The South Slope Fuels Reduction project area is comprised of a few different types of ecological areas. This project is Phase 1 and targeting the fuel loading along the roadways around the 77 Flat area. Once the fuel breaks are put in, we will look at reentering the area and burn the units. These stands are typically characterized by significant fuel loads from both live and dead trees. Much of the area has been heavily impacted by the effects of beetle mortality. These factors create a scenario for very destructive wildfire. Duchesne County has experienced significant fire activity over the past five years with the 2018 Dollar Ridge Fire and the 2020 East Fork Fire as some notable examples. It is expected that this fire activity will continue, and this project is an attempt to remove hazardous fuels accumulations across a landscape-scale to diminish the effects that large wildfires have on the environments and surrounding communities.

Objectives for the project are as follows: 1) Reduced hazardous fuel loading along the roadways around 77 Flat area. 2) Create targeted fuels breaks around identified values at risk in order to reduce the impacts from naturally occurring wildfire while creating opportunities for utilizing natural fire as a management tool. 3)Improve habitat for a number of dependent species including; but not limited too; Elk, Mule Deer, Northern Goshawk, Western Toad, and Cutthroat Trout. Mastication along the roads will prepare the area for the wildlife habitat improvement treatments. Such as prescribed fire. There are Elk and Deer that use the area according to wildlife tracker. 4) Improve watershed resiliency through hazardous fuel reduction in an effort to reduce the soil and water impacts associated with large wildfire. 5) Improve domestic livestock grazing through the reduction of fuels accumulation on the forest floor.

Much of the project area is already subject to risks associated with potential for large fire. Analysis done by the forest in 2006 in a similar area shows that much of the area is characterized by Fire Regime Condition Classes (FRCC) 2 and 3 showing departures from average fire intervals as high as 80% from historical averages in given species in the area. Much of the area has missed one; if not more, regular fire intervals and has resulted in at least "moderately" altered species composition. A lack of logging coupled with Mountain Pine Beetle mortality in the given project area has enforced this FRCC rating. General guidance regarding Fire Regime Condition Class shows that areas characterized by FRCC 2 and 3 may require mechanical treatments to alter fuel characteristics before allowing prescribed or natural fire to occur in the area.

Presidential Executive Order 13855 12/2018 Sec 2 (ii) The Secretary of Agriculture shall review the Secretary's budget justifications and give all due consideration to establishing the following objectives for 2019, as feasible and appropriate in light of those budget justifications, and consistent with applicable law and available appropriations: (A) Treating 3.5 million acres of Department of Agriculture Forest Service lands to reduce fuel load (B) Treating 2.2 millions acres of USDA FS lands to protect water quality and mitigate sever flooding and erosion risk arising from forest fires. Sec 6: Collaborative Partnerships. To reduce fuel loads, restore watersheds, and improve forest, rangeland, and other Federal land conditions, and to utilize available expertise and efficiently deploy resources, the secretaries shall expand collaboration with States, tribes, communities, non-profit organizations, and private sector. Such expanded collaboration by the secretaries shall at minimum address: (b) Achieving the land management restoration goals set forth in section 2 of this order and reducing fuel loads by pursuing long-term stewardship contracts, including 20-year contracts, with States, tribes, non-profit organizations, communities, and the private sector, consistent with applicable law. Ashley National Forest Forest Plan Amendment 16 (Fire Ecology/Management) (May 2001) Fuels-Reduce Hazardous Fuels. The full range of fuel reduction methods is authorized, consistent with forest and management area emphasis and direction. Agreement for Shared Stewardship between the State of Utah and the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. *Using all available tools for active management. The States and the Forest Service will use every available authority and tool to do more work on the ground, including timber sales, mechanical treatments, prescribed fire, hazardous fuels reduction, long-term stewardship contracts, innovative wood-product utilization, carefully managing fire, and working with partners. Utah Elk Statewide Management Plan Strategies: B. Habitat Management a) Coordinate with land management agencies and private landowners to properly manage and improve elk habitat, especially calving and wintering areas. C. Watershed Restoration Initiative: a) Increase forage production by annually treating a minimum of 40,000 acres of elk habitat. B) Coordinate with land management agencies, conservation organizations, private landowners, and local leaders through the regional WRI working groups to identify and prioritize elk habitats that are in need of enhancement or restoration. ii) Encourage land managers to manage portions of forests in early succession stages through the use of controlled burning or logging. Controlled burning should only be used in areas with minimal invasive weeds and/or safety concerns. iii) Promote let-burn policies in appropriate areas that will benefit elk, and conduct reseeding efforts post wildfire. Elk Herd Unit Management Plan -- Elk Herd Unit #9A Yellowstone -- Objective -- Reinstitute a natural fire interval in the conifer zone to improve elk habitat. Utah Mule Deer Statewide Management Plan Habitat Objective 2: Improve the quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a minimum of 500,000 acres of crucial ranges by 2019. Strategies: b) Work with land management agencies, conservation organizations, private landowners, and local leaders through the regional WRI working groups to identify and prioritize mule deer habitats that are in need of enhancement or restoration. f) Seek opportunities through the WRI to improve aspen communities that provide crucial summer habitat for mule deer. Deer Herd Unit Management Plan-Deer Herd Unit #9 Yellowstone-- Objective -Preserve, protect and/or acquire critical winter range when the opportunity arises, Strategy -- Protect deer winter ranges from wildfire by creating fuel breaks. Utah Moose Statewide Management Plan-Help to improve transient habitat by removing coniferous trees and converting habitat back to early seral stages by using fire. Duchesne County General Plan-- State of Utah Catastrophic Wildfire Reduction Strategy -- Identifying the gaps between the existing conditions and the desired conditions. Addressing the underlying problem of improving forest, range, watershed, and ecosystem health. Ashley's Land and Resource Management Plan: Riparian Objective #1 -- Maintain or improve riparian areas and riparian dependent resource values including wildlife, fish, vegetation, watershed, and recreation in a stable or upward trend. Manage for species diversity. (p. IV-45 and 46) *Maintain natural complexity and high relative productivity of riparian areas. *Riparian areas will be given a high priority for rehabilitation in range improvement, fish and wildlife improvement, watershed restoration, road maintenance, and KV programs. Riparian Objective #1 -- Maintain or improve riparian areas and riparian dependent resource values including wildlife, fish, vegetation, watershed, and recreation in a stable or upward trend. Manage for species diversity. (p. IV-45 and 46) *Maintain natural complexity and high relative productivity of riparian areas. *Riparian areas will be given a high priority for rehabilitation in range improvement, fish and wildlife improvement, watershed restoration, road maintenance, and KV programs. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Colorado River Cutthroat Trout Conservation Strategy -- Objective 4 -- Secure and enhance watershed conditions, Utah Strategy 4.1: Explore whether restoration techniques are applicable in degraded watersheds that have not experienced fire. CRCT Task Force. 2001. Conservation agreement and strategy for Colorado River cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki pleuriticus) in the States of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Colorado Divison of Wildlife, Fort Collins. 87p.

The primary objective of this project is hazardous fuels removal with the intent of reducing the potential for stand replacing wildfire. Much of the area is characterized by dense fuel loading both in standing trees as well as dead and down litter that exists under the canopy. Fire Regime Condition Class analysis shows a departure from historical normal fire return intervals. There are considerable values at risk in the area and project objectives intend to reduce the threat of wildfire to these values. Hazardous fuels reduction efforts in the project area will also be utilized to increase opportunities for allowing naturally occurring wildfire to be used as a management tool in the project area

Decreased fuel loading in the project area will improve water quality in a number of different ways. Heavy fuel loading on the forest floor creates a fire environment that resonates high heat for long periods of time which has a detrimental effect on soil quality. In the event of a fire, reducing these fuel loads and stand densities will allow for a faster moving fire that will burn at cooler temperatures. This fuels reduction will also improve water quality in terms of precipitation's ability to reach the forest floor preventing loss from evaporation and sublimation. Ultimately, reducing fuel loads will create an environment that will reduce the risk of stand replacing fire which has significant impacts in terms of soil quality and debris and sediment flow commonly associated with post-fire landscapes.

This project is currently in the NEPA planning phase. The Ashley National Forest is seeking funding for specific areas of archaeological and silvicultural prescriptions.(See attached map for survey areas.) Site specific analysis will be complete through the forest NEPA process. Implementation will occur under a multiple decisions. Currently the Ashley National Forest is engaged in a Forest-wide Prescribed Fire Environmental Assessment. Prescribed fire portions of this project will likely be conducted under that analysis while mechanical treatments will be conducted under a separate analysis.

This proposal is seeking funding for Mastication of fuels break lines and mastication prep for prescribe fire burn units. First we will start with the minimal fuel zone. This zone represents 100 feet on each side of the unburnable zone (usually the center of a road or trail). By creating defensible space by reducing densities to less than 8 trees per acre. The second zone is the shaded fuel break zone. The shaded fuel break zone is an additional 200 feet on each side of the minimal fuel zone. The entire area of treatment is 600 feet wide using the road or trail as the center. This zone will have more trees per acer dependent on species. In lodgepole pine stands, create defensible space by using shaded fuel breaks that reduce densities of trees to 110 to 125 trees per acre. In forested areas other than lodgepole pine, create defensible space by using shaded fuel breaks that reduce densities of trees to 50-70 trees per acre. The priority for tree species retention would be given to ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, spruce, lodgepole pine, true firs and lastly juniper.

The Ashley National Forest adheres to a strict monitoring plan for projects conducted on forest lands. In the pre-NEPA phase of project design, Timber stand plots are conducted to establish and prescribe desired stand condition. Post implementation stand assessments are completed and then monitored every 3-5 years to continue to asses stand vigor and composition. In addition to timber stand monitoring, photo plots are located throughout the project area and are continuously updated on a 1-3 year interval. A UWRI completion report will be done and uploaded to the database upon project completion.

The project is bordered by Uintah and Ouray Tribal lands. In an effort to accomplish cross-jurisdictional management objectives, the Ashley National Forest has engaged the Uintah and Ouray tribe to discuss the project. Initial meetings were held with representation from the Bureau of Indian affairs and the Ashley National Forest. These meetings are on-going with the intent to move treatments across jurisdictional boundaries. Additionally, the Ashley National Forest is committed to working with landowners and private in-holdings within the project area to protect values at risk in the event of a significant wildfire. Much of this coordination will be accomplished through our existing relationship with personnel from the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands, as well as our cooperators from Duchesne County.

The Ashley National Forest is committed to management in this area for the foreseeable future. It is intended that treatments will build upon one another and create a scenario where one management action will lead to another phase of implementation. An example of this would be creating fuels breaks around values at risk in order to create conditions that would allow for prescribed or managed natural fire occurrence in subsequent years. The funding requested for this fiscal year is being requested in order to set the forest up for the first round of implementation. Once the NEPA process is completed, it is anticipated that implementation funding will be requested for many years to come in this project area.

The forest is committed to utilizing biomass throughout the project area where appropriate. Commercial timber harvesting will be targeted as the initial strategy for proposed actions as it creates a sustainable benefit to local communities in terms of forest production and economic incentive. The Ashley National Forest recognizes that commercial timber harvesting is not always realistic due to economic and logistical concerns that may prohibit the removal of commercial forest products in some locations. In project areas where this is the case, the forest is committed to employing alternative methods in order to expedite biomass removal. As outlined previously in this proposal, and in accordance with associated land management plans and guidance, all methods of fuels reduction work will be considered and employed in the project area. Fuels reduction work also has a benefit to domestic livestock in terms of animal distribution and available forage as a result of woody vegetation removal.