The purpose of this project is to improve forest health, watershed resiliency, wilderness character and wildlife habitat at a landscape scale throughout the West Fork Bear River Watershed (36,509 acres) by regenerating aspen in conifer encroached stands and reducing hazardous fuel loads that are increasing due to the mountain pine beetle epidemic. Prescribed fire and mechanical treatments will be used to move the landscape closer to properly functioning conditions (i.e. a mosaic of patch sizes, species composition, stand structure, and age classes), increasing resilience, and reducing the risk of future large high intensity/severity fires and widespread insect and disease outbreaks. The project area has been significantly impacted by a recent mountain pine beetle epidemic that resulted in up to 90% mortality in the lodgepole pine. The dead trees are beginning to fall over, significantly increasing surface fuel loads and the risk of large high intensity/severity fire. Prescribed fire and mechanical treatments will be used to reduce fuel loads and create conditions that allow for more fire management options in the event of a future wildfire.

The objective for Phase I of this project is to complete archaeological surveys in state fiscal 2021 in order to support the NEPA analysis. Meeting this objective will keep the project on schedule to begin implementation in state fiscal 2022. Future phases will implement project restoration efforts. Phases will likely include mechanical treatments such as lop and scatter, cut and pile, mastication and prescribed burns. The project will reduce fuels and mitigate wildfire risk in several ways: * All treatments are designed to reduce fuels and alter fire behavior. * Treatments are located in areas, such as along road systems that will allow for easier ingress/egress and facilitate safer and more effective suppression operations. * Treatments target areas of heavy fuels within the watershed that have the potential for high intensity/severity fire behavior and undesirable fire effects. * Treatments will break up the fuel continuity across the landscape so large fires cannot impact the entire watershed. * These strategically placed treatments will increase the opportunities to manage fires for resource objectives and restore fire to the landscape, which will further reduce the risk of a large unwanted wildfire in the future.

A no action management alternative would result in a continued decline in aspen in the project area. If the action is delayed, existing mixed aspen-conifer stands in the project area could cross a threshold where conifers could dominate further reducing the overall North Slope aspen population. As conifers become more dominant, canopy closure increases and understory plant species richness and diversity declines creating a loss of forage production for wildlife and livestock. Soil moisture also decreases as conifers increase because conifer needles and branches intercept precipitation before it reaches the forest floor and precipitation evaporates back into the atmosphere. Aspen to conifer succession is a concern for the North Slope. Aspens are clonal and need disturbance such as fire to initiate sprouting. Aspen is more successful over the long term when fire intervals are short enough to regenerate aspen. If fire is not reintroduced, conifers in existing aspen-conifer stands will establish seedlings, shade out aspen, and outcompete them. When a disturbance does occur creating a possible scenario for aspens to sprout, conifers will have a stronghold, which makes it more difficult for aspens to re-establish leading to further loss of aspens. The above threats are associated with Phase II, implementation, of this project.

1. 2003 Wasatch-Cache Forest Plan: - (Subgoal 3d) Restore or maintain fire-adapted ecosystems (consistent with land uses, historic fire regimes, and other Forest Plan direction) through wildland fire use, prescribed fire, timber harvest or mechanical treatments. -(G24) Management activities that negatively affect pollinators (e.g. insecticide, herbicide application and prescribed burns) should not be conducted during the flowering period of any known Threatened, Endangered, and Sensitive plant populations in the application area. An exception to this guideline is the application of Bacillus thuringiensis. - (G3.1W-1) Vegetation/fuel treatment, prescribed fire, and wildland fire use are allowed for the purposes of maintaining, improving or restoring watersheds to desired conditions, and to protect property in the wildland urban interface. - (G3.2U-1) Vegetation/fuel treatment, prescribed fire and wildland fire use are allowed for the purposes of maintaining, improving or restoring terrestrial habitat, for hazardous fuel reduction, and to protect property in the wildland urban interface. - (G4.2-1) Vegetation/fuels treatment, prescribed fire, and wildland fire use are allowed to mimic historic conditions and to restore ecosystem functioning. - (G4.3-1) Timber harvest, vegetation/fuels treatment, road construction, prescribed fire and wildland fire use are allowed to mimic historic conditions and to restore ecosystem functioning as compatible with the backcountry recreation opportunity and natural setting desired. - (G4.5-1) Timber harvest, road construction, vegetation/fuel treatment, prescribed fire, new recreation development, and new trail construction are allowed for the purposes of providing public enjoyment, safety, and protection of site investments. - (G5.2-) Prior to use of prescribed fire and wildland fire use, investments made for timber production, such as road systems and silvicultural improvements, and the value of the timber for wood production receive consideration. - (G6.2 -1) Timber harvest, vegetation/fuels treatments, prescribed fire, and wildland fire use are allowed to maintain or improve forage production or for hazardous fuel reduction. -(Objective 3.b.) Stimulate aspen regeneration and reduce other encroaching woody species in aspen by treating (fire use and/or timber harvest) approximately 3,200 acres average annually1 for a 10- year total of 32,000 acres. - Vegetation cover types will form a mosaic of plant communities representing a diverse mix of ages, sizes, and species. Fire use will play a role in reducing fuels, maintaining the historic dynamic of aspen regeneration and ratio of conifer to aspen and mountain brush vegetation patterns and age classes. Mechanical treatment of fuels along with limited use of prescribed fire will emphasize the safety of people and protection of property in the heavily populated and increasingly developed urban wildland interface adjacent to National Forest. 2. Wilderness Act 1964: -Section 4(d)(1) Within wilderness areas designated by this Act the use of aircraft or motorboats, where these uses have already become established, may be permitted to continue subject to such restrictions as the Secretary of Agriculture deems desirable. In addition, such measure may be taken as may be necessary in the control of fire, insects, and diseases, subject to such conditions as the Secretary deems desirable. -Section 4(b) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, each agency administering any area designated as wilderness shall be responsible for preserving the wilderness character of the area and shall so administer such area for such other purposes for which it may have been established as also to preserve its wilderness character. Except as otherwise provided in this Act, wilderness areas shall be devoted to the public purposes of recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical use. 3. 2001 Roadless Rule: -Prohibits cutting, sale, and removal of timber in inventoried roadless areas, except: -For the cutting, sale, or removal of generally small diameter trees which maintains or improves roadless characteristics and: -To improve habitat for threatened, endangered, proposed, or sensitive species, or -To maintain or restore ecosystem composition and structure, such as reducing the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire effects. 4. Utah Mule Deer Statewide Management Plan: -Initiate broad scale vegetative treatment projects to improve mule deer habitat in ranges being diminished by encroachment of conifers into aspen habitats. -Seek opportunities through WRI to improve aspen communities that provide crucial summer habitat for mule deer. -Encourage land managers to manage portions of aspen/conifer forest in early successional stages using various methods including timber harvest and managed fire. -North Slope is a habitat restoration priority area for mule deer in Utah. 5. Utah Statewide Elk Management Plan -Identify habitat projects on summer range (aspen communities) to improve calving habitat. -Increase forage production by annually treating a minimum of 40,000 acres of elk habitat -Encourage land managers to manage portions of forests in early successional stages through the use of controlled burning and logging. Controlled burning should only be used in areas with minimal invasive weed and/or safety concerns. 6. Utah Moose Statewide Management Plan: -Initiate prescribed burns and other vegetative treatment projects to improve moose habitat lost to ecological succession or human impacts. 7. Utah Bighorn Sheep Statewide Management Plan: -Encourage land management agencies to use fire as a management tool to improve bighorn sheep habitat. When possible allow fires that can have beneficial effects for bighorn sheep to burn. -Initiate vegetative treatment projects to improve bighorn habitat lost to natural succession or human impacts. 8. Northern Goshawk of Utah: Habitat Assessment and Management Recommendations: -Early and mid-seral species should be increased using both mechanical means and fire. -Polices should be adopted to manage for the production of large early seral species through clearings, thinnings, and weedings, using mechanical means or fire. -Fire or mechanical treatments or both should be used to create conditions favorable to lodgepole pine and quaking aspen. 9. Guidelines for Aspen Regeneration on National Forests in Utah: - Much of the loss of aspen-dominated acreage is attributable to encroachment and overtopping by conifer. It has often been presumed that this encroachment i.e., the natural succession process for seral stands, is the result of fire suppression. 10. Boreal Toad Conservation Plan: -(3.1.1)Protect habitats in forest stands adjacent to and within 2.5 miles of breeding sites. -(3.1.2)Restrict burns to late fall through early spring during which time boreal toads are inactive in known occupied areas. -Burning of downed woody materials approximately 18 to 25 cm DBH is detrimental to boreal toads, because these materials are often selected as beneficial microhabitats. However, fire may eventually result in higher shrub densities in the understory that may provide cover and improved dispersal corridors. 11. Utah Black Bear Management Plan: -Successional replacement of aspen stands by conifers can significantly reduce bear-food production in aspen communities. Both fire and selective logging of conifers can be used to maintain aspen vigor. 12. UDWR Wildlife Action Plan: - 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. - The growing problem of catastrophic mega-fires can be solved by a systematic campaign of active restoration via mechanical fuel-reduction treatments and prescribed fire to safely return wildfire as a viable, natural, cost-effective means of maintaining necessary patterns of ecological succession across the landscape. - 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. 13. State of Utah Catastrophic Wildfire Reduction Strategy: - Rather than just reducing fires, the ultimate goal is to return landscapes to a condition of health and resilience that allows for wildfires to burn without becoming catastrophic to either human or natural systems. 14. Conservation Agreement and Strategy for Colorado River Cutthroat Trout in the State of Utah -Natural climatic events such as flood, fire and drought may threaten specific populations of Colorado River cutthroat trout (CRCT); however, these forces only pose threats as long as CRCT range remains fragmented and populations are small. Small, isolated populations are more susceptible to catastrophic loss and impacts from demographic stochasticity. 15. Bonneville cutthroat trout Rangewide Agreement and Conservation Strategy - State of Utah. The Bear River GMU: There are 10 stronghold populations and five metapopulations within the GMU. Conservation strategies of "Protect" (28% of habitat), "Restore Population" (27% of habitat), and "Restore Habitat" (32% of habitat) were identified as primary needs for the GMU using Trout Unlimited's CSI. The following goals have been identified for the GMU. GMU Goal 1: Maintain all populations within GMU

The use of prescribed fire on the North Slope has been very limited during the past and most wildfires have been suppressed. The last large scale fire was the East Fork Fire near Bear River, and it burned 14,200 ac in June 2002. According to fire statistics, the number of large fires appears to be increasing since 1980. The majority of the project is within fire regime IV (35-100+ years) and V (> 200 years) with a condition class of 2. One of the objectives of this project is to manage hazardous fuel loading, continuity of hazardous fuels, and to minimize the potential for large, high intensity/high severity wildfires. This project will help the North Slope move to properly functioning condition (composition, stand structure, age classes, and patch size). It will promote aspen regeneration and recruitment and reduce conifer encroachment. Aspens are more fire-wise than conifers since they have a higher moisture content, have less chemical content, and provide less fuel during their dormant period. Fuel loads would be reduced and aspen regeneration would occur within the proposed project area, which would protect Manner lands and Monviso subdivisions in the event a catastrophic wildfire was to devastate the area.

Runoff and erosion rates associated with high intensity/severity wildfires are much higher than those associated with prescribed burns. After severe and intense wildfires, soils become hydrophobic increasing runoff and decreasing the soil moisture content in the ecosystem. Runoff introduces large quantities of sediment, ashes, and other chemical contaminants into the river system negatively impacting water quality. Intense/severe wildfires can cause riparian areas to be denuded of vegetation, increase water temperature, decrease dissolved oxygen, and lead to eutrophication and poisoning of aquatic organisms. Forest managers can remedy catastrophic wildfire effects on water quality by using prescribed fire and mechanical tools to reduce hazardous fuel loads. Bear River would be protected against catastrophic wildfire effects. Bear River is used for recreation and many municipalities along its course. The project area encompasses several ecological communities e.g. lodgepole, aspen, aspen-conifer, spruce-fire, Douglas fir, and the tributaries that flow through these forest communities.

NEPA will be completed in the fall of 2020. EZFM Bear River phase 1 would hire a contractor to conduct archaeological clearances to meet SHPO concurrence.

This phases' project area is approximately 1,416 acres. Treatment methods for future phases of this project would vary by landscape designations. Treatment methods will be specifically defined in future phase proposal documents. They may include but are not limited to lop and scatter, lop and pile, mastication, chaining, and prescribed burning. We will partner with Mule Deer Foundation through a shared stewardship or participation agreement to implement the contracts.

Pre-Treatment photo plots will be performed by Forest Service employees in 2020. Planned post-treatment monitoring will occur 1,3, and 5 years after treatment. Monitoring data will be uploaded to the UWRI website for public access.

Phase I of this project is to collect survey data. UDWR is and will continue to be an essential planning and implementation partner in this project. Phase I would hire a contractor, likely selected through the Utah Department of Natural Resources, to conduct cultural resource surveys. The Forest Service Inter-Disciplinary Team has identified several potential future partners for the next phases of this project, which include UDWR, permittees, private landowners, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Utah's Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office, and Summit County. We will also be partnering with Mule Deer Foundation through a shared stewardship or participation agreement to implement future contracts.

This proposal is Phase I of multiple phases. Future phases will implement project restoration efforts. Phases will likely include mechanical treatments such as lop and scatter, cut and pile, and prescribed burns. Our goal is to partner with the Mule Deer Foundation on funding a joint position to help increase and maintain capacity for future contracts. Units may be rested from cattle grazing for one to three years post treatment and pasture rotation may be altered to accommodate aspen establishment efforts. Follow-up treatments may be pursued if initial treatments are deemed unsuccessful. Invasive and noxious weeds may be treated where appropriate and allowable. Long term usage of within the project area are not expected to change; public access, motorized and non-motorized use, timber and grazing opportunities and other current uses should not be altered.

Livestock will benefit post-burn as fire will promote forage, decrease impediments to travel allowing livestock to disperse, increase available surface water, and produce a more productive aspen centric stand offering young aspen for browse. Recreationalists (motorized and non-motorized, hunters, hikers, fishermen, etc.) will find easier access once the standing dead and down component is decreased providing better access and long term benefits will be realized as fish, big and small game populations increase.

08/03/2020

01/09/2023

2023

The purpose of the Bear River Watershed Resilience Phase 1 project was to hire an archeological contractor and conservation crews to inform the Forest Service NEPA project to implement a 5,260 ac aspen restoration project in the western portion of the Evanston-Mountain View Ranger District of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest (UWCNF). The UWCNF Utah Heritage Program, in communication with the Utah State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), conducted a sample survey of high-probability areas within the project area. Contractors were hired and conducted Class III intensive pedestrian surveys.

WRI funds provided the needed contractors to inform the NEPA process successfully. The archeological contractor provided the data required for SHPO concurrence, which had 2 phases (phase 1 was completed and received in 2021, and Phase 2 was received in 2022). Without WRI funding and support, the NEPA would not be completed, and the project would still be stalled.

Bear River Phase 2 began in 2022 with an agreement with the Mule Deer Foundation. Phase 2 consisted of 525 acres of lop and scatter and 182 acres of machine piling and mastication. Phase 3 consisted of 535 acres of hand cut and pile and 300 acres of precommercial thinning. Bear River Phase 4 will consist of 80 acres of Skid and Deck, 400 acres of hand cut and pile, and 180 acres of hazard tree removal.