Project Details

Fuel Trailer Executive Summary
The Central Area UTFFSL Fuels Program has the need to purchase a DOT approved split tanked fuel trailer capable of hauling 1,100 total gallons of fuel (Diesel/Ethanol free unleaded) to remote locations on the forest.  This amount of fuel is needed to be staged and used to complete planned prescribed fire projects. The trailer will be utilized to support both heli-torch and terra torch ignition operations that require large amounts of fuel onsite. We expect this trailer to get 20-30 days of use per year for the next 10-15+ years on the Fishlake NF & FFSL Adjacent Private Lands and we also anticipate that this trailer will be utilized on neighboring Dixie and Manti-LaSal NFs, and BLM Color County to support their prescribed burns as well.
This trailer will be pulled on mountainous terrain utilizing improved Forest dirt road systems by CDL A class Drivers with Hazmat Endorsements.  Vehicles that will be towing this trailer include two Ford F-350 Super duty diesel trucks with SRW and a F-450 Super duty truck with DRW. 
Purpose and Need
There are many parts of a puzzle so to speak, that all need to fit together to be able to begin implementation of a helitorch burn.  1)Burn prescription (Burn windows) 2) Helicopter availability, 3) Helitorch Module personnel availability, 4) Holding Resources availability, and 5) Fuel Truck availability.  Each one of these puzzle pieces must be in place or the burn may need to be cancelled. The biggest issue that continues to threaten to postpone or cancel heli-torch burns is the lack of fuel...yes, the lack of fuel, not helicopter availability, or other resource availability, but lack of large quantities of fuel being available onsite.  This is a continuous problem that we have been facing for several years and there are currently no other solutions out there to remedy this.
The overall purpose of this fuel trailer is to give FFSL and Partnering Fuels Programs the capability to have 1,100 gallons of fuel (800 gallons Diesel/300 gallons Ethanol Free Unleaded) staged onsite during prescribed burning activities.  The trailer is needed to support both heli-torch and terra torch ignition operations that both require large amounts of fuel.  The 800/300 gallon proportionally split tank is the appropriate ratio of diesel and unleaded required to most efficiently support a helitorch flash 21 gelled fuel mix.  Each barrel/helitorch holds 50 gallons of gelled fuel mix and common practice is to have two helicopters with two heli-torches completing ignitions in tandem.  Each barrel on average takes 20-30 minutes to empty and on average our prescribed burns have been utilizing 17-20 barrels per day which equates to 950-1,100 gallons of fuel used per day. This trailer is also needed to support three terra-torches that are owned and regularly used on the Fishlake NF and UTFFSL.  The Terra-torches hold 50-75 gallons of fuel in each.  These terra-torches may be run individually or in tandem depending on burn objectives.  Each terra torch on average takes 20-30 minutes to empty on average, and our prescribed burns have been utilizing 4-6 tanks per day that equates to 200-300 gallons of fuel used per day.  The use of this small amount is usually because we run out of fuel by using everything that we brought up in bed mounted 100-gallon transfer tanks in 2-3 separate trucks. 
In the past FFSL would contract a fuel tender through a local provider that possess a state contract. When ordered there is a list of reasons why they cannot provide us with fuel. From unavailable drivers to not wanting their delivery trucks on rough mountain roads. The truck driver shortage hurts us here as well providers like their employees to be with their families, at the current time drivers are pulling 60-hour weeks without the burden of providing us fuel.  FFSL will get a great burn window on a weekend and drivers or tucks are unavailable. We pay approximately a $1000.00 per day for just the service. This is a $1,000.00 per day savings, with 27 -- 30 days of use each year this trailer will pay for itself in 1-2 years' time. 
The issue is again...fuel truck availability due to having only one vendor available for the state to purchase from.  With this lack of available fuel truck vendors, we recently had to resort to having several individual drivers each drive a separate truck each equipped with a 100 gallon transfer fuel tank just so we could carry out the heli-torch burn, and we still did not have enough fuel to complete the burn and the ignitions were cut short on two different days.  On both days we had two helicopters available to us and were paying their daily availability but could not keep them flying because of the fuel shortage, this led to not being able to complete all planned ignitions with an increased overall cost/acre to implement.  Having to drive several separate trucks, with several separate drivers in each for upwards of 150-200 miles round trip also increased exposure to hazards associated with driving.  
In total the FFSL and Partners are using upwards of 1,000-1,500 gallons of fuel per day while supporting a heli-torch and terra-torch ignition operation.  We have been currently stationing 800- 1,500 gallons of burn fuel onsite at the burn for approx. 20-30 days per year just on FSFSL private and the Richfield Ranger District. We have been somewhat accomplishing this by a mix of the following 1) Utilizing State Purchasing with approved fuel truck vendor when available, 2) Multiple transfer tanks of 100 gallons mounted in multiple truck beds, 3) Borrowing a 600-gallon BLM fuel tanked trailer.
FFSL and partners have numerous prescribed fire projects that will be implemented over the next 10-15+ years.  This trailer will be utilized to implement these projects during this time frame.

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.

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.

UTFFSL, UDWR, USDA Forest Service, BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Wild Turkey Federation,

The wild Turkey Federation has agreed to funding this piece of equipment. The UDWR, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service aid us in planning, funding, and implementation of our projects. FFSL and the Fishlake National Forest are working jointly on prescribed fires that border State, Private, and Federal lands. Our current project that is in the middle of implementation is the Old Woman Rx. This is a 16,094 acre burn consisting of 3,988 acres of Private and 12,106 acres of USFS lands. This first of its kind in scale RX and is the first of many, due to the fact its hard to stop fire on fence lines. Future Joint projects are additions to the USFS Signal Peak burn (10,000 acres total) and approximately 1,800 acres of private and the new Monroe Peak RX (25,000 acres total) with 2,000 acres of private. We hope to greatly improve on our targets over the next 5 - 10 years. Multi Jurisdictional burning is our future in Central Utah. FFSL has a solo project in the works on the San Pitch Mountain Range in Central Utah. This project "San Pitch RX" is 10,684 acres of mostly private lands with scattered state and BLM inholdings. This project we plan to implement over the next 2-3 years depending on funding and weather. This project has been one of my better projects due to the willingness of land owners to participate with funding, resources, and their support of the project. This doesn't discount any of the other land owners we have worked with, these folks have just went above and beyond. FFSL also aids the Manti LaSal and plans to do new cross boundary projects with them in the future as well. Color Country BLM's burn program is just getting started with more to come in the future. Part of San Pitch is on BLM ground. The BLM is looking to do more with prescribed fire in the future and we want to help them grow with this piece of equipment. Right now Central Utah FFSL is setting a 5000 acre per year goal on private lands. Last year we burned roughly  2500 acres on Old Woman and 400+ acres of River Bottoms in Millard County and 100 acres of Bicknell Bottoms for the UDWR in Wayne County. The Central Area FFSL has plans of aiding the Manti LaSal folks with their burns as well. The FFSL has aided them the last few years with people and fuel support through state contracting and the good neighbor program. 
Future targets:
Fishlake 15k acres per year
Manti LaSal 7k acres per year
FFSL 5k acres per year
BLM nothing substantial yet.

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.