Completion Form

2023

From August 31 to October 24, 2020, and June 26 to August 23, 2022, EcoPlan Field Directors John Curry, Katherine Cera, and Tucker Deady, Crew Chiefs Joseph Hall, Tyler Reinholt, and Lydia Rennalls, and crew members Connor Christiansen, Alana Clements, Daniel Miller, Paul Randall, Robert Shinkle, and Emily Wicke, conducted an archaeological survey of the project area to locate and record cultural resources.
Archaeological sites were fully recorded on Utah Archaeology Site Forms (USAFs), and documented with digital photographs of site locations, features, and diagnostic artifacts. Isolated occurrences (IOs) were assigned individual numbers, briefly described, and photographed if diagnostic. Historic linear alignments that maintained their historical fabric were recorded within the project area and outward for a distance of 400 m, if possible, as suggested in the Utah Professional Archaeological Council (UPAC) Linear Sites guidelines (UPAC 2008; see below). A handheld Trimble Geo7X GPS receiver was used to record spatial data for cultural resources and other project elements.

The Skyline Project wildlife surveys has been a multi-year undertaking resulting in thousands of acres surveyed. In the year 2021 we were able to survey utilizing Forest Service crews throughout the summer, surveying 676 call stations and 42,000 acres north of the Fairview canyon road.

For the archaeological survey, the proposed vegetation project requires a focus on both the treatment units themselves, and on access roads to or near the parcels that might be used and possibly need some level of work or improvement to accommodate logging trucks. The treatment units are spread across and within the various canyons that head at the top of the Wasatch Plateau and run generally down to the west into Sanpete Valley. Because most of the treatment units are in canyons, and these canyons tend to be very deep, the majority of the units are on very steep slopes.
Compounding this problem is the fact that most tree stands are very thick with both live trees and deadfall; these, and the typically dense ground vegetation within the tree stands, make it unlikely that survey in these contexts would be effective or efficient, as well as increasing the chance of injury to the field crews. These variables, then, made it necessary to restrict the surveys to areas of higher potential for finding archaeological sites, while at the same time making sure that the units as a group were adequately sampled.
To address these problems, the USFS determined to survey areas within the treatment units where the terrain was slopes of less than 30 percent ("low slope"). From the low slope areas within treatment units, surveys focused on areas with lower vegetation density, either due to a lack of vegetation or through aspen stands, which are generally less dense and ground covered that the coniferous areas within the treatment units. This survey strategy would cover areas with the highest potential for finding cultural resources. Because these survey areas were analyzed through GIS without ground truthing, discretion was given to the contractor to exclude further survey polygons from survey if the slope in reality was over 30 percent or the vegetation too dense. This resulted in the 2,828 acres of survey being dropped from the contract, which are reflected on the survey maps as "unsurveyed parcels." A total of 9,437 acres were intensively surveyed. All areas likely to contain identifiable cultural resources within the treatment areas or access roads for the Sanpete Face Project were adequately surveyed.
In the year 2021 we were able to survey utilizing Forest Service crews throughout the summer, surveying 676 call stations and 42,000 acres north of the Fairview canyon road. In 2022 with the reduction of seasonal forest employees we decided to put the remaining surveys out for contract using the remaining WRI money allocated in 2021. However, due to access concerns, scale of survey acreage, and amount of call stations we were unable to secure a contractor to perform the work.

EcoPlan conducted an intensive pedestrian survey of 9,437 acres in the Manti-La Sal National Forest in advance of proposed ecosystem restoration activities. Those areas were intensively surveyed with transects spaced no more than 15 m apart.
Four previously recorded sites and 77 new sites were documented. Two sites that were previously recorded within the survey area were not relocated. Of the 81 documented sites, nine are recommended as eligible for listing in the NRHP. Seventy-two sites and all 184 IOs are recommended as not eligible for the NRHP under any criterion. EcoPlan could not make eligibility recommendations for the two non-relocated sites. The eligible sites should be avoided or hand treated in a way to avoid potential adverse effect. 
In 2023 using funds from another project we rebid the second round of wildlife surveys. This time did award the contract however, due to the inability of contracting crews to access the project(snow drifts) until the first part of August we were unable to get the contract completed. The contract is still on-going and waiting for the nesting/fledgling period June 1st-August 15th.

Once surveys and NEPA are complete the USFS will begin implementation of mechanical thinning and prescribed burning within the project area.

Nels Rasmussen

10/03/2023 11:49:33