Avers, 1994). As a result, the National Ecological Classification and Mapping Task Team (ECOMAP, 1993) were chartered to develop a consistent approach for classifying ecological units at multiple geographic scales. Land classification is the process of arranging or ordering information about land units so one can better understand their similarities and relationships (Bailey et al. 1978). Ecological classification is a system by which land and water at various scales are classified and stratified through integrating information about geology, landform, soils, water, vegetation, and climate. These classifications represent homogenous units having similarities among their resource capabilities and relationships. The National Hierarchical Framework of Ecological Units was developed and adopted in November 1993 by the Forest Service as a system to classify and map terrestrial ecological units at multiple geographic scales. Table 3- 1 displays the National Framework units. FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT 3-3 CHAPTER 3 CHATTAHOOCHEE-OCONEE NATIONAL FORESTS Table 3- 1. Forest Service National Hierarchy of Ecological Units Planning and Ecological Units Purpose, Objectives, and General Size Analysis Scale General Use Range Ecoregions Global Domain Broad application for modeling Millions to tens -------------------- and sampling, strategic of thousands of Continental Division planning and assessment square miles -------------------- Regional Province Subregions Section Strategic, multi-forest, Thousands to ------------------- statewide, and multi-agency tens of thousands Subsection analysis and assessment of square miles Landscape Landtype Association Forest, area wide planning Thousands to and watershed analysis hundreds of acres Land Unit Landtype Project and management Hundreds to less ------------------- area planning and analysis than 10 acres Landtype Phase Source: ECOMAP, 1993 ECOMAP (1993) briefly describes the framework: a regionalization, classification and mapping system for stratifying the Earth into progressively smaller areas of increasingly uniform ecological potentials. Ecological types are classified and ecological units are mapped based on associations of those biotic and environmental factors that directly affect and indirectly express energy, moisture, and nutrient gradients that regulate the structure and function of ecosystems. These factors include climate, physiography, water, soils, air, and potential natural communities. The national hierarchy is comprised of four planning and analysis scales: ecoregions, subregions, landscape and land units. The scales are further divided into domains, divisions, provinces, sections, subsections, landtype associations, landtypes and landtype phases. A description of the ecological units from the Domain