Project Details

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.

The main objective of this project will be to treat at least 2000 acres on the North Zone of the Manti-La Sal National Forest utilizing prescribed fire.  Four prescribed fire projects have been combined into this project to increase the chances of being able to find an appropriate burn window to meet the 2000 acre objective.  These 4 projects vary in fuel types, elevations, and aspects which should increase chances of obtaining required fuel and weather parameters.

Objectives of the Trail Mountain RX are to enhance wildlife habitat, improve watershed health, and stimulate aspen regeneration.  Fire will be introduced into late seral conifer stands over approximately 3,550 acres.  Burning will be conducted at moderate to high intensties within these stands to stimulate aspen response and create mosaic of aspen age classes.

Objectives of the Pines RX is to maintain healthy ponderosa stands within the 6,000 acre project area.  Most of the area has previously undergone some ponderosa under-story burning and is coming up on return interval of 5-10 years to return area to desired FRCC and maintain overall stand health.

Objective of the Swasey RX is to return areas with ponderosa pine to return fire interval of approximately 15 years.  Most of the area has undergone some mastication to reduce juniper encroachment.  Post MX light prescribed burning will be conducted on approximately 40% of the project area at 3-5 year intervals to reduce hazardous fuel loading and bring area back to desired FRCC.

Objective of the Middle Mountain RX is to return areas with ponderosa pine to return fire interval of approximately 15 years.  Most of the area has undergone some hand treatment and initial light under-story burning.  Additional light under-story burning at 7-15 year interval will be conducted to return area to desire FRCC.

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.

Stands historically dominated by aspen are declining and are being dominated by late seral conifer trees (Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, and Douglas-fir).  Aspen stands provide valuable biodiversity, wildlife habitat and forage, and resistance and resiliency to severe wildland fire.  Unless the succession is set back to early seral (young) aspen stands and conifer tree competition is removed, some areas of aspen may be lost for wildlife & watershed benefit.  Dense conifer stands are susceptible to severe stand-replacing fire, particularly in conjunction with climate change (drought and increasing temperatures). This can impact watershed values, vegetative conditions, wildlife habitat, and other resource values if large stand replacing fire events occur.  Loss of aspen and increase in conifers in this landscape could result in loss of valuable nesting and forage habitat for northern goshawk, as well as habitat for elk, mule deer, and other species.

Native ponderosa pine stands in the Joe's Valley Reservoir area have several basal fire scars. These scars are common on thick-barked stems in old growth ponderosa pine forests.  Uncontrolled fire was common before European colonization.  These surface fires consumed branches, fallen trees, under-story vegetation, and some living trees.  These fires burned mostly at a 5-20 year return intervals.  Low-intensity fire kept many pine forests open and park like.  Removal of fire from these ecosystems has lead to an increased build up of hazardous fuels which may lead to catastrophic fires and damage to overall watershed health. Through prescribed burning, a mosaic of burn conditions will allow for greater biodiversity thus allowing for multiple species benefit.

In 2016 the Southeast Catastrophic fire committee has classified the Joes Valley/Cottonwood Canyon as one of the top priority areas to focus efforts in addressing high fire risk and intensity.  Joes Valley/Cottonwood Canyon ranked high due to the potential impact to wildlife, municipal watershed, and homes in the area.

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)
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
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.  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 aspen/conifer forests 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.  Encourage land managers to manage portions of forests in early succession stages through the use of controlled burning

2015 Utah Wildlife Action Plan (pages 26-28): - Condition - While the Aspen-Conifer physical (abiotic) habitat remains largely intact in Utah, coverage of aspen itself within that setting has declined greatly for two main reasons: (1) departure from natural fire regime (reduction in disturbance), resulting in widespread forest succession to conifer dominance; and (2) heavy ungulate browsing on young aspen stems, following disturbance. - Improving Condition - A good strategy for management may include the following elements: * Increasing disturbance from either prescribed or natural fire. Recent studies have shown that larger scale burns (e.g., 5,000 acres) that burn more intensely have been the most successful in terms of aspen regeneration. Higher-intensity burns stimulate higher numbers of young aspen per unit area, than lower-intensity burns. A larger treatment area distributes ungulate browse pressure, allowing most young aspen stems to reach a safe height. * Applying mechanical disturbance agents such as timber harvest. This can also be used to stimulate aspen regeneration and avoid or reduce resource losses to conifer beetles. As with fire, larger mechanical treatment areas serve to distribute browsing pressure and reduce damage to individual stems, increasing regeneration success. * Monitoring smaller, naturally-occurring or human-created disturbances for ungulate damage, and taking follow-up actions such as fencing, hazing, hunting, and/or domestic grazing management, may be required to prevent or reduce damage caused by domestic, wild, or feral ungulates. * Promoting policies that reduce improper browsing and grazing by domestic livestock and wildlife.

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.

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.

Domestic livestock will benefit from increased recruitment of forage species as a result of decreased dense Spruce/fir stands. Better livestock distribution will also be encouraged due to more widespread grazing opportunity.  Coordination with the Trail Mountain cattle permittees has occurred and mitigations were developed to minimize the impact of domestic ungulates on regenerating aspen. Cattle grazing occurs on approximately 50 percent of the project area due to the lack of surface water. No grazing occurs on the remaining 50 percent of the project area due to vegetation. Elk on the Manti are near objective. There are cow hunts annually to keep the elk population at objective. By creating more open forage areas, elk will be discouraged from congregating in and overusing the current limited areas.  Deer are under objective and increasing forage and habitat quality/quantity will allow for managers to reach objective on the Manti.  The area will continue to be managed under the Forest Plan for its wildlife, recreation, and watershed values, using adaptive management related to livestock and big game and hazardous fuels reduction.  We have observed increased use by mule deer and elk in winter months within days and weeks of treatment through prescribed burning.

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.