In 1996, the Cedar City Ranger District (District) of the Dixie National Forest identified the need to address mistletoe infection and bark beetle infestations across portions of the District in the Mammoth-Duck Creek Recovery Project Decision (USDA 1996:Decision). One of the focus areas for timber salvage and fuels reduction work in this Decision overlapped the Cooper Knolls and Haycock Peak areas of the District south and east of Panguitch Lake. At that time bark beetle infestations and tree mortality were increasing within the identified focus areas and fuel loading averaged 20-40 tons per acre. The Decision authorized removing dead and dying trees across 10,880 acres within the Panguitch Lake-Cooper Knolls Focus Area, including mistletoe infected trees, using commercial and non-commercial timber harvest. The Decision also authorized mechanical, hand thinning, and prescribed fire treatments to reduce fuels. Additionally, the Decision also identified the need for follow up treatments to address continued mistletoe infection and replanting to maintain affected timber stands. The Panguitch Lake-Cooper Knolls Focus Area from the Decision overlaps 2,811 acres (96%) of the acres being considered for treatment in the HayCoop project. Within the currently identified project area no silvicultural treatments associated with the with the Mammoth-Duck Creek Recovery Project Decision were ever implemented. Prescribed fire treatments from that Decision (underburn and broadcast burn treatments) have been conducted on almost 1,670 acres between 2006 and 2018. Additionally, in 2008 precommercial thinning was completed on approximately 254 acres under the Haycock Mountain Timber Stand Improvement and Management Ignited Fire Project Decision Memo. No treatments authorized by the Mammoth Duck Creek Recovery Project Decision were ever implemented on the remaining 1,013 acres in the HayCoop project area. Results of 2022 USDA Forest Health Protection insect and disease detection surveys across the Intermountain Region, including the Dixie National Forest, showed that the Cooper Knolls and Haycock Peak areas had potential areas of infestation. Ground verification of these detection data by Cedar City Ranger District personnel found over 160 acres of ponderosa pine with an increasing mountain pine beetle infestation in the Haycock Peak area. Additionally, they found a widespread and severe mistletoe infestation throughout ponderosa pine stands in the Cooper Knolls and Haycock Peak areas. Since insect and disease problems were identified in the Cooper Knolls and Haycock Peak area in the early 1990s, only 7% of the HayCoop project area has received any thinning treatments. While prescribed fire treatments were implemented on some of the acres, fire has been shown to have mixed effects on dwarf mistletoe outbreaks. Fire can reduce stand level mistletoe infections by killing heavily infected branches and entire host trees, but it can also weaken residual trees rendering them more susceptible to infection (Alexander and Hawksworth 1976). Hessburg et al. (2008) demonstrated that both thinning alone, or thinning and burning combined, was more effective at reducing the stand densities of mistletoe infected trees than burning alone. Mistletoe infections generally increase by one DMR every 10 years and trees at a DMR 6 rating usually die within 10-20 years (Conklin and Fairweather 2010). Since the thinning and salvage harvest treatments identified in the Mammoth Duck Creek Recovery Project Decision were never implemented, mistletoe infections in the HayCoop project area have continued to increase and spread. Data collected in the Cooper Knolls and Haycock Peak areas in 2023 suggest that this area has become heavily infected with mistletoe in the 28 years since the Mammoth-Duck Creek Recovery Project Decision. Management recommendations for heavily infested mistletoe include shelterwood cutting or clearcutting and replanting when the infection is severe enough (Conklin and Fairweather 2010). The area surrounding State Highway 143 and Panguitch Lake is considered to be within Wildland Urban Interface (WUI)and has transportation and utility infrastructure, businesses, and a considerable number of private residences as evidenced in the Panguitch Lake Community Wildfire Protection Plan (UDNR 2005). The Dixie National Forest identifies WUI as; the area adjacent to an at-risk value (structure, community, critical infrastructure or municipal water shed) where wildland fuels and human development exist, creating a fire environment that poses a threat to life safety and/or property damage. Approximately 1,325 acres (45%) of the proposed project area is designated as WUI. The State of Utah lists the Panguitch Lake/Beaver Dam/Clear Creek community as a Community at Risk (https://www.ffsl.utah.gov/fire/wildfire-community-preparedness/communities-at-risk/). This community had an overall score of 10 (0 =No risk to 12= Extreme risk) when the State analyzed risk factors for each community. High fuel loading and the difficult capability of firefighting contributed to this high score. Private lands, including their improvements and structures and human occupants, face a threat from wildfire. Conversely, there is a threat of wildfire coming from these private lands onto the forest and causing damage to forest resources. Forest Service regulations provide for special attention to WUIs to reduce wildfire intensity and create defensible space around the WUI, and reduce risk to National Forest lands from unwanted fire. The principles of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy include "To safely and effectively extinguish fire when needed; use fire where allowed; manage our national resources; and as a nation, to live with wildland fire" (Wildfire Leadership Council, 2013). Two of the three national goals of the Cohesive Strategy that apply to this project are to (1) create fire-adapted communities and (2) restore and maintain fire resilient landscapes. Additionally, one of the core values in the Cohesive Strategy is to reduce the risk to firefighters and the public, which also applies to this project. In 2022 the Forest Service expanded on the Cohesive strategy with a new Wildfire Crisis Strategy (Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America's Forests, USDA 2022). This Wildfire Crisis Strategy highlights how one in three homes in the United States is now in the WUI and that 70,000 communities are at risk from wildfire. It directs Forest Service units "to place fuels and forest health treatments in the right places and at the pace and scale needed to change the trajectory of wildfire risk to people, communities, and natural resources and to restore forest health and resilience." Having a large percentage of insect and disease-caused tree mortality amplifies the potential for large intense fires in the coming years. These large fires would be driven by the amount and continuity of dry, combustible, woody material. Tree mortality has long been known to play a relevant role in altering fuel dynamics within the Dixie National Forest. Shortly stated, the process of reducing live canopy fuels and subsequently increasing dead fuels alters the arrangement, composition, and quantity of fuel available for combustion. These fuel changes directly influence the spread and intensity of wildland fires, and indirectly influence micrometeorological conditions that can drive fire behavior and effects. The insect and disease infestations within the project area, and the WUI, are creating conditions that could result in a large, catastrophic wildfire.

Survey and SHPO Concurrence on 1,002 acres to facilitate: 1) Reduction in spread of mistletoe. 2) Reduced risk of uncharacteristically high severity and catastrophic fire. 3) Prevent wildfire impacts to adjacent sage grouse habitat and water quallity impacts to Panguitch Lake, Panguitch Creek, and the Sevier River.

Mistletoe infections generally increase by one DMR every 10 years and trees at a DMR 6 rating usually die within 10-20 years (Conklin and Fairweather 2010). Since the thinning and salvage harvest treatments identified in the Mammoth Duck Creek Recovery Project Decision were never implemented, mistletoe infections in the HayCoop project area have continued to increase and spread. Data collected in the Cooper Knolls and Haycock Peak areas in 2023 suggest that this area has become heavily infected with mistletoe in the 28 years since the Mammoth-Duck Creek Recovery Project Decision. The area surrounding State Highway 143 and Panguitch Lake is considered to be within Wildland Urban Interface (WUI)and has transportation and utility infrastructure, businesses, and a considerable number of private residences as evidenced in the Panguitch Lake Community Wildfire Protection Plan (UDNR 2005). The Dixie National Forest identifies WUI as; the area adjacent to an at-risk value (structure, community, critical infrastructure or municipal water shed) where wildland fuels and human development exist, creating a fire environment that poses a threat to life safety and/or property damage. Approximately 1,325 acres (45%) of the proposed project area is designated as WUI. Having a large percentage of insect and disease-caused tree mortality amplifies the potential for large intense fires in the coming years. These large fires would be driven by the amount and continuity of dry, combustible, woody material. Tree mortality has long been known to play a relevant role in altering fuel dynamics within the Dixie National Forest. Shortly stated, the process of reducing live canopy fuels and subsequently increasing dead fuels alters the arrangement, composition, and quantity of fuel available for combustion. These fuel changes directly influence the spread and intensity of wildland fires, and indirectly influence micrometeorological conditions that can drive fire behavior and effects. The insect and disease infestations within the project area, and the WUI, are creating conditions that could result in a large, catastrophic wildfire. In addition to impacts to the WUI a large catstrophic wildfire here could have negative impatcs to Panguitch Lake and Panguitch Creek. Panguitch Creek contains a conservation population of Southern leatherside and is a recreational nonnative trout fishery. Fire impacts to this stream could cause impacts to these fisheries. Panguitcch Lake is a Blur Ribbon nonnative trout fishery and an extremely popular fishing and boating destination. Panguitch Lake is listed as impaired for total phosporus and has been having toxic algae blooms in recent years. Panguitch lake is one of southern Utah's most heavily used fisheries and brings in a substantial amount of tourism revenue to the local community. Part of the project overlaps the Panguitch Sage Grouse PHMA and the entire project is adjacent to the PHMA. Reducing the risk of high severity fire in mountain sagebrush areas in and adjacent to the project area is consistent with management plans for sage grouse. This project is 100% contained within the Panguitch Lake Unit for both mule deer and elk. The mule deer population on the Panguitch Lake Unit is in a slightly downward trend with an estimated population of 10,000 deer and an objective of 11,000. The elk herd on the Panguitch Lake unit is also below objective with and estimated population of 1,000 and an objective of 1,100-1,300. The project is in winter crucial, summer crucial, and summer substantial habitat for mule deer. Preventing high severity fire impacts to crucial winter habitat is consistent with management plans for mule deer.

1) Dixie National Forest LRMP Goal 15 -- Maintain or enhance the terrestrial habitat for all wildlife species presently on the Forest (page IV-5). All the vegetation treatments proposed should increase browse and or forage for Forest MIS species, such as mule deer and nonnative trout. Goal 17 -- Managed Classified Species habitat to maintain or enhance their status through direct habitat improvement and agency cooperation (Page IV-6). This project has the potential to benefit a conservation population Southern leatherside chub. SLSC is an Intermountain Region Sensitive species and is managed under Conservation Agreement and Strategy that both DWR and the Forest Service are signatories or involved partners. This project is also designed to benefit Greater sage grouse an Intermountain Region Sensitive species. 2) National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy states "To safely and effectively extinguish fire when needed; use fire where allowed; manage our national resources; and as a nation, to live with wildland fire" (Wildfire Leadership Council, 2013). Two of the three national goals of the Cohesive Strategy that apply to this project are to (1) create fire-adapted communities and (2) restore and maintain fire resilient landscapes. Additionally, one of the core values in the Cohesive Strategy is to reduce the risk to firefighters and the public, which also applies to this project. 3) Wildfire Crisis Strategy (Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America's Forests, USDA 2022). This Wildfire Crisis Strategy highlights how one in three homes in the United States is now in the WUI and that 70,000 communities are at risk from wildfire. It directs Forest Service units "to place fuels and forest health treatments in the right places and at the pace and scale needed to change the trajectory of wildfire risk to people, communities, and natural resources and to restore forest health and resilience." 4) Southern Leatherside chub CAS -- Conservation Element D4) Maintain Natural Hydrologic conditions. This project proposes to maintain an improve the water table, create exclosures and riparian pastures on private lands, and enhance native vegetation and bank stability, all of which support these elements of the CAS. Preventing uncharactersitically high severity widlfire on these acres reduces the risk for negative impacts to hydrologic conditions in Bear Creek. 5) Utah Greater Sage-Grouse Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment - In priority and general habitat management areas, sagebrush focal areas, and Anthro Mountain, fuel treatments should be designed to maintain, restore, or enhance greater sage-grouse habitat. 6) Panguitch Lake Deer Herd Unit #28 Management Plan - Maintain mule deer habitat throughout the unit by protecting and enhancing existing crucial habitats and mitigating for losses due to natural and human impacts. Work with federal and state partners in fire rehabilitation and prevention on crucial deer habitat through the WRI process. 7) UPPER SEVIER RIVER Total Maximum Daily Load and Water Quality Management Plan - Lists wildfire as a "natural" non-point source of pollution. Show the Sevier River where Panguitch Creek enters as having a TMDL for Total Phosphorus (TP), Habitat Alteration.

The area surrounding State Highway 143 and Panguitch Lake is considered to be within Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) and has transportation and utility infrastructure, businesses, and a considerable number of private residences as evidenced in the Panguitch Lake Community Wildfire Protection Plan (UDNR 2005). The Dixie National Forest identifies WUI as; the area adjacent to an at-risk value (structure, community, critical infrastructure or municipal water shed) where wildland fuels and human development exist, creating a fire environment that poses a threat to life safety and/or property damage. Approximately 1,325 acres (45%) of the proposed project area is designated as WUI. The State of Utah lists the Panguitch Lake/Beaver Dam/Clear Creek community as a Community at Risk (https://www.ffsl.utah.gov/fire/wildfire-community-preparedness/communities-at-risk/). This community had an overall score of 10 (0 =No risk to 12= Extreme risk) when the State analyzed risk factors for each community. High fuel loading and the difficult capability of firefighting contributed to this high score. Private lands, including their improvements and structures and human occupants, face a threat from wildfire. Conversely, there is a threat of wildfire coming from these private lands onto the forest and causing damage to forest resources. Forest Service regulations provide for special attention to WUIs to reduce wildfire intensity and create defensible space around the WUI, and reduce risk to National Forest lands from unwanted fire. The principles of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy include "To safely and effectively extinguish fire when needed; use fire where allowed; manage our national resources; and as a nation, to live with wildland fire" (Wildfire Leadership Council, 2013). Two of the three national goals of the Cohesive Strategy that apply to this project are to (1) create fire-adapted communities and (2) restore and maintain fire resilient landscapes. Additionally, one of the core values in the Cohesive Strategy is to reduce the risk to firefighters and the public, which also applies to this project. In 2022 the Forest Service expanded on the Cohesive strategy with a new Wildfire Crisis Strategy (Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America's Forests, USDA 2022). This Wildfire Crisis Strategy highlights how one in three homes in the United States is now in the WUI and that 70,000 communities are at risk from wildfire. It directs Forest Service units "to place fuels and forest health treatments in the right places and at the pace and scale needed to change the trajectory of wildfire risk to people, communities, and natural resources and to restore forest health and resilience." Having a large percentage of insect and disease-caused tree mortality amplifies the potential for large intense fires in the coming years. These large fires would be driven by the amount and continuity of dry, combustible, woody material. Tree mortality has long been known to play a relevant role in altering fuel dynamics within the Dixie National Forest. Shortly stated, the process of reducing live canopy fuels and subsequently increasing dead fuels alters the arrangement, composition, and quantity of fuel available for combustion. These fuel changes directly influence the spread and intensity of wildland fires, and indirectly influence micrometeorological conditions that can drive fire behavior and effects. The insect and disease infestations within the project area, and the WUI, are creating conditions that could result in a large, catastrophic wildfire.

Panguitch Lake (Total P), a section of Panguitch Creek (E. coli), and the Sevier River downstream from the confluence of Panguitch Creek (Total P) are all listed not meeting there beneficial use designations. Panguitch Lake and the Sevier River have TMDLs. This project would lower the risk of high severity wildfire which could result in ash flows that could increase Total P in these water bodies. Goeking and Tarboton (2020) examined the potential for large scale conifer removal, through natural or man made disturbance, to result in increased water yields. They found that water yield could increase, remain stagnant, or even decrease following the removal of conifers. Given the location and site characteristics of this area any water yield increases following harvest would be expected to be short-lived.

The Cedar City Ranger District is in the process of completing a Decision Memo under Section 603 of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. The Decision is expected to be signed by September 2024.

Cultural clearance contract on 1,002 acres.

1) Upland Vegatation trend monitoring - Within the entire project the Dixie National Forest has established two upland vegetation trend studies, one of these is within the 1,002 acres to have a cultural contract. These studies are repeated every 5 years and are detailed in biennial monitoring reports by the Dixie National Forest and can be uploaded to the WRI web site. 2) Common Stand Exam - Has been completed on 25 siites with 25 more planned before project implementation. These sites could be repeated into the future to assess the change in stand conditions before and after project implementation. 3) Panguitch Creek - UDWR and the Forest Service have three quantitative stations on Panguitch Creek and cooperate on quantiative and qualitative sampling efforts. Sampling generally occurs every 5 years and data are detailed in the biennial monitoring reports by the Dixie National Forest and can be uploaded to the WRI web site. 4) Water quality - DEQ conducts water wuality sampling on Panguitch Lake. 5) Photo points -- Multiple photo points have been/will be established on within the project area to document conditions before and after the treatments are implemented.

Phase I of this project is to collect survey data. A contractor, selected through the Utah Department of Natural Resources, will be hired 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 including UDWR, the commercial logging industry, permittees, private landowners, NRCS, and and Utah FFSL. Funding for the cultural clearance will come from Forest Service funds that are already in an agreement with the Utah Department of Natural Resources (see Finance page). Additionally, non-fire treatments will be completed through commercial timber sales at no cost to UWRI. Prescribed fire treatments and pile burning will be completed through internal Forest Service salary and expense monies.

This proposal is Phase I of multiple phases. Future phases will implement project restoration efforts. Phases will include commercial thinning and sanitation harvests and prescribed burns. Follow-up treatments would be pursued if initial treatments are deemed unsuccessful through stand exam, fuels treatment effectiveness, and other monitoring. Invasive and noxious weeds may be treated where appropriate and allowable. Once treatments in the entire project area are completed the goal is to manage fire adapted ecosystems through a combination wildfire (managed for resource plan benefits) and low intensity prescribed fire. No changes to livestock management will be necessary.

As discussed above Panguitch Lake is an extremely popular area for fishing, camping, OHV use and other recreation. Removal of dead and dying trees will improve visuals in the long-term and reduce the risk of high severity fire impacts that could impact visuals, water quality and wildlife habitat. This project is also expected to produce nearly 10 years worth of timber sales, which would support the local logging industry.

04/19/2024

03/27/2025

2025

The project was contracted to Broadbent & Associates, Inc. Broadbent conducted the survey following DNF and Utah State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) guidelines for archaeological inventory. A total of 1,048.76-acres were surveyed at an intensive level and 54.24-acres were judged to be no surveyable based on slope and/or vegetation coverage. No acreage was surveyed at a non-intensive level. The results of these surveys were compiled into a report and submitted to the UT SHPO (U24BV0654 (FS # R2024040700010), A Class III Inventory for the Haycock Peak, Phase I Heritage Survey (WRI 7222), Garfield County, Utah).

These cultural surveys were contracte for Phase 1 of the Haycock Peak- Cooper Knolls Insect and Disease Management project. The surveys resulted in the identification of 14 new archaeological sites and 25 isolated finds. No previously recorded sites were within the boundaries of this project's APE. None of the sites were found to be elgible for listing under the NHPA. The Dixie National Forest determined that this project would result in a finding of no historic properties affected and UT SHPO concurred (see letters under Images/Documents).

This proposal is Phase I of multiple phases. Future phases will implement project restoration efforts. Phases will include commercial thinning and sanitation harvests and prescribed burns. Follow-up treatments would be pursued if initial treatments are deemed unsuccessful through stand exam, fuels treatment effectiveness, and other monitoring. Invasive and noxious weeds may be treated where appropriate and allowable. Once treatments in the entire project area are completed the goal is to manage fire adapted ecosystems through a combination wildfire (managed for resource plan benefits) and low intensity prescribed fire. No changes to livestock management will be necessary.