Project Details

The YMCA camp area is in need of vegetation management in order to reduce wildfire WUI concerns, improve safety for thousands of youth campers, restore forest health and function for big game species, increase forage for grazing allotment, and improve watershed conditions. Primary focus is terrestrial and aquatic wildlife and fuels reduction.

* Hazard tree and fuel build-up: spruce beetle outbreaks in large diameter spruce have created nearly complete mortality of the overstory trees in this drainage. This creates a safety hazard from tree fall to camp personnel and youth. Furthermore, once trees have fallen to the forest floor, the increase of fuel will continue to build and worsen potential for high severity fire if an ignition occurs within the drainage. By cutting and removing large hazard trees from the camp perimeter, high severity fire potential can be reduced. Once treatment is complete, much of the surrounding forest around the camp will act as a shaded fuelbreak, improving the ability of fire suppression resources to stop fire from reaching the camp and conducting burnout operations if required.

* Removal of large dead trees and downfall will increase sunlight to the forest floor of understory and increase forage for big game species and improve access to meadow forage areas for livestock grazing.

* Timber sale areas often have large meadows within the forested areas that are grazed by livestock. The amount of grazing in these areas depends largely on the amount of residual trees, the amount of downfall and ease of being able to move through the forested area to more suitable range.  The removal of dead trees will allow greater access to this transitional area, easing movement to adjoning pastures.

* Felled hazard tree removal: Previous cutting of hazard trees in the Riparian Habitat Conservation Areas (RHCAs) and nearby uplands have created a hazardous fuel build-up and degraded in-stream hydrology. In addition to the cutting and removal of standing dead trees, some of the large felled trees would be removed and piled for burning others would be place in stream when beneficial.

Provide evidence about the nature of the problem and the need to address it. Identify the significance of the problem using a variety of data sources. For example, if a habitat restoration project is being proposed to benefit greater sage-grouse, describe the existing plant community characteristics that limit habitat value for greater sage-grouse and identify the changes needed for habitat improvement.

Provide an overall goal for the project and then provide clear, specific and measurable objectives (outcomes) to be accomplished by the proposed actions. If possible, tie to one or more of the public benefits UWRI is providing.

LOCATION: Justify the proposed location of this project over other areas, include publicly scrutinized planning/recovery documents that list this area as a priority, remote sensing modeling that show this area is a good candidate for restoration, wildlife migration information and other data that help justify this project's location.

TIMING: Justify why this project should be implemented at this time. For example, Is the project area at risk of crossing an ecological or other threshold wherein future restoration would become more difficult, cost prohibitive, or even impossible.

* The Upper Provo Management Area is an important area for terrestrial wildlife species because this area provides connectivity to large forested areas on the Wasatch-Cache and Ashley National Forests in the Uinta Mountains. The primary habitat types are aspen forest, conifer forest (primarily spruce/fir), and sagebrush (USDA Forest Service, Unita Forest Plan, 2003, 5-149).
- See: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/uwcnf/landmanagement/planning/?cid=stelprdb5076960&width=full

* Habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and fire intensity and effects are threatening boreal toad populations (UDWR. 2005. Boreal Toad (bufo boreas boreas) Conservation Plan. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, PN# 05-37, Salt Lake City, UT, pp. 12-17).
- See: http://digitallibrary.utah.gov/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=9767

* Elk Herd Unit Management Plan, Unit #17 (Wasatch Mountains, 2016):
Within the next five years, enhance forage production on a minimum of 20,000 acres of
elk habitat, through direct range improvements to maintain population management
objectives.
- See: https://wildlife.utah.gov/hunting-in-utah/hunting-information/big-game/118-hunting/big-game/1965-unit-elk-management-plans.html

* Deer Herd Unit Management Plan- Deer Herd Unit #17 (Wasatch Mountains, 2016):
Cooperate with federal land management agencies and private landowners in carrying out habitat improvement projects. Maintain mule deer habitat throughout the unit by protecting and enhancing existing crucial habitats and mitigating for losses due to natural and human impacts.
- See: https://wildlife.utah.gov/hunting/plans/deer_17.pdf

* Utah Mule Deer Statewide Management Plan (2014)
This project will help address Habitat Objectives 1 & 2: 
- Maintain mule deer habitat throughout the state by protecting and enhancing existing crucial habitats and mitigating for losses due to natural and human impacts.
- Improve the quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a minimum of 500,000 acres of crucial range by 2019. 
- See: https://wildlife.utah.gov/hunting/biggame/pdf/mule_deer_plan.pdf

* Utah Elk Statewide Management Plan (2015)
This project will help address Habitat Objective 1:
- Increase forage production by annually treating a minimum of 40,000 acres of elk
habitat.
- See: https://wildlife.utah.gov/hunting/biggame/pdf/elk_plan.pdf

* Draft Bonneville Cutthroat Trout range-wide conservation agreement and strategy, and monitoring plan (2018, p. 19)
- This project will help mitigate potential threats to BCT from high severity-fire. Forty-three of the occupied sub-watersheds, primarily in the Northern Bonneville, are at high risk for both fire and flood.

* Wasatch County Plan (2001, Chapter 5)
This project will support the local economy by providing opportunities for harvesting forest products shall by selling decked trees removed from the area.
- See: https://www.wasatch.utah.gov/Portals/0/Planning/Pdfs/GeneralPlan/6-ChapterFive2013.pdf

List management plans where this project will address an objective or strategy in the plan. Describe how the project area overlaps the objective or strategy in the plan and the relevance of the project to the successful implementation of those plans. It is best to provide this information in a list format with the description immediately following the plan objective or strategy.

If applicable, detail how the proposed project will significantly reduce the risk of fuel loading and/or continuity of hazardous fuels including the use of fire-wise species in re-seeding operations. Describe the value of any features being protected by reducing the risk of fire. Values may include; communities at risk, permanent infrastructure, municipal watersheds, campgrounds, critical wildlife habitat, etc. Include the size of the area where fuels are being reduced and the distance from the feature(s) at risk.

These vegetation treatments are expected to result in an overall improvement to wildfire resiliency in the watershed and in Riparian Habitat Conservation Areas (RHCA) located in Mill Hollow, in addition to improving stream process and function by removal of large dead fuels (Uinta National Forest Plan, 2003), including:

* Improving conditions so that soil, air, and water resources provide for watershed health, public health and safety, long-term soil productivity, and ecosystem sustainability, and meet applicable laws and regulations (FW-Goal-1, p. 2-1).
* Improving conditions so that biologically diverse, sustainable ecosystems maintain or enhance habitats for native flora and fauna, forest and rangeland health, watershed health, and water quality (FW-Goal-2, p. 2-1).
* Maintaining or improving soil productivity by preventing potential detrimental impacts to soil from severe fire (S&W-1, p. 3-8). 
* Maintaining habitat for aquatic species, including fish, wildlife, and riparian plant communities (S&W-9, p. 3-9).
* Maintaining channel stability and capacity for passing flood (S&W-9, p. 3-9).

Additionally, the treatment will result in an increase in ground cover and a subsequent reduction in erosion potential, improving and protecting water quality. In channel treatments (LWD placement) will benefit the hydrograph by lowering peak flows and extending the duration of the runoff period and increasing bank storage, increasing water quantity during late summer months.

Down-system benefits also include helping Deer Creek Reservoir, a receiving body of Mill Creek drainage waters, reach attainment of goals identified in its 2002 TMDL.

Water Quality will not be impacted during project implementation as BMPs will be utilized to remove, or at least reduce, potential short term impacts.

Describe how the project has the potential to improve water quality and/or increase water quantity, both over the short and long term. Address run-off, erosion, soil infiltration, and flooding, if applicable.

Description of efforts, both completed and planned, to bring the proposed action into compliance with any and all cultural resource, NEPA, ESA, etc. requirements. If compliance is not required enter "not applicable" and explain why not it is not required.

Describe the actions, activities, tasks to be implemented as part of the proposed project; how these activities will be carried out, equipment to be used, when, and by whom.

Describe plans to monitor for project success and achievement of stated objectives. Include details on type of monitoring (vegetation, wildlife, etc.), schedule, assignments and how the results of these monitoring efforts will be reported and/or uploaded to this project page. If needed, upload detailed plans in the "attachments" section.

List any and all partners (agencies, organizations, NGO's, private landowners) that support the proposal and/or have been contacted and included in the planning and design of the proposed project. Describe efforts to gather input and include these agencies, landowners, permitees, sportsman groups, researchers, etc. that may be interested/affected by the proposed project. Partners do not have to provide funding or in-kind services to a project to be listed.

Detail future methods or techniques (including administrative actions) that will be implemented to help in accomplishing the stated objectives and to insure the long term success/stability of the proposed project. This may include: post-treatment grazing rest and/or management plans/changes, wildlife herd/species management plan changes, ranch plans, conservation easements or other permanent protection plans, resource management plans, forest plans, etc.

Potential for the proposed action to improve quality or quantity of sustainable uses such as grazing, timber harvest, biomass utilization, recreation, etc. Grazing improvements may include actions to improve forage availability and/or distribution of livestock.