PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION SUMMARY: Over the past couple years several projects have been completed in the South Creek area. Some of these projects include approximately 4,500 acres of lop and scatter, 1,250 acres of broadcast burning, riparian thinning and fencing along South Creek, and the rebuild of a grazing exclosure for Bonneville Cutthroat Trout along Birch Creek West. There was also approximately 7,289 acres managed in the Thompson Ridge wildfire. This proposal is for the first phase through the WRI process and will treat approximately 3,000 acres using prescribed fire. NEED FOR PROJECT: This need is identified in the planning document (NEPA) as a need to allow for forest vegetation management actions designed to improve age class and species distribution and diversity, reduce fuel build up, prevent and control insect infestation and disease, and maintain and improve wildlife habitat. These needs have each been identified by the Beaver Ranger District resource management team in the Land Resource Management Plan. The lack of wildfire in the mixed conifer stands over the last 100+ years is leading to the decline of the presence of Aspen, and an increase in fuel loading which leads to high intensity high severity wildfires at the scale that creates unwanted negative affects. This project will introduce fire back onto the landscape under more desirable conditions helping to minimize the unwanted negative affects of wildfire. In addition to all the ongoing work in this landscape, this project is needed to help us meet the planned 15,000 acres of habitat improvement treatment tied to the new Beaver Unit Elk Plan. This work will help to improve habitat, change distribution of ungulates, and draw elk to the southern portion of the Beaver Unit (south of HWY 153).

Project Goals include the following: 1. Provide and maintain a diversity of plant and animal habitats - including species and age classes - to support TES species, big game forage, and other resource benefits. 2. Rejuvenate aspen and mountain brush to improve conditions for MIS. 3. Perpetuate aspen. 4. Prevent and control insect infestations and disease. 5. Manage vegetation to allow for more frequent fire. 6. Maintain sagebrush in designated locations while reducing conifer encroachment. Project objectives include the following: 1. Manage for a balance of plant communities that mimic natural conditions and historic disturbance regimes. 2. Regenerate early seral species to maintain wildlife habitat. 3. Identify high priority aspen stands & reduce conifer competition to stimulate suckering and seeding. 4. Reduce forest fuel loads and wildfire hazard. 5. Improve greater sage-grouse habitat by removing invading conifers and other undesirable species.

This multi-year project has many connected implementation projects. The use of prescribed fire is only one facet of the overall big picture and an critical step. There has been work completed to protect the population of Bonneville Cutthroat Trout in Birch Creek West including a fencing exclosure and low intensity, low severity broadcast prescribed fire. There has also been several thousand acres of lop and scatter in the lower elevation PJ. The timing is right to treat the upper elevations of mixed conifer while the other treatments are still viable and help minimize the risk of escape and negatively impacting identified values. There have been numerous treatments in Beaver Canyon with large amounts of money invested in protecting private property, structures, and utility corridors. This project ties directly into the this work that has already been completed. One of the reasons for the treatments in Beaver Canyon was to set up the present conditions where wildland fire could be introduced in the South Creek area with minimal risk to the values downwind (Beaver Canyon). The overall timing of the implementation of this project is going to be over several years, this is the first phase. This project will also provide for habitat restoration work in the southern half of the Beaver Elk Unit. According to the new Beaver Unit Elk plan, 15,000 acres of new habitat improvement work is needed in the next 5 to 10 years. The previously completed work in this landscape along with the planned treatments in this proposal will allow for our partners to meet the intent of the Elk Plan and provide for successful habitat restoration work in the area. Information from UDWR District Wildlife Biologist Mike Wardle in support of this project: For the past 5 years, the Beaver deer population has consistently illustrated a pattern of low fawn recruitment. UDWR captured and collared adult mule deer during the years of 2019, 2020, and 2021 on the Beaver unit. Ultrasounds were conducted on adult does and overall the deer were skinnier than expected and lacked the internal fat reserves that we hoped for. Much of this area is dominated by mature conifer stands that provide little in terms of summer nutrition for deer and elk. Resetting the ecological succession of the plant community through fire will open that conifer canopy and help provide additional nutrition for mule deer in the summer months. Forbes and other summer food sources play a critical role in helping mule deer store the fat needed to survive through the harsh winter months. This is especially critical for newborn fawns who's survival and recruitment ultimately drive the overall population in an increasing or decreasing direction. The Beaver elk unit management plan sets a population objective that ranges from 1,150 to 1,350 elk. The population estimate in 2022 was 900. Aerial surveys conducted by UDWR in 2016, 2019, and 2022 have all showed a higher concentration of elk on the Northern half of the management unit. Large fires in the past 15 years that occured North of US-153 shifted elk use North on the mountain and fewer elk have been observed in areas like the South creek drainage. Re-introducing fire into this drainage will increase available nutrition for elk and help re-distribute the population to the South. In 2023, as the Beaver elk committee met to revise the management plan a big focus of conversation was increasing elk use on the South end. It states specifically in the plan "The committee recognizes that in order to increase the elk population objective further, more habitat work will need to be completed. Specifically, the committee recommends a minimum of 15,000 acres be improved South of Highway 153 that will increase the carrying capacity of the range." This project significantly helps reach the goal of creating more elk habitat to allow for an increase in the elk population objective. With Statewide goals and objectives for mule deer and elk in place, the pressing need on the Beaver Unit is to maintain and improve wintering habitat on existing winter range areas the Beaver Forest Service has slated this project as a top priority within their work plan, they have identified areas to help bring fund sources and reduce the overall cost of this project from recent years. This project is moving closer to crossing the ecological threshold and will continue to become more expensive to treat, due to the cost of bullhog work rising throughout the State. Lop and Scatter companies are becoming increasingly more expensive due to work forces, US Work Visa's, equipment and material cost as well as travel cost. The time is now to complete this project and create additional habitat for mule deer, elk and wild turkeys in Utah.

This project is consistent with the Fishlake National Forest Plan (1986 as amended) for wildlife habitat enhancement, and fuels management. This project is part of a larger effort by the Forest Service, Beaver District to improve and restore aspen communities, improve big game habitat, promote forest meadows, conserve forested stands with diverse age structure and age, improve watershed condition, water quality, reduce fuel loading, and protect against catastrophic wildfire. Utah's WAP and other planning documents emphasize the importance of maintaining and improving forest aspen communities, restoration is the focus. Both the Utah Statewide deer and elk plans identify conserving and improving available summer range through removal of conifers and encouraging aspen stand restoration through disturbance for aspen stand response via regeneration and the resultant increase in stems per acre and improved understory recovery to higher grass/forb density. By improving the quantity and quality of summer range, especially aspen, to support big game herd objectives for the Beaver Unit #25. Deer and elk population levels are under plan objectives, elk are near 900 animals 2022 post-season) and the revised plan has the upper population objective at 1350 elk (personal communication with Mike Wardle, DWR and RAC packet data). Beaver County's Draft Resource Management Plan, adopted June 2017, states "Land management agencies shall take actions to control and eradicate harmful and invasive noxious weeds and aggressively treat conifer encroachment on habitats which benefit wildlife.", on page 128 under "Wildlife... Objectives". Please see letters of support from Beaver City and Beaver County attached. Utah's Wildlife Action Plan (WAP): The WAP identifies the following key habitats to be addressed by the South Beaver Watershed Improvement Project: Aquatic Forested, Mountain sagebrush and Aspen-Conifer. The WAP lists Inappropriate Fire Frequency and Intensity a high level threat for BCT and Aspen-Conifer Ecosystems with the following as potential conservation actions. 2.3.14 Conduct upland vegetation treatments to restore characteristic upland vegetation, and reduce uncharacteristic fuel types and loadings. Fishlake Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP): 5. Reduce hazardous fuels 6. Identify and improve habitat for sensitive, threatened, and endangered species including participation in recovery efforts for both plants and animals (LRMP IV-4). 7. Improve or maintain the quality of habitat on big game winter ranges (LRMP IV-4). National Cohesive Strategy: This project is in line with the 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. State of Utah Catastrophic Wildfire Reduction Strategy: This project aligns with the mission of the State of Utah's Catastrophic Wildfire Reduction Strategy. 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). Under number 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). This proposed treatment will bring potential canopy fire to the ground and allow for greater likelihoods of successful fire suppression or wildfire utilization for resource benefits. Grazing Allotment Plans: The amount of forage available to livestock within the affected allotments in the South Beaver area is expected to increase significantly as a result of this project. With the removal of aging stands of mixed conifer with little no understory vegetation, the amount of grasses, forbs and mtn brush is also expected to increase significantly. With increased forage, ungulate distribution is expected to improve. Strategic Management Plan for Wild Tukey-Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR 2014). Grasses provide food for adults and are especially important to poults as an environment where they can effectively forage for insects. Poults need an environment that produces insects and in which they can efficiently forage. Poults need an area that provides enough cover to hide them but allows the adult hen unobstructed vision for protection from predators. Mountain meadows are critical for sustaining turkey polts by providing insects and the high protein diets required. Some fire on this landscape will remove invading conifers and conserve, even increase meadow habitats. *SITLA Management Plans: Correspond with the Utah Code Title 53C Chapter Five Section 101, 102 and 103 in accordance with Management of Rangeland Resources **DWR: This project will be part of the implementation strategy for the Elk Management Plan for Beaver Unit that was just approved (habitat treatment of 15,000 acres).

Implementation of this project will result in reducing hazardous fuel accumulations and stimulate aspen suckering in the mixed conifer vegetation types. This treatment will promote a fire resilient environment that reduces the risk for large scale wildfires, with less risk to public and firefighters. Fire risk would be reduced in multiple watersheds, including Birch Creek West where there is a population of Bonneville Cutthroat Trout. The Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) is estimated to be both moderate (FRCC 2) and high (FRCC 3) departure from the central tendency of the natural (historical) regime. This project will help improve or maintain the fire regime condition class to FRCC 1 and FRCC 2

Perennial and ephemeral streams in the project vicinity drain into the Beaver River then into Minersville Reservoir which currently has a TMDL for total Phosphorus loading and low dissolved oxygen (LIMNOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF WATER QUALITY, Utah Division of Water Quality, 2008). These impairments to beneficial uses are interrelated as elevations in nutrient levels result in increased algal biomass production and transport which increases biological oxygen demand (BOD) and decreases dissolved oxygen levels. The TMDL identifies that non-point sources are the primary cause for elevated total phosphorus levels including: cattle in riparian areas and stream channels and forest land management. The TMDL notes that overutilization of riparian areas can lead to increased erosion and sediment transport, which ultimately can cause an increased nutrient load and elevated nutrient transport. Similarly, other management on NFS lands that increase erosion and runoff are implicated in elevating phosphorus levels in Piute Reservoir. The TMDL calls for stabilizing slopes, installing vegetative buffer strips along stream channels, reestablishing vegetation in critical riparian areas and restricting cattle access to stream channels. The water quality assessment for the reservoir tiers to TMDL and water quality management plan for the upper reaches of the Beaver River. The benefits of healthy riparian vegetation and connected floodplains and wetlands to water quality, as well as water storage and release are well documented. Riparian vegetation buffers can trap sediment during overbank flow events and prevent sediment from overland runoff from reaching stream channels (Belt, O'Laughlin, & Merrill, 1992). Fine sediment input to streams can lead to an associated increase in nutrient loading, decreased dissolved oxygen and an increase in waterborne diseases. Stream bank stability is instrumental in preventing excessive erosion. Willow-sedge communities are among the best for maintaining stream bank stability (Winward, 2000). As discussed elsewhere in this proposal, improving uplands to have more grass, forbs, and shrubs in the understory can also improve water quality by leading to less generation of sediment during overland flow events and thereby delivering less sediment to a riparian area and stream. With the removal of conifers and aspen restoration, the amount of usable grasses and forbs and sagebrush in the uplands is expected to increase significantly. With increased forage, livestock and wild ungulate distribution is expected to improve. This treatment work should result in decreased sediment generation due to increased understory vegetation and improved livestock and ungulate distribution across the landscape. Vegetation treatments have been shown to increase the density and diversity of grasses and forbs reducing runoff and erosion (Ashcroft et al. 2017). In conjunction to this proposed project, the past PJ removal activities adjacent to this project should have a net positive effect on increasing water yield/availability when combined with higher elevation elimination of mixed conifer in efforts to restore aspen stands with productive understories. Treatments will considerably lessen the risk of catastrophic large scale high severity fires that could result in long-term watershed degradation. By maintaining watershed function, long-term water quality will be maintained or enhanced. By removing mixed conifer it is anticipated that water quantity will be enhanced (seeps, springs, bogs--improved) in the short and long term. Burning activities should have a net positive effect on increasing water yield/availability as fewer conifer trees use water. Implementation of this project will improve overall watershed health. Reducing fuels accumulation and fire risk will hopefully result in fewer large-scale, high severity wildfires. These types of fires lead to hydrophobicity of the soils and a reduction of the vegetation and forest floor litter. This in turn leads to increased runoff and erosion in watersheds and excess sedimentation and nutrient loading to streams and lakes. This effects fish and other aquatic organisms, like the native Bonneville Cutthroat Trout in Birch Creek West. Prescribed fires of low and moderate intensity, like proposed for this project, leave behind litter and canopy cover which reduces erosion and runoff. They can also enhance watershed health through vegetation succession and diversity, short-term increases in stream productivity through sediment and nutrient input, and sources of spawning gravel for fish from post-fire high flows. Fire may also increase water availability by reducing biomass and evapotranspiration. Prescribed fires should be less than 20% of the HUC7 watershed to protect water quality for fish.

This project falls under the South Beaver EA signed in 2019. All clearances and approvals have been obtained, and the project is ready to go.

The methods to implement this project include a mix of ground and aerial ignition techniques. This will utilize a mixture of aircraft and ground resources including hand crews, and engines. The timing and process of implementation will be influenced by various environmental conditions such as fuel moistures, weather, and seasonal conditions such as drought.

Monitoring of the prescribed burn will follow the directions found in the NEPA, and will focus on fuel loadings utilizing preliminary plots that were established during the planning phase. Monitoring work is already in progress and being evaluated. In and around the project area are located approximately 7 DWR long term trend studies (22R-3, 22R-1, 22-2, 22R-24, 22-3, 22-4, and 22R-8), with half of these on Forest system lands. The Deer Flat transect (22R-1) was treated prior to 2018 by lop and scatter and is seeing a resurgence in vegetative productivity. Google Earth historical imagery documents the chaining maintenance discussed over the last 15 years, along with adjacent BLM treatments contributing to an improved landscape for wintering big game. We conduct annual Migratory Bird surveys and assist with deer and elk census and classification that DWR oversees that will continue in this area; thus documenting any changes in seasonal use patterns. Big game pellet group transects are conducted annually to estimate general days used per acre on these winter range areas and have been collected the past 10 years in the Coyote Bench and other nearby wintering areas. The days use trends by deer and elk are highly variable depending on winter severity, but are as high as 27 elk days use per acre and 11 days per acre sometimes for deer. Pre/Post treatment photos will be taken and analyzed to determine if the project objectives are met in 1,3,5,and 10 years. 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 consisting of macro-plots or transects will occur following treatment and five years after treatment. Vegetation plots will either be established in the project area or re-read for monitoring locations already established within the treatment area to asses the aspen regeneration response and use by ungulates. 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 and with seasonal time included as part of the proposal. Weed control will occur as determined necessary by the District Range Management Specialist.

This project is connected and planned for in coordination with the "Shared Stewardship" project that has been ongoing for several years in Beaver Canyon which has incorporated numerous partners. The partners involved in the design, development, and implementation include: Beaver City, Beaver County, Hi Low Whispering Pines landowners, Elk Meadows landowners, Eagle Point Ski Resort, Rocky Mountain Power, NRCS, BLM, Utah Division of Forestry Fire and State lands, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The "Shared Stewardship" collaboration has involved multiple site visits and tours involving local, state and national government leadership, including Governor Cox, Regional Forester Mary Farnsworth, and the Deputy Chief for the Forest Service Chris French.

Future plans include additional mosaic prescribed burning to reduce the risk and severity of unwanted wildfire. Burning in the identified vegetation types will stimulate desired aspen suckering. Post treatment surveys could identify areas where potential restocking of more fire adapted species like Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir may be planted. Predominant activities in this project area are hunting and domestic livestock grazing. Future range management in this area will largely be dictated by Allotment Management Plans tiered from the Forest Plan for grazing, with focus on reducing and controlling wildfire risk and improving range quality in the uplands, pulling livestock and big game from meadows and riparian areas. Motorized travel is somewhat limited here due to just one major through route (PST#068) and much is "Inventoried roadless" so commercial timber harvest is not planned Should our monitoring detect unforeseen impacts such as over grazing or increased unauthorized vehicle use, the District plans to utilize parameters of grazing AMP's and enforcement of the travel plan to remedy. As of now, we see no reason to totally rest from grazing given recent past patterns of utilization and the assumption that a long term increase in grass/forb production from this project should contribute to more favorable growing conditions and better distribution of domestic and wild ungulates.

As habitat is improved for ungulates (deer, elk, cattle) and additional forage becomes available, the USFS expects the flexibility and management of ungulates will improve; hopefully with less controversy. Maintaining healthy populations of wildlife while also responding to the needs of livestock permittees is expected to become easier. Increased pace and scale of restoration type projects in this area is currently underway. Multiple projects have been and are currently being implemented and more are being planned in this area to restore aspen, reduce fuel loading and conserve Bonneville Trout. Grazing and recreation are the primary uses, along with commercial and private Christmas tree harvesting. Timber resources occur much higher in elevation and are limited due to roadless designation and limited access. Big game hunting and motorized recreation are very popular in this area, with SR-153 being a major corridor from Piute County to the high country and the Paiute ATV trail. A motorized travel plan for the Forest is in existence along with the permitted livestock use in the area following the parameters and guidelines as outlined in the Fishlake NF Forest Plan for sustainable uses of the resources in this area. Increased recreational opportunities such as camping, and hiking will also be enjoyed in these areas. Beaver County supports responsible public land recreation and tourism. The county views recreation and tourism as an additional economic opportunity. The county will also continue to support and work in partnership with agencies, entities, and interest groups to promote recreation and tourism. Participate as an active partner with public land management agencies to ensure that public land recreational resources are managed in ways that contribute to the protection of resources, the overall quality of life, and the recreational experience of county residents and visitors. With the removal of conifers and aspen restoration, the amount of usable grasses and forbs in the and sagebrush is expected to increase significantly. With increased forage, ungulate distribution is expected to improve. Many areas that are currently unproductive due to overgrowth will soon become desirable for future uses by ungulates. Implementation of this project would eventually improve overall livestock performance (e.g. increased cow weights, increased calf crops, increased weaning weights, etc.) and improve the economic stability of the permittees due to an increase in the quantity and quality of grasses and other herbaceous forage which are important to livestock grazing.