Wildfires have been growing in size, duration, and destructivity over the past 20 years. Growing wildfire risk is due to accumulating fuels, a warming climate, and expanding development in the wildland-urban interface. The risk has reached crisis proportions in the West, calling for decisive action to protect people and communities and improve forest health and resilience. The Pine Valley is 1 of the Forest Service 21 Wildfire Crisis Landscapes nationally.

Reduce wildfire risk to St. George and adjacent communities, many in the wildland-urban interface. Reduce wildfire risk to infrastructure, including national travel corridors and energy networks. Reduce risk to watersheds and water quality. A major goal is to reduce risks to communities both during and after wildfires by restoring and maintaining healthy, fire-adapted landscapes.

Wildfires have been growing in size, duration, and destructivity over the past 20 years. Growing wildfire risk is due to accumulating fuels, a warming climate, and expanding development in the wildland-urban interface.

Directly ties to the National Cohesive Wildland Fires Management Strategy, Confronting the Wildfire Crisis 10 year Strategy, Shared Stewardship Investment Strategy, And Dixie National Forest Land Management Resource Plan.

High-risk firesheds are large forested landscapes and rangelands where there is a high likelihood that an ignition could expose homes, communities, and infrastructure to destructive wildfire. Overgrown forests, a warming climate, and a growing number of homes in the wildland-urban interface, following more than a century of rigorous fire suppression, have all contributed to what is now a full-blown wildfire and forest health crisis.

Reduction of large scale uncharacteristic and catastrophic fire through fuels reduction and vegetation restoration activities will reduce risk of unwanted fire effects to water quality and quantity. Reducing live and dead fuels, restoring vegetative conditions toward historic fire regimes and condition classes will reduce unwanted fire risk to water quality and potentially increase water quantity.

Project are or will be through signed decisions. Cultural and wildlife surveys are or will be completed.

Prescribed fire mimics nature's fire when professionals apply wildland fire to fire-adapted landscapes under carefully prescribed conditions. Many low-elevation western forests originally had up to 60 large trees per acre, but now each acre typically has hundreds of trees, mostly small and highly flammable in a drought, capable of sending flames into the canopy for a devastating crown fire. The solution is to restore a semblance of the original fire-adapted landscape by (1) mechanically thinning trees to reduce the forest to something approaching the historical number of trees; (2) applying prescribed fire to further reduce hazardous fuels and reintroduce fire effects into the fire-adapted system; and (3) at suitable intervals, using both planned and unplanned ignitions to re-create a fire-adapted landscape.

Monitoring plans are or will be designed and implemented as identified in the project(s) decision document.

Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands; Utah Division of Wildlife Resources; Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative; Washington County; Iron County; Bureau of Land Management; USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; utility companies.

This is a 10 year project, where each subsequent year, funded projects will be added through an modification to this agreement and funds obligated for activities.

Management activities are designed to restore resilience and sustainability to area vegetation, wildlife habitat, communities, municipal watersheds and infrastructure.

01/09/2023

06/30/2025

2025

Five cultural resource projects were completed in partnership between the Dixie National Forest and the WRI for this WRI proposal. These five projects were contracted to five different cultural resource vendors in FY24. Four of the five projects were completed and invoiced by 6/30/2024. One final project (Pine Valley Class I) was completed in August 2024. Four of the projects (Class III Heritage Surveys and Report below) were traditional archaeological surveys. These surveys varied between 950 and 3,300 acres in size and are found at a variety of locations across the Pine Valley Ranger District. The fifth project involved an archaeological background literature review (Class I) and predictive model of the entire Pine Valley Ranger (481,140 acres). These projects are summarized as follows: -District Class III Heritage Surveys and Reports: *Contract - Archeological Surveys for Greys Bench, 947.3 Ac, $ 47,604.04, Tierra Right of Way. Project was awarded 6/30/2023 and was completed 6/14/2024. 16 archaeological sites were identified in the contracted survey area. *Contract - Archeological Surveys for Twin Springs, 2,219.9 Ac, $166,189.20, Wilson and Company. The project was awarded 8/4/2023 and was completed on 6/28/2024. 44 archaeological sites were identified in the 2,220 Ac. project area. *Contract - Archeological Surveys for Cove North, 3,338.7 Ac, $233,274.97, Paleo West (dba Chronicle Heritage). This project was awarded in 7/17/2023 and was completed on 5/22/2024. 28 archaeological sites were identified in the 3,339 Ac project area. *Contract - Archeological Surveys for Grass Valley, 3,053.7 Ac, $198,003.88, Paleo West (dba Chronicle Heritage). This project was awarded in 7/12/2023 and was completed on 6/21/2024. 24 archaeological sites were identified in the 3,054 Ac project area. -Class I heritage Survey and Report: *Contract - Archeological Literature Search for Pine Valley WCSL and Pine Valley Wildfire Risk Reduction Project, 481,135.4 Ac, $50,000, Montgomery Archaeological Consultants. This contract was awarded on 9/25/2023 and was completed on 8/8/2024. Seed purchase and Seed Application: Contract -- New Harmony FB mastication, $99,157.39, Hamond Helicopter Guzzler -- North Hills: Not completed/funded in final.

There have been two modifications executed adding $ 1,400,000 to the agreement. Currently the total undelivered obligation outlay is $1,857,773.14 from which WRI project 7227 projects will be deducted. Maps are correct and current less the holt canyon guzzler.

All these areas are covered under the Pine Valley Wildfire Risk Reduction Project decision that was signed in 2025. The areas surveyed are the initial areas that will be implemented in future years as funding becomes available.