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.

Hazardous Fuel Reduction: Reduce hazardous fuel loading along roadways around the 77 Flat area to mitigate wildfire risk.

Strategic Fuel Breaks & Fire Management: Create targeted fuel breaks to protect identified values at risk from naturally occurring wildfires and enable the future use of natural fire as a management tool.

Wildlife Habitat Enhancement: Improve habitat for species including Elk, Mule Deer, Northern Goshawk, Western Toad, and Cutthroat Trout. Mastication will prepare the area for treatments like prescribed fire, which benefits local wildlife populations. The wildlife tracker was reviewed and the project area is identified as a mule deer migration route (red-indicating high concentration of gps points, meaning high use, frequent movement, or stopover areas), and crucial elk habitat.

Watershed Protection: Improve watershed resiliency through hazardous fuel reduction efforts designed to minimize soil and water impacts typically associated with large-scale wildfires.

Grazing Area Improvement: Enhance domestic livestock grazing conditions by reducing fuel accumulation on the forest floor.

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.

Why Here?
The project is justified by the moderately to significantly altered species composition and structure of the area, largely driven by a lack of historical logging and extensive beetle mortality.

Fire Regime Condition Classes (FRCC) 2 and 3: A 2006 Forest Service analysis indicates that most of the project area falls into these high-risk categories. These classes represent significant deviations (up to 80%) from the natural, historical fire cycles that used to maintain ecosystem health.

Missed Fire Intervals: The area has missed one or more regular fire intervals, leading to an unnatural accumulation of hazardous fuels - both living and dead vegetation.
 
Moderately Altered Ecosystem: This situation has resulted in a forest that no longer responds to fire naturally and is primed for catastrophic burns.

The Utah Wildfire Risk Explorer was used to look at wildfire hazard conditions within the project area. The area has a category of "HIGH" risk potential. High risk means that fires start easily and spread rapidly.

Why Now?
The current state of the fuel loading is too dangerous to simply allow fire (prescribed or natural) to occur without prior mitigation. The immediate risk necessitates mechanical treatments (mastication/thinning) to first alter the fuel bed characteristics. 
Once the fuel break is in place, the area then can safely support the introduction of prescribed fire or managed natural fire, restoring ecological balance and reducing the long-term risk to the vegetation communities.

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.

Presidential Executive Order 13855 12/2018 
Sec 2 (ii) The Secretary of Agriculture shall review the Secretary's budget justifications and give all due consideration to establishing the following objectives for 2019, as feasible and appropriate in light of those budget justifications, and consistent with applicable law and available appropriations: 
(A) Treating 3.5 million acres of Department of Agriculture Forest Service lands to reduce fuel load 
(B) Treating 2.2 millions acres of USDA FS lands to protect water quality and mitigate sever flooding and erosion risk arising from forest fires. 
Sec 6: Collaborative Partnerships. To reduce fuel loads, restore watersheds, and improve forest, rangeland, and other Federal land conditions, and to utilize available expertise and efficiently deploy resources, the secretaries shall expand collaboration with States, tribes, communities, non-profit organizations, and private sector. Such expanded collaboration by the secretaries shall at minimum address: (b) Achieving the land management restoration goals set forth in section 2 of this order and reducing fuel loads by pursuing long-term stewardship contracts, including 20-year contracts, with States, tribes, non-profit organizations, communities, and the private sector, consistent with applicable law.

Ashley National Forest Forest Plan Amendment 16 (Fire Ecology/Management) (May 2001) Fuels-Reduce Hazardous Fuels. The full range of fuel reduction methods is authorized, consistent with forest and management area emphasis and direction.

Agreement for Shared Stewardship between the State of Utah and the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. 
*Using all available tools for active management. The States and the Forest Service will use every available authority and tool to do more work on the ground, including timber sales, mechanical treatments, prescribed fire, hazardous fuels reduction, long-term stewardship contracts, innovative wood-product utilization, carefully managing fire, and working with partners.

Utah Wildlife Action Plan 2025
Under the plan "Inappropriate Fire Frequency and Intensity" has been listed as a threat to many species. The proposed project falls under the conservation actions to address the threat by reducing fuels and distributing of vegetation classes in susceptible habitats becoming more similar to their natural distribution.

Utah Elk Statewide Management Plan Strategies: 
B. Habitat Management 
a) Coordinate with land management agencies and private landowners to properly manage and improve elk habitat, especially calving and wintering areas. 
C. Watershed Restoration Initiative: 
a) Increase forage production by annually treating a minimum of 40,000 acres of elk habitat. B) Coordinate with land management agencies, conservation organizations, private landowners, and local leaders through the regional WRI working groups to identify and prioritize elk habitats that are in need of enhancement or restoration. 
ii) Encourage land managers to manage portions of forests in early succession stages through the use of controlled burning or logging. Controlled burning should only be used in areas with minimal invasive weeds and/or safety concerns. 
iii) Promote let-burn policies in appropriate areas that will benefit elk, and conduct reseeding efforts post wildfire. 
Elk Herd Unit Management Plan -- Elk Herd Unit #9A Yellowstone -- Objective -- Reinstitute a natural fire interval in the conifer zone to improve elk habitat.

Utah Mule Deer Statewide Management Plan 
Habitat Objective 2: Improve the quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a minimum of 500,000 acres of crucial ranges by 2019. 
Strategies: 
b) Work with land management agencies, conservation organizations, private landowners, and local leaders through the regional WRI working groups to identify and prioritize mule deer habitats that are in need of enhancement or restoration. 
f) Seek opportunities through the WRI to improve aspen communities that provide crucial summer habitat for mule deer. 
Deer Herd Unit Management Plan-Deer Herd Unit #9 Yellowstone-- Objective -Preserve, protect and/or acquire critical winter range when the opportunity arises, Strategy -- Protect deer winter ranges from wildfire by creating fuel breaks.

Utah Moose Statewide Management Plan-Help to improve transient habitat by removing coniferous trees and converting habitat back to early seral stages by using fire.

Duchesne County General Plan-- State of Utah Catastrophic Wildfire Reduction Strategy -- Identifying the gaps between the existing conditions and the desired conditions. Addressing the underlying problem of improving forest, range, watershed, and ecosystem health.

Ashley's Land and Resource Management Plan: 
Riparian Objective #1 -- Maintain or improve riparian areas and riparian dependent resource values including wildlife, fish, vegetation, watershed, and recreation in a stable or upward trend. Manage for species diversity. (p. IV-45 and 46) *Maintain natural complexity and high relative productivity of riparian areas. *Riparian areas will be given a high priority for rehabilitation in range improvement, fish and wildlife improvement, watershed restoration, road maintenance, and KV programs. 
Riparian Objective #1 -- Maintain or improve riparian areas and riparian dependent resource values including wildlife, fish, vegetation, watershed, and recreation in a stable or upward trend. Manage for species diversity. (p. IV-45 and 46) *Maintain natural complexity and high relative productivity of riparian areas. *Riparian areas will be given a high priority for rehabilitation in range improvement, fish and wildlife improvement, watershed restoration, road maintenance, and KV programs.

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Colorado River Cutthroat Trout Conservation Strategy -- Objective 4 -- Secure and enhance watershed conditions, Utah Strategy 4.1: Explore whether restoration techniques are applicable in degraded watersheds that have not experienced fire.

CRCT Task Force. 2001. Conservation agreement and strategy for Colorado River cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki pleuriticus) in the States of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Colorado Divison of Wildlife, Fort Collins. 87p.

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.

Reduce Stand-Replacing Wildfire Potential: The goal is to lessen the likelihood of extreme, stand-replacing wildfires that devastate the landscape.

Dense Fuel Loading: The project specifically targets areas characterized by excessive fuel accumulation, including dense standing trees and significant dead and down litter on the forest floor.

Historical Departures: Analysis of the Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) reveals a critical departure from historical normal fire return intervals. This project aims to bring the area back toward a more natural, resilient fire regime.

Protect Values at Risk: A key objective is to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire to considerable values at risk within and around the project area, protecting communities and infrastructure.

Management Opportunities: By proactively reducing existing hazardous fuels, the project aims to increase future opportunities for utilizing naturally or prescribed wildfire as a beneficial, safe, and effective land management tool.

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.

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.