The Horn Mountain Greater Sage-Grouse(GRSG) complex within the Straight Canyon Watershed (Mahogany Point/Joes Valley area) includes priority sage grouse habitat which the project is designed to provide large open sagebrush landscapes essential to GRSG for breeding, nesting, brood rearing and winter use by implementing goals and objectives outline in the Manti-lasal LRMP and GRSG ROD to achieve the following goals: 1. To protect, enhance and restore sage-grouse and its habitat (GRSG ROD, page 12). 2. Identify and improve habitat for sensitive, threatened and endangered species including participation in recovery efforts for both plants and animals (LRMP, page IV-4). 3. Integrate vegetation management with resource management to maintain productivity and provide for diversity of plant an animal communities (LRMP, page IV-3). 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 are contributing to the degradation of sage-grouse habitat, thereby creating a need to improve ecosystem diversity and health to the watershed scale. The Horn Mountain escarpment and subsequent GRSG areas do not have perennial sources of water and historic springs have dried up in recent years. Additionally, guzzlers were constructed in the mid 1960's but have all failed and degraded to point of unusable, unrepairable or just collapsed and rusted into piles of debris. The Pines Habitat Maintenance Prescribed Fire Project within the Muddy Creek Watershed contains the largest concentration of ponderosa pine on the North Zone of the Manti La Sal National Forest. The adjacent sagebrush stands are within the Wildcat Knolls sage grouse priority habitat management unit. To maintain healthy ponderosa pine, these stands require fire return intervals of 5-15 years. Maintaining this fire return interval is critical to reduce ladder fuels and raise canopy height to prevent the loss of these stands during wildfire. This is also critical to preserving healthy aspen component in the adjacent drainages. Maintaining these fire return intervals is also critical to improving forage production for wildlife and grazing as well as preventing catastrophic fire. In addition, these low intensity burns will increase early season grasses that attract insects that are vital to sage grouse. These areas will be treated with prescribed fire utilizing low severity hand ignition to restore appropriate fire return intervals within ponderosa pine stands; to recruit aspen, improve big game habitat, improve forage production, and protect the Wildcat Knolls sage grouse leks. These low severity hand ignitions will avoid sage grouse seasonal habitat and not be introduced into sage brush communities as advised by the 2015 sage grouse record of decision. The Black Dragon project area needs retreatment due to regeneration of Pinyon/Juniper trees. The Forest Service will fund this portion of the project and utilize an IDIQ contract for implementation. The Utah Wildlife tracker was utilized to help design this project proposal and show the significance of the treatment locations. Attached in the documents section is the data shown in the wildlife tracker. The dates used in the tracker are from 1/1/2022 to 12/20/2022 and show the utilization of the project areas as both summer and winter ranges for big game.

1) Maintain and restore critical sage grouse habitat near Mahogany Point by removing pinyon/juniper within curl leaf mahogany and ponderosa pine stands and to open existing mature, dense, curl-leaf mahogany stands, allowing seeding for younger age. Restore winter and transition range for mule deer and rocky mountain elk. 2) Maintain appropriate fire return interval within approximately 2000 acres of ponderosa pine stands within the Muddy Creek drainage to maintain critical big game habitat, increase forage production, and protect adjacent sage grouse leks from catastrophic fires. 3) Install three guzzlers that will provide supplement water sources near two LEKS located on the Manti-lasal. 4) Implement P-J thinning and creek bottom hand-thinning on private lands to take a cross-boundary approach to fuels reduction and watershed restoration 5) Spot herbicide treatments are proposed for BLM administered lands as a follow up for the hand cutting that occurs on the Price Slashing project from the previous WRI year.

The project areas are located in critical sage grouse and big game habitat (mule deer, elk) areas. Treatment locations are adjacent to two sage grouse leks. The threat or risk of not treating these areas would be a continued decline of the habitat quality and diminished use by sage grouse. Sage grouse mortality may also increase by not removing the pinyon juniper and larger mountain brush resulting in the availability of raptor perches. If left untreated a high intensity stand replacing fire could occur resulting in a loss of sage brush, grassland, and forb communities within this priority greater sage grouse habitat, opening the door for noxious/invasive species to dominate the landscape. Additionally, due to the historic drought water availability has been scarce at-best for wildlife utilizing these areas for habitat considerations. The continual reduction of available water will have detrimental effects on populations. Uncontrolled fire was common before European colonization. These surface fires consumed branches, fallen trees, under-story vegetation, and some living trees. These fires burned mostly at a 5-20 year return intervals. Low-intensity fire kept many pine forests open and park like. Removal of fire from these ecosystems has led to an increased buildup of hazardous fuels which may lead to catastrophic fires and damage to overall watershed health. The ponderosa pine stands in the Muddy Creek drainage project area are Fire Regime I (frequent surface/mixed regime) in Condition Class 2. There is a risk of losing key ecosystem components (e.g., native species, large legacy trees, negative impacts to soil) to landscape- scale wildfire if the forest is kept in the present condition. The Manti-La Sal National Forest conducts ponderosa pine prescribed burning frequently, and the potential risk or adverse effects from these treatments are very low.

This document tiers to the Manti-La Sal National Forest Plan Final Environmental Impact Statement. 1. Maintain a healthy forest by applying appropriate silvicultural treatments (LRMP III-3). The desired condition for this landscape and its component stands provides for healthy stands with varied successional stages of trees and stands (LRMP III-2). 2. Reduce hazardous fuels. The full range of fuel reduction methods is authorized, consistent with forest and management area emphasis and direction (III-43). 3. Ecosystems are restored and maintained, consistent with land uses and historic fire regimes, through wildland fire use and prescribed fire (LRMP III-5). 6. Manage stands in a manner that promotes properly functioning conditions and habitat conditions suitable for the northern goshawk (LRMP III-3). UTAH GREATER SAGE-GROUSE MANAGEMENT PLAN *Rehabilitate or restore large contiguous intact sagebrush communities within the state. *Restore degraded sagebrush habitats through appropriate treatment methods which will retain sagebrush while incorporating native and non-native perennial grasses and forbs. *When conducting any habitat improvement/enhancement project, make sure to monitor, evaluate, and document the sage-grouse response as well as the other species response to habitat treatment projects. *In all vegetation treatments designed to enhance or restore sagebrush habitats and increase sage-grouse populations, establish vegetation and wildlife objectives and monitoring procedures prior to treatments which will provide the data necessary to determine treatment effectiveness. Greater Sage Grouse Record of Decision (2015) *Trees or other tall structures are absent to uncommon within 1.86 miles of leks. *Adjacent protective sage brush cover within 328 ft. of lek. Manti-La Sal National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (1986) *Provide an optimum cover: forage ratio for deer and elk habitat (III-19) *Maintain/improve habitat and habitat diversity for populations of existing wildlife species (III-22) *Maintain/improve habitat capability through direct treatment of vegetation (III-23) *Under a proactive approach, manage for diverse forest cover types with strong representation of early seral tree species. DEER HERD UNIT MANAGEMENT PLAN Deer Herd Unit # 16 Central Mountains *Cooperate with land management agencies in carrying out habitat improvements such as controlled burns *Management efforts should focus on improving deer habitat and carrying capacity Enhance forage production through direct range improvements throughout the unit on winter range to achieve population management objectives. *Provide improved habitat security and escapement opportunities for deer. *Provide a long-term continuing base of habitat quantity and quality sufficient to support the stated population objectives. STATEWIDE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR MULEDEER (2014) *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. *Continue to support and provide leadership for the Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative, which emphasizes improving sagebrush-steppe, aspen, and riparian habitats across all landownerships. *Encourage land managers to manage portions of pinyon-juniper woodlands and aspen/conifer forests in early successional stages. UTAH DIVISION OF WILDLIFE RESOURCES STATEWIDE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR MULE DEER *Maintain mule deer habitat throughout the state by protecting and enhancing existing crucial habitats and mitigating for losses due to natural and human impacts. *Work with land management agencies and private landowners to identify and properly manage crucial mule deer habitats, especially fawning and wintering areas. *Improve the quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a minimum of 500,000 acres of crucial range by 2013. *Utah Elk Statewide Management Plan (2015) *Initiate broad scale vegetative treatment projects to improve elk habitat with emphasis on calving habitat and winter ranges *Remove pinyon-juniper encroachment into winter range sagebrush parks and summer and transitional range mountain brush communities *Encourage land managers to manage portions of forests in early succession stages through the use of controlled burning. EMERY COUNTY CWPP- Joe's Valley is listed as a priority area in the most recent (2019) version of the CWPP. Based off of the Utah Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal (UWRAP) Joe's Valley has been classified as having a 'high risk' for severe wildfire. Specific goals for the County include "decrease fuels around key areas within and around communities to reduce wildfire intensity and impact" and "work with state and federal agencies to decrease fuels on adjacent public land to reduce wildfire intensity and impact" both of these goals have management actions involving fuels reduction treatments in the Wildland Urban-Interface, near water sources and adjacent to riparian areas to maintain channel stability. BLM Range Management Plan and Green River Fire Management Plans are referenced for herbicide and seeding treatments.

The ponderosa pine stands within the proposed areas are at FRCC of 2 with a buildup of under-story fuels and encroachment of pinyon/juniper. Prescribed burning at desired return interval of 5-15 years will return these stands to FRCC of 1 with open under-stories. The current fire regime condition class within the Mahogany Point project area is moderate (2) and would be reduced to low (1) immediately after treatment. Condition Class 1 is a 0-35 year fire frequency and low (surface fires most common) to mixed severity (less than 75% of the dominant overstory vegetation replaced). Condition class 2 is a 0-35 year fire frequency and high (stand replacement) severity (greater than 75% of the dominant overstory vegetation replaced). Additionally, treatment of mahogany will initiate varying age classes and protect this critical wildlife component from future wildfire impacts. The removal of P-J on private lands will help to enhance the work being done cross-boundary on Forest Service managed lands. By masticating, the fuel loading on the property will decrease and allow sagebrush to return to historical densities that are better suited for ungulate foraging and fire regimes. In the creek bottoms there are dense encroaching conifers in the cottonwood galleries. A fire in the creek bottom would likely be a high intensity crown fire and could eliminate ground cover. This could cause rapid down cutting and a degradation of riparian habitat. If we can reduce conifers in the creek bottom and establish greater amounts of willows and grasses we may be able to reduce the impact and erosion of future wildfires in the creek corridor. Removal of invasive grasses and weeds will reduce fire spread potential within BLM administered lands.

Areas treated using mastication can increase overall water available in the watershed. A recent publication by Roundy et al. 2014 (Pinyon-juniper reduction increases soil water availability of the resource growth pool. Range Ecology and Management 67:495-505) showed that phase 3 juniper removal can increase available moisture for more than 3 weeks in the spring. And removing juniper from phase 1 and 2 stands can increase water from 6-20 days respectively. Because juniper are prolific water users they readily out-compete understory species which eventually die off. Because of the water and nutrients made available to other species once they're gone, removing juniper is critical for restoring hydrologic function and ecosystem resilience in sagebrush habitat. Project treatments will lessen the risk of uncharacteristic large-scale high severity fires that could result in long-term watershed degradation. The Boss Tank Guzzler system will gather and store 1800 gallon of water when full. The tanks are sealed with a dome top to also gather rainwater and protect stored water from outside trash blowing into the tank. Future vegetation enhancement work will improve overall watershed ecological integrity. 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.

All project areas on Forest Service lands comply with direction in the Manti-La Sal Forest Plan and have been through the NEPA process. All treatment areas including guzzler sites have had archaeological clearance and SHPO concurrence. The Pines Habitat Maintenance Decision Memo was signed 12/03/2020. Mahogany Point Wildlife Improvement Project Decision Memo was signed 02/05/2021. We have applied for and received a rainwater gathering certificate required by Utah State Water Rights to gather and store water in quantities under 2500 gallon. All polygons on private lands being masticated will have a cultural resource survey completed through a WRI/DWR contract and will have a write-up completed by an approved archeologist and submitted to SHPO for review. All work being coordinate or completed by FFSL will have a programmatic permission form signed before start of work. NEPA for the Price Slashing was signed in the fall of 2022 to cover maintenance work within the designated polygons.

This project will treat approximately 9,000 acres utilizing prescribed fire, herbicide, mechanical, and hand thinning treatments. Approximately 2,000 acres within The Pines RX project will be treated with low to moderate fire intensity in the understory of the Pondarosa pine stands to maintain appropriate fire return intervals, protect vegetation from high intensity catastrophic wildfire, improve forage production, and initiate aspen regeneration within the small drainages inside the project area. Ignitions will be targeted for springtime when ground fuels are available but fuel moistures in the grass and sage prevent spread outside of intended burn units. Approximately 700 acres within the Mahogany Point project will be treated with bull hog mastication to remove PJ, serviceberry, and mountain brush from critical sage grouse and big game winter habitat. Approximately 1,458 acres of Pinyon/Juniper removal will be treated in the Black Dragon portion of the project utilizing a hand thinning contract and funded by the Forest Service. We intend to purchase a "Boss Tanks" brand wildlife guzzler kit. The kit includes a 22x100 foot apron that gathers rain water and/or snow. The water then passes through a filter and a 2" black plastic pipe into the catchment tank. The catchment tank is capable of holding 1800 gal. The tank is made of a cross-linked poly material that is UV resistant. The installation site is chosen by the local district wildlife biologist. After the materials are delivered to the installation site the area for the apron and tank are brushed to bare soil with a Bobcat and six-way blade. The apron site is prepared and the tank site is dug with a mini excavator. Plumbing connections are completed as well as back fill and compaction around the tank. The apron edges are back filled and the entire site is seeded where soil was disturbed. The contruction area is fenced with a net wire/1-barb wire fence combination with a 30 ft. lodge pole game crossing section to facilitate movement in and out of the drinker area. For the ~5 acres of creek bottom riparian areas being hand-thinned, crew will cut and pile woody debris to be burned the following spring. These riparian areas consist of cottonwood galleries with dense mixed age conifers. We want to remove much of the conifers to reduce fire intensity and to restore it to an open cottonwood and willow riparian area. On all private land treatment acres we will remove pinyon, juniper, and subalpine fir. We will also cut any other small conifers present and limb up any large conifers. We will keep all cottonwoods, willows, and ponderosas that are present on site. For the 150 acres of private land being masticated, cultural resource surveys will be completed and the mastication will be contracted through WRI. A Fecon tracked machine will complete the work under specific soil conditions to minimize disturbance to the landscape. Hand spraying via contract will be the prescribed action for the polygons on BLM administered lands.

USFS will establish photo points to monitor pre and post treatment's as well as long term conditions of the treatment. This project has two greater sage-grouse leks within the boundary. Annual lek counts will continue and will address current conditions as well as the response of the treatment through population increase/decrease. Fuels Specialist, Fire Management Officer, and Silviculturist periodically assess the treated areas for compliance with management objectives and are consulted on a case-by-case basis by the implementation crew when special situations arise. The guzzlers in the project area will be outfitted with trail cameras. Cameras are placed at each site to detect wildlife species using the guzzler after it receives enough water to make it usable by wildlife. Field visits will be conducted to monitor tracks around the drinker. We have used Dedicated Hunters to monitor and maintain our guzzlers and fences annually for issues that might affect the integrity of the guzzler project. On all private lands photo points will be established to compare pre and post-work conditions. Areas will be monitored for 3-5 years post treatment to monitor any invasive weed populations arising in project areas due to disturbance. BLM administered lands will conduct before photoplots and follow up in 3-5 year intervals for the first five years then at least once every ten years thereafter.

The primary partners for this project include the U.S. Forest Service Ferron/Price Ranger District, Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and the Price BLM Field Office. Desert Edge, a conglomerate of fire and fuels managers in the Southeast area has been working successfully to create cross-boundary fuel reduction and watershed restoration projects for several years. This project is a direct collaboration between the USFS, FFSL, DWR, and BLM to improve, conserve and restore wildlife habitat, reduce fuel loads and improve water quality/quantity on the Wasatch Plateau. By engaging in the cross-boundary projects described above the agencies can work collectively to establish landscape scale connectivity of habitat enhancements and fuels reduction. U.S. Forest Service- Manti-La Sal National Forest- The MLF has provided all NEPA, archeological clearances and wildlife surveys for proposed treatment areas. The MLF has invested money and numerous years of work in order to facilitate this project. The MLF will provide contract oversight for treatment contracts. FFSL- The WUI team will manage all work on private lands and oversee private land contracting and project supervision. They work closely with private landowners to identify needed treatment areas and to implement an adaptive treatment plan that meets the needs of the landowner and the landscape. Private landowners- Private landowners in Lowry Water have been responsive to work that FFSL has performed on their land. Most have participated with in-kind work reducing fuels on their land and are eager to see work implemented in the watershed. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) Southeastern Region will aid in specialty construction and design for guzzlers and treatments. Bureau of Land Management is working with the partners to help provide continuity across boundaries and gaining access to the BLM polygons.

All treatment areas on Forest Service land will be managed for multiple use. The Mahogany Point project area will be maintained as sagebrush habitat comprised of critical greater sage-grouse habitat as well as key/general big game winter ranges. Potential threats in the treatment area include: noxious/invasive weed expansion, cross country OHV use, and reinvasion of Pinyon-Juniper species. Periodic visual inspection, photo points, and vegetation monitoring will occur to assess current conditions and track vegetation trends over time. Methods used will include: effective ground cover, tree/shrub canopy cover, and species composition in conjunction with resource value ratings (RVR). Evaluations will occur every 5-10 years to effectively monitor vegetation responses. Future management of Ponderosa Pine stands will include continued under-story burning at desired return fire intervals to maintain healthy stand structure. Vegetation data gathered may be used to help guide wildlife and rangeland management as well as administrative authority to meet project objectives. The Manti-lasal is currently working on NEPA to expand its supplemental water projects to include and additional 14 guzzlers in the future to address water concerns which has been detrimental in many areas on the forest. On private lands FFSL will contract out or complete the initial work in-house. After the planned treatment is complete, the landowner will be in charge of maintaining the desired condition for the ecosystem.

The proposed treatment areas on Forest Service land addresses the three key goals laid out in the Forest Action Plan: conserve and manage working forest landscapes for multiple values and uses, protect forests from threats, and enhance public benefits from trees and forests. livestock will benefit from increased recruitment of forage species as a result of decreased pinyon and juniper encroachment. The request for guzzlers will add available drinking water for insects, avian species, rodents, small game, non-game, big game, and upland game. As vegetation projects move forward a dispersion of ungulate use will become widespread across the landscape allowing an overall improvement in health of this ecosystem. When all phases of this landscape scale project are complete opportunities will be plentiful for wildlife, livestock, recreation, camping, hunting, hiking, etc. Timber stand improvement will be realized within PJ-Spruce-Fir and Aspen forest types..

08/15/2023

09/30/2023

2024

Completed approximately 1,293 acres of mastication work on the Mahogany Point & South Horn project areas in the fall of 2023. Work was overseen by the Manti-La Sal North Zone Fuels program and Price DWR employees.

Contractor (Mountain Scape) and sub contractor (razorback restoration) started work on 8/15/2023. Work was completed on 9/30-2023. No seed was flown onto the project area as it is high enough elevation and there is an existing understory that should respond to the treatments.

This project will be monitored for any trees or shrubs that may have been missed and plans for retreatment will be made at that time. This monitoring will be completed by the Manti-La Sal North Zone and DWR employees.