This phase of the project proposes to address conifer encroachment on 10,404 acres of sagebrush capable landscapes. This is phase two of a 40,000 acre focus area on Mytoge and Tidwell Mountains. All of which falls into the Parker Mountain-Emery Sage Grouse Management Area. The proposed treatment areas have active winter, nesting and brood rearing habitat. This proposal directly maintains and increases sage-grouse habitat through addressing the threat of conifer expansion. In order to address this concern and maintain persistent large open sagebrush landscapes, encroaching conifers in phase I and early phase II will be removed. Persistent woodlands will be retained. Lop and scatter will occur where appropriate for the density of encroaching conifers (9,404 acres). Mastication will occur where machine accessibility exists and where bullhog treatments in early phase II can reduce per-acre lop and scatter costs (1,000 acres).

1) Secure existing landscape scale sagebrush habitat for sage-grouse. 2) Create/expand sagebrush habitat for sage-grouse that could be occupied immediately after treatment. 3) Mitigate the threat of conifer expansion into active sage-grouse habitat. 4) Increase available moisture for residual plant species by removing competition from trees. 5) Reduce crown fire potential and fuel loading by decreasing pinyon, juniper, and other conifer cover to less than 5% immediately post treatment.

Conifer encroachment has been identified as one of the primary threats to sage-grouse populations in Utah by the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and the State of Utah. Reducing conifer encroachment addresses, either directly or indirectly, all four of the key sage-grouse threats identified by the Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) Conservation Objectives Final Report (February 2013) for the Greater Parker Mountain sage-grouse population. For convenience, these threats are listed below: 1) Loss or degradation of habitat (primarily due to vegetation succession) 2) Conversion of habitat (sagebrush to pinyon-juniper or cheatgrass at the lower elevations) 3) Increased risk of predation because of expansion of, or changes in, the native predator community in response to anthropogenic factors, and 4) Habitat fragmentation from loss or degradation of habitat that results in a loss of sage-grouse habitat connectivity. This project will address conifer encroachment while in early phases, decreasing the risk of sage-grouse nest and brood mortality and lowering the need for seeding the area post-treatment.

1) Fishlake Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) also referred to as the "forest plan" IV-3. Integrate vegetation management with resource management to maintain productivity and provide for diversity of plant and animal communities. LRMP, IV-3. Coordinate wildlife and fish habitat management with State and other Federal and local agencies. LRMP, IV-4. Identify and improve habitat for sensitive, threatened and endangered species including participation in recovery efforts for both plants and animals. 2) US Forest Service Greater Sage-grouse Utah Amendment, September 2015. Objective: Every 10 years for the next 50 years, improve greater sage-grouse (GRSG) habitat by removing invading conifers. Desired Conditions: In GRSG seasonal habitat, capable of producing sagebrush, has less than 10% conifer canopy cover. Vegetation treatment projects should be conducted if they maintain, restore ore enhance desired conditions for sage-grouse. 3)Parker Mountain Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) Local Conservation Plan, October 1, 2006. 2. Strategy: by 2011, make an assessment of non-desirable/invasive vegetation in sage-grouse habitats. 2.5. Action: Treat areas where undesirable vegetation has become, or is at risk of becoming a factor in sage-grouse habitat loss or fragmentation. 4) Conservation Plan for Greater Sage-grouse in Utah, February 14, 2013. Sage-grouse Management Goal: Protect, maintain, improve and enhance sage-grouse populations and habitats within the established Sage-grouse Management Areas. 2.0.3 Objective 3 - Habitat: Enhance an average of 25,000 acres of sage-grouse habitat in Sage-grouse Management Areas annually. 2.0.4 Objective 4 - Habitat: Increase the total amount of sage-grouse habitat acreage within Sage-grouse Management Areas by an average of 50,000 acres per year, through management actions targeting Opportunity Areas. 5.4.1 Aggressively remove encroaching conifers and other plant species to expand greater sage-grouse habitat where possible. 5)U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) Conservation Objectives: Final Report. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver, CO. February 2013. General Conservation Objectives: 1. Stop population declines and habitat loss. 2. Implement targeted habitat management and restoration. Specific Conservation Objectives: 1. Retain sage-grouse habitats within PAC's. 3. Restore and rehabilitate degraded sage-grouse habitats in PAC's. Conservation Objective: Maintain and restore healthy native sagebrush plant communities within the range of sage-grouse Conservation Objective: Remove pinyon/juniper from areas of sagebrush that are most likely to support sage-grouse (post-removal) at a rate that is at least equal to the rate of pinyon/juniper incursion. -Prioritize the use of mechanical treatments. -Reduce juniper cover in sage-grouse habitats to less than 5% but preferably eliminate entirely. -Employ all necessary management actions to maintain the benefit of juniper removal for sage-grouse habitats. 6) Utah Wildlife Action Plan, 2015 Publication Number 15-14, State of Utah, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife Resources, Effective 2015-2025 -- Promoting and funding restoration that reduces the uncharacteristic and surpluses of older age class, including: Dixie/chain harrow, brush mowing or other treatments that reduce the older age class and stimulate the younger/mid age classes; herbicide or mechanical treatment of non-native invasive species such smooth brome; single tree mulching/cutting of invading conifer (p.51). 7) Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Statewide Management Plan for Mule deer. Section IV Statewide management goals and objectives. This plan will address Habitat Objective 2: Improve the quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a minimum of 500,000 acres of crucial range by 2013 (p11-12). Strategy C. 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. Strategy f. Encourage land managers to manage portions of pinion-juniper woodlands and aspen/conifer forests in early successional stages. 8) Plateau Deer Herd Management Plan Unit #25 (2015) - Habitat Management Objectives -- Encourage vegetation manipulation projects and seeding to increase the availability, abundance, and nutritional content of browse, grass, and forb species. Strategies: Habitat Protection, Improvement and Maintenance - Reduce expansion of Pinyon-Juniper woodlands into sagebrush habitats and improve habitats dominated by Pinyon-Juniper woodlands by completing habitat restoration projects like lop & scatter, bullhog and chaining projects; maintain summer fawning areas by increasing beneficial habitat work in summer and transitional habitat areas.(p3-4)

In 2015, the State of Utah's Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands brought together landowners, country officials, and land management agency representatives to determine priority areas for Sevier County. Fishlake Basin and the surrounding watersheds were determined to be the second highest priority treatment area for Sevier County. Private properties with residential developments exist within three miles of the proposed treatment area. The Wildfire Risk Index for the proposed project area ranges from very high to very very low. Maintaining sagebrush habitat should moderate expected flame length. This project continues to build on over 600 acres to the south of the project area that has received dixie harrow treatment, breaking up the continuity of mature fuels and limiting the ability of wildfire to spread into the project area.

Because juniper are prolific water users; they readily out-compete understory species which eventually die off. Removing juniper, pinyon, and other encroaching conifers is critical for restoring sagebrush habitat and ecosystem resilience because of the water available to other species once they are gone. This is especially the case when reducing junipers at a landscape scale. Waterbodies that will benefit from project activities and occur within the project area include UM Creek, the Fremont River, Forsyth Reservoir, Lower UM Creek, and Mill Meadow Reservoir. These waterbodies receive flow/runoff from the project areas and are covered by the Fremont River Watershed Water Quality Management Plan (Fremont WQMP). These waterbodies also have requirements associated Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). The Fremont WQMP was created due to concerns (or impairment) of water sources in the upper Fremont River basin, in part due to phosphorus loading which can be increased by sediment that enters the water. Total phosphorus (TP) is a pollutant of concern, and low Dissolved Oxygen (DO) is a parameter of concern in Forsyth Reservoir. TP is a pollutant of concern for Mill Meadow Reservoir. Low DO in Lower UM Creek is also listed as a parameter of concern (Fremont WQMP 2002, attached in images/documents). Project activities would regenerate improved understory conditions, grass, forbs, and shrubs which should improve water quality by leading to less generation of sediment during overland flow events and thereby delivering less sediment to riparian areas, rivers, and subsequent reservoirs. Reducing sediment can decrease pollutants in these impaired waterbodies by reducing phosphorus loading associated with sediment mobilization during such flow events. Additionally, vegetation treatments would be designed to reduce the risk of severe wildfire and all of the associated undesirable water quality effects.

The Mytoge Tidwell Sage-Grouse Habitat Improvement Project CE and archeological clearance were completed in spring 2017.

Lop and scatter will occur on 9,404 acres of phase I and early phase II juniper encroached sagebrush steppe habitat All persistent woodlands will be retained. All lop and scatter work will be contracted through UDWR. All cut trees will be scattered to below surrounding sagebrush height. Mastication will occur on 1,000 acres using USFS equipment and employees.

Repeat photo points and range site survey locations consisting of nested frequency sites recording vegetation and percent cover already exist within the proposed project area. Vegetation surveys will occur following treatment and five years after treatment. These tools for assessing potential for conifer encroachment and invasive plant establishment, as well as a qualitative site condition assessment, will be completed in accordance with existing monitoring protocols. Additionally, active sage-grouse leks within or adjacent to the project area will continue to be monitored annually in the spring by the UDWR with the help of Parker Mountain Adaptive Resource (PARM) local working group, to determine population trends and possible relationship to project implementation. This will include using five sage grouse radio collars to document movement of sage grouse within the Dog Flat Lek, located north of Loa, Utah on the Mytoge Mountain area. These five compliment the previous six sage grouse collared installed last spring within the first phase of the Mytoge Mountain project. These collars would be tracked by DWR's Jim Lamb and Utah State University. This monitoring aims to assist UDWR's Migration Initiative Study and the request for radio collars is supported by the local PARM Working Group and Dave Dahlgren of USU Extension.

The USFS proposes this project with the support and coordination of the Parker Mountain Adaptive Resource Management Local Working Group. Group members include representatives from Utah State University, Bureau of Land Management, Natural Resource Conservation Service, State of Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands, Division of Wildlife Resources, and USU extension. The Mytoge-Tidwell Sage Grouse Habitat Improvement Project received supportive letters in the scoping process from DWR, Sevier County Commission, Utah Farm Bureau Federation, and Fremont River Conservation district. USFS hosted a tour of the focus area and proposed treatment location on July 27, 2016. Although the proposed project is on USFS, BLM is interested in pursuing similar treatments adjacent to the project area. Adjacent private land is steeply sloped, contains minimal pinyon and juniper invasion, and is largely near reservoirs. The project is bordered by SITLA and BLM land in the southwest portion of the project area.

This area will be maintained as sagebrush habitat. Potential threats include noxious weed invasion, cross-country OHV use, and reinvasion from conifers. Periodic visual inspection, photo points, and vegetation monitoring will occur to assess current conditions and track trends over time. The longevity of the treatment will be maintained by slashing young conifers that establish within the project area. Slashing could occur in 10 and 15-year intervals post-treatment.

Where conifers dominate, they outcompete understory vegetation for water and nutrients. Over time, these understory species become less productive and vigorous and eventually die out. Removing juniper, pinyon, and associated species releases understory grasses and forbs from competition, which increases plant vigor and rangeland productivity. These treatments will increase forage value within the UM, Tidwell, Solomon, and Thousand Lake allotments.

07/02/2018

06/30/2021

2021

USFS fuels staff masticated 1,371 acres of expanding pinyon and juniper trees. Skid-steers were equipped with dribblers spreading bitterbrush seed to increase habitat value for winter mule deer habitat. Lop and scatter operations were contracted for a total of 3,508 acres. Four sage grouse collars were installed to track the effects of treatment.

USFS and DWR staff coordinated project area prioritization using past radio-tracking data and treatment methods to target best possible outcomes for sage grouse and high interest game species. Treatments focused on increasing travel corridors for sage grouse moving between winter and summer range.

Sage grouse populations will continue to be monitored. Long term range study sites will be maintained to track vegetation response to treatment. Periodic re-treatment of expanding juniper and pinyon trees will occur as funding and staff time allows.