There is a need to conserve, enhance, and restore sage-grouse habitat in order to move toward desired conditions and avoid further impacts to the viability of existing and future sage-grouse populations. Also, conifer encroachment in adjacent stands contribute to the degradation of sage-grouse habitat, thereby creating a need to improve ecosystem diversity and health to the watershed scale.

1) Create, expand and improve sagebrush/mountain shrub habitat for sage-grouse and other sage/shrub obligate species. 2) Improve aspen vegetation type by removal of encroaching mixed conifer. 3) Increase available moisture for residual plant species by removing competition from trees. 4) Reduce crown fire potential and fuel loading by decreasing mixed conifer. 6) Obtain 40-60% conifer mortality in a mixed severity mosaic across the prescribed burn acres consisting of mixed conifer and aspen. 6) Increase and improve forage for big game summer range. 7) Reduce contiguous high fuel loading within watersheds adjacent to the Fish Lake Basin.

Project areas were identified comparing georeferenced aerial photos from 1939 with current aerial photos during phase 1 of this project. Where mixed conifer infill within seral aspen stands was shown to occur in current aerial photos, treatment was determined to be necessary to prevent the landscape from crossing ecological thresholds. The uplands containing late successional seral aspen stands show a minimal conifer presence in aerial photos from the 1930s. Silvicultural surveys show that current conifer presence is limiting aspen recruitment. Consequently, aspen presence in these stands is limited to older age classes. If disturbance is not re-introduced, aspen will not persist in these stands and a key ecological component will be lost from these stands. Greater infill into these areas will also increase per/acre treatment costs. Additionally, vital mountain shrub transitional summer range will further be impacted negatively by continual increase of successional mixed conifer, reducing the vigor and amount of desired shrubs. 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 not only restore and maintain sage-grouse habitat and decrease the risk of sage-grouse brood mortality, but it will address mixed conifer encroachment and aspen rejuvenation before it crosses a threshold into the later successional phases. While time until crossing that threshold varies across the project area, it ranges between an estimated 5 to 20 years.

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 or 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 January 11, 2019 4c. Using WRI, remove conifer as appropriate in areas protected by federal, state and private landowners to ensure that existing functional habitat remain. 4d. Using WRI, maintain existing sage-grouse habitats by offsetting the impacts due to conifer encroachment by creating additional habitat within or adjacent to occupied habitats at an equal rate each year - or 25,000 acres each year- whichever is greater. 4e. Increase sage-grouse habitats by using the WRI- and other state, federal and private partnerships- to restore or create 50,000 acres of habitat within or adjacent of occupied habitats each year in addition to 4d. 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.(p.3-4) 9) Sevier County Resource Management Plan 2017- Water Quality and Hydrology. This action is congruent with Desired Management Practice number 3. Where water resources on public lands have diminished because grasses have succeeded to pinyon-juniper and other woody vegetation, a vigorous program of mechanical treatments should be applied to promptly remove this woody vegetation and biomass, stimulate the return of the grasses to historic levels, and thereby provide a watershed that maximizes water yield and water quality for livestock, wildlife, and human uses.(pg 24) 10) National Cohesive Strategy By means of prescribed fire and mechanical thinning at a landscape scale, the resulting mosaic of early and late successional forests will work toward the goal of restoring and maintaining resilient landscapes, one of the three goals described in the National Cohesive Strategy. 1. Resilient Landscapes General guidance regarding vegetation and fuels management include* Use and expand fuel treatments involving mechanical, biological, or chemical methods where economically feasible and sustainable, and where they align with landowner objectives. (pg. 58) 11) State of Utah Catastrophic Wildfire Reduction Strategy The Last Chance Project aligns with the mission of the State of Utah's Catastrophic Wildfire Reduction Strategy. The project has developed a comprehensive and systematic approach toward reducing the size, intensity and frequency of catastrophic wildland fires near the Fish Lake basin. The project reduces the risk of a catastrophic wildfire occurrence negatively affecting property, air quality and water systems. The Mission: Develop a collaborative process to protect the health and welfare of Utahns, and our lands by reducing the size and frequency of catastrophic fires. (pg. 4) 5. Adopt Key Recommendations from the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy. (pg. 15) * Encourage federal land management agencies to expedite fuels treatments. (pg. 15) * Prioritize landscapes for treatment (irrespective of jurisdictional boundaries). (pg. 15)

Three structures are within a half mile of proposed treatments. The adjacent watershed, Fish Lake basin, was determined to be a number one priority for Sevier County in terms of reducing wildfire risk. Within the adjacent watershed, the basin contains over one hundred homes, three marinas, and several businesses. Prescribed fire treatment would reduce fuel loading and fuel continuity adjacent to this watershed.Treatment area is within an irrigation watershed. Phase II of this project includes 1000 acres of prescribed fire treatments and lays the groundwork to apply prescribed fire on an additional 12,100 acres in the following phases. In both areas, consistent conifer cover will be broken up through a mosaic burn pattern looking to accomplish 40-60% conifer mortality across the burn units

The project aims at increasing watershed health across ecological communities, through increasing ground cover in native grasses, forbs, and shrubs within the mountain shrub/sagebrush communities and increased forest resilience in seral aspen stands, through breaking up contiguous blocks of conifer into a mixed-severity mosaic with height and age class diversity, across the landscape. The Last Chance/Porcupine phase II project, containing a cumulative 2,352 acres of prescribed burning, is expected to increase water quantity through reduced mixed conifer presence. Several creeks within the project watershed are on the 303d list. These include Ivie Creek, UM Creek, Muddy Creek, and Last Chance Creek. TMDLs are established for the following creeks: Ivie Creek, UM Creek, Muddy Creek, and Fremont River.

The Last Chance Wildlife Habitat Improvement Project Decision Memo was signed on May 2, 2019.

Prescribed burning, in a mixed severity mosaic pattern, will occur on approximately 2,352 acres.

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 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. Four of six sage grouse radio transmitters were deployed in spring 2019 to document movement of sage grouse within the Tidwell Lek, located north of Loa, Utah on the Tidwell Mountain area, and about two miles south of the project area. The six will complement the previous six sage grouse radio transmitters deployed in the spring of 2017 on the Dog Flat Lek within the first phase of the Mytoge Mountain project, located about 11 miles south of the project area. These collars will be tracked by Utah State University. This monitoring aims to assist UDWR's Migration Initiative Study and the request for radio transmitters is supported by the local PARM Working Group and Dave Dahlgren of USU Extension. Mule Deer classification routes throughout this project area are conducted annually by UDWR biologists. Proposed funding for weed control will go towards monitoring project areas pre-treatment and post-treatment to reduce impacts from noxious weeds.

BLM has started NEPA analysis for areas adjacent to previous phases of the Mytoge project, which connects to the south of this proposal. Furthermore, BLM is considering treatments east of the Last Chance project area. Division of Wildlife Resources employees have had extensive involvement in treatment area and implementation planning. Adjacent private lands are primarily Paradise Valley Lake and riparian areas, which treated sizable portions of pinyon and juniper on their property four years ago.

Burned portions of pastures within treatment units will generally be rested from livestock grazing for a minimum of two growing seasons (or more time if conditions warranted). Points to consider when allowing cattle use back in a burned portion of allotments / pastures include, but are not limited to, aspen regeneration shoot height, vegetation recovery and establishment, bare ground cover to prevent accelerated erosion, limiting sedimentation of water bodies and potential flooding risk to acceptable levels from burn units. A phased approach to implementation allows for aspen and sagebrush community response monitoring to inform future phases.

The overall Last Chance treatment area has 24 miles of motorized trail, part of the highly used and nationally recognized as a National Millennium Trail, Great Western Trail, and a 12-mile portion of non-motorized Great Western Trail that will be maintained following implementation. Hunting for small and big game will continue to occur. Prescribed fire treatments, and seeding will promote increased grass, forb, and shrub communities. When all phases are complete, the amount of forage available to livestock is expected to increase significantly as a result of this project. With the removal of conifer, the amount of usable grasses and forbs in the aspen and sage-brush understories is also expected to increase significantly. With increased forage, livestock distribution and management is expected to improve. Much of the treatment area is currently unproductive due to extensive conifer shading in the prescribed burn area. Traditional timber sales are occurring on the Fish Lake Plateau west of the project area, where commercial Engelmann spruce stands exist. The Fishlake NF has started NFMA analysis on over 6,000 acres of future timber sales in the adjacent drainage. Fishing (a variety of fish species) is a popular activity in the UM Creek and the Fremont River to which it flows. Aspen restoration will improve transition and summer ranges that will benefit wildlife along with improving water quality and reducing risk to necessary fish habitat and watersheds. This project will promote sustainability for a variety of sportsmen and sportswomen along with providing more hunting and fishing opportunities for future generations. Vegetation treatments that encourage aspen regeneration on spring and summer range will continue to provide quality deer fawning and elk calving habitat. A productive understory combined with some dead and down trees is optimal habitat for big game birthing.