Project Details

The treatment is designed to reduce pinyon/juniper density in sagebrush and shrub land openings to restore winter and transition range habitat for Mule Deer and Rocky Mountain Elk and stimulate decadent sagebrush.  Pinyon/juniper and decadent sagebrush are the targeted species for treatment; however, other small conifers may be treated if they fall within the guidelines of the prescription.  Some of the serviceberry and other shrub species are too tall and unavailable as browse for Mule Deer and Rocky Mountain Elk.  The proposed treatment would provide improved winter range for deer and elk by reducing the height of this brush and stimulate sprouting.
Pinyon Pine, Utah Juniper and Rocky Mountain Juniper have encroached upon sagebrush ecosystems in the western United States making these ecosystems vulnerable to large stand replacing fires that are expensive and dangerous to control. Across the West junipers have expanded their historical range since European settlement, especially into sagebrush-grass communities below areas of traditional pinyon/juniper. Overgrazing, fire suppression, and climatic change have been identified as potential facilitators of juniper invasion. In the absence of fire or other disturbances, trees eventually dominate the site and crowd out herbaceous and shrub species.
In Utah, junipers have been observed to invade sagebrush stands under certain conditions. pinyon pine encroachment generally follows and has a tendency to replace juniper. pinyon/Juniper may encroach into grasslands that have been overused or disturbed in some manner, as juniper germination and establishment are favored by mineral soil. Rocky Mountain Juniper also has allelopathic properties that can inhibit establishment of competing grasses, forbs, and shrubs.  .
The Mule Deer population during the 2013 winter counts in the state of Utah was estimated at 332,900 animals, which is below the objective of 411,900.  The mule deer population on the Manti division was estimated at 23,500 animals, which is below the objective of 38,000.  The elk population on the Manti- La Sal National Forest is estimated at 12,300, which are 300 animals above the objective of 12,000.  Removal of pinyon in Mule Deer and elk winter range is expected to increase sagebrush and perennial forbs available for these species.
Sage grouse are generally found where there are large tracts of sagebrush habitat with a diverse and substantial understory of native grasses and forbs or in areas where there is a mosaic of sage brush, grasslands, and aspen.  Wet meadows, springs, seeps, or other green areas within sagebrush shrub lands are generally needed for the early brood-rearing period (Connelly et al. 2004).  The project area is within priority sage-grouse habitat although the project area is not known to be occupied by sage grouse.  Removing pinyon/juniper within the project area could help sage grouse expand their occupied habitat.
Treatments would begin in 2015 and are anticipated to be completed by 2020.  Additional maintenance may be required in future years as juniper has a tendency to re-sprout once mechanically treated.  Some reseeding with a native seed mix may take place if it is found necessary by the district specialists.

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.

Vegetation & Fuels:
In Utah, junipers have been observed to invade sagebrush stands under certain conditions.  Pinon encroachment generally follows and has a tendency to replace juniper. Pinon/juniper may encroach into grasslands that have been overused or disturbed in some manner, as juniper germination and establishment are favored by mineral soil. Rocky Mountain juniper also has allelopathic properties that can inhibit establishment of competing grasses, forbs, and shrubs. 
In these historical grassland/sagebrush lands the pinon/juniper are increasing creating a dense continuous canopy layer due to lack of disturbance for several decades. This situation is conducive to large hotter intense fires meaning less opportunity for control. Fires in this vegetation type will likely lead to fire in the other upland vegetation types. This can impact watershed values, vegetative conditions, wildlife habitat, and other resource values if large stand replacing fire events occur.
Watershed:
The project area resides within two 6th order Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) watersheds Ferron Creek and Headwaters Muddy Creek. Based on recent experiences (Seeley and Trail Mountain wildfires), the results of such a fire would likely lead to overland flow, erosion, and debris flows from storm events that would have negative impacts far downstream from the National Forest System lands and municipal watersheds. Additionally, due to the allelopathic properties of juniper most grass and sagebrush is inhibited resulting in bare mineral soil and susceptible to erosion. 
Wildlife Habitat:
Habitat for Mule deer and elk has been drastically reduced due to the encroachment of pinon/juniper limiting desirable browse species. Golden Eagle habitat has been reduced due to closer canopies limiting the availability of hunting ground.

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.

MANTI-LA SAL NATIONAL FOREST LAND AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN (1986)
* Minimize hazards from wildfire (LRMP III-5). Human life (firefighter and public safety) is the highest priority during a fire. Once firefighters have been assigned to a fire, their safety becomes the highest value to be protected. Property and natural and cultural resources are lower priorities (Utah Fire Amendment).
* Maintain a healthy forest by applying appropriate silvicultural treatments (LRMP III-3). The desired condition for this landscape and its component stands provides for healthy stands with varied successional stages of trees and stands (LRMP III-2).
* Reduce hazardous fuels. The full range of fuel reduction methods is authorized, consistent with forest and management area emphasis and direction (III-43).
* Provide an optimum cover:forage ratio for deer and elk habitat (III-19)
* Maintain/improve habitat and habitat diversity for populations of existing wildlife species (III-22)
* Maintain/improve habitat capability through direct treatment of vegetation (III-23)
* Under a proactive approach, manage for diverse forest cover types with strong representation of early seral tree species
STATE OF UTAH FOREST ACTION PLAN
The Dry Wash Project addresses all three of the key goals laid out in the Forest Action Plan
* Conserve and Manage Working Forest Landscapes for Multiple Values and Uses
* Protect Forests from Threats
* Enhance Public Benefits from Trees and Forests
EMERY COUNTY LAND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN
9.3 Air Quality
* The County recognizes that one of the threats to the County's air quality is catastrophic wildfire and encourages agencies to enact programs that allow prescribed burning, forest improvement techniques such as forest thinning, pruning, and removal of brush and insect-killed trees, and other methods for reducing fire hazard that ultimately protects air quality.
9.4 Fire Management, Protection and Prevention
* The condition of some public lands in the County is dangerously overgrown with fire fuels thereby creating a public nuisance, and potential hazard. Agencies must manage these lands in a manner that reduces the fire threat and guards against fire's serious air quality impacts.
* Agencies should work diligently to reduce the threat of wildfire on public lands to protect the County's water resources.
* Reducing forest fuels is a cost-effective fire prevention and protection practice that can lessen the necessity to battle catastrophic wildfires. The County supports active forest thinning and increased timber production that preserves wildlife habitat, minimizes erosion, and does not irreparably harm watersheds and streams.
9.13.2 Water Quality and Quantity
* The County supports land use practices which promote proper ground cover to prevent erosion, The County promotes practices which will decrease the growth of noxious weeds, phreatophytes, and high water-consuming vegetation, and favors practices which increase erosion preventing ground cover.
* Timber harvest, mining, and other surface development shall be controlled to the extent that the exposed ground shall be reseeded with grasses, forbs, shrubs, and tree seedlings to aid the natural re-growth and to protect the watershed.
NATIONAL COHESIVE STRATEGY
By means of prescribed fire and mechanical thinning at a landscape scale, the resulting mosaic of early and late successional forests will work toward the goal of restoring and maintaining resilient landscapes, one of the three goals described in the National Cohesive Strategy.
DEER HERD UNIT MANAGEMENT PLAN Deer Herd Unit # 16 Central Mountains
* Cooperate with land management agencies in carrying out habitat improvements such as controlled burns and thinning
* Management efforts should focus on improving deer habitat and carrying capacity.
* Enhance forage production through direct range improvements throughout the unit on winter range to achieve population management objectives.
* Provide improved habitat security and escapement opportunities for deer.
* Provide a long-term continuing base of habitat quantity and quality sufficient to support the stated population objectives.
STATEWIDE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR MULE DEER (2008)
* Initiate broad scale vegetative treatment projects to improve mule deer habitat with emphasis on drought or fire damaged sagebrush winter ranges, ranges that are being taken over by invasive annual grass species, and ranges being diminished by encroachment of conifers into sagebrush or aspen habitats.
* Continue to support and provide leadership for the Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative, which emphasizes improving sagebrush-steppe, aspen, and riparian habitats across all landownerships.
* Encourage land managers to manage portions of pinyon-juniper woodlands and sagebrush in early successional stages.
UTAH DIVISION OF WILDLIFE RESOURCES STATEWIDE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR MULE DEER
* Maintain mule deer habitat throughout the state by protecting and enhancing existing crucial habitats and mitigating for losses due to natural and human impacts.
* Work with land management agencies and private landowners to identify and properly manage crucial mule deer habitats, especially fawning and wintering areas.
* Improve the quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a minimum of 500,000 acres of crucial range by 2013.
UTAH ELK STATEWIDE MANAGEMENT PLAN (2010)
* Initiate broad scale vegetative treatment projects to improve elk habitat with emphasis on calving habitat and winter ranges.
* Remove pinon/juniper encroachment into winter range sagebrush parks and summer transitional range mountain brush communities.
* Encourage land managers to manage portions of forests in early succession stages through the use of controlled burning and thinning.

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.

In addition to improving the winter range for deer and elk, removing the pinyon and juniper and decadent sagebrush will improve our ability to manage and suppress wildfires in this area. The expected and witnessed flame lengths produced by pinyon and juniper under wildfire conditions are well above the 4 foot threshold that hand crews can initial attack.  Flame lengths generated from young vigorous sagebrush and perennial forbs are generally below four feet which hand crews can initially attack.
Pinyon Pine, Utah Juniper and Rocky Mountain Juniper have encroached upon sagebrush ecosystems in the western United States making these ecosystems vulnerable to large stand replacing fires that are expensive and dangerous to control. Across the West junipers have expanded their historical range since European settlement, especially into sagebrush-grass communities below areas of traditional pinyon/juniper. Overgrazing, fire suppression, and climatic change have been identified as potential facilitators of juniper invasion. In the absence of fire or other disturbances, trees eventually dominate the site and crowd out herbaceous and shrub species.
In 2004, the Manti-La Sal National Forest identified the need for fuels management treatments under the comprehensive strategy of the National Fire Plan.  Fire risk determination is based on a number of factors, including vegetation type, density, and arrangement.  The Fire Regime Condition Class (amount of departure from the natural regime) is moderate (FRCC 2) and the intent of the project is to reduce the FRCC to a 1 or low.

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.

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.

The Dry Wash Wildlife and Fuels Project was analyzed under a Categorical Exclusion under 36 CFR 220.6. Subsequently, the final Decision Memo was signed and made available on September 08, 2015
* Federally listed threatened or endangered species or designated critical habitat, species proposed for Federal listing or proposed critical habitat, or Forest Service sensitive species -- There are no known TES plant or wildlife species that will be adversely affected by the proposed actions.  The project will not affect the viability of any native or desired non-native wildlife species, see attached in the project file BE/BA.
* Flood plains, wetlands, or municipal watersheds -- The project will result in no net loss of wetlands or alter the current floodplain.  The project area is in a culinary watershed but no adverse effects are anticipated, see attached Clean Water Act Worksheet.
* Congressionally designated areas such as wilderness, wilderness study areas, or national recreation areas -- The project is not located within or adject to wilderness, wilderness study area, or national recreation area.
* Inventoried roadless areas or potential wilderness areas -- The proposed project will affect approximately 2,350 acres of the Muddy Creek-Nelson Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area (IRA).  Regional roadless concurrence has been issued for this project.  No roads or temporary roads will be built. 
*Research natural areas -- The project area is not located within or adjacent to any Research Natural Area.
* American Indians and Alaska Native religious or cultural sites -- No known cultural resources will be affected.  Cultural resource surveys have been completed for the proposed project.  Consultation has been conducted with appropriate tribes.  Design features for the management and protection of cultural resources have been included.  Eligible sites will be avoided during ground disturbing activities; therefore, there will be no effect to these sites.  The State Historical Preservation Office (SHPO) was consulted and has concurred with the determination of "No Historic Properties Affected" see the project file for the Archeology reports and Tribal consultation documentation.
*Archaeological sites, or historic properties or areas -- Known sites will be protected through project design in coordination with the Forest Archaeologist (see above paragraph).
*National Forest Management Act of 1976:  The Forest Plan was approved November 5, 1986, as required by this Act, and amended. This long-range land and resource management plan provides guidance for all resource management activities on the Forest. The National Forest Management Act requires all projects and activities to be consistent with the Forest Plan.  The Forest Plan has been reviewed in consideration of this project and i s consistent with the Forest Plan.
*National Environmental Policy Act:  The entirety of documentation for this project supports that the project analysis complies with this Act.
* Environmental Justice:  Based on experience with similar projects on the Ferron-Price and Sanpete Ranger Districts, it is believed that this project will not have any disparate impacts on individual groups of peoples or communities.  Implementation of this project will produce no adverse effects on minorities, low-income individuals, Native Americans or women.  No civil liberties will be affected.
*Clean Water Act: This Act is to restore and maintain the integrity of waters.  The Forest Service complies with this Act through the use of Best Management Practices.  This decision continues to apply applicable Best Management Practices to ensure protection of soil and water resources.
*Endangered Species Act: See "Extraordinary Circumstances" section of this document.  There are "no effects" to threatened or endangered species.

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.