Final Environmental Impact Statement

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Appendix B: Design Criteria Common to All 

Alternatives

Design criteria for each resource analyzed are listed below. Effects analysis was conducted presuming the 

implementation of these design criteria.

Botanical Resources

Design criteria would be developed for the following routes to avoid or mitigate damage to Region 2 

sensitive plant species, Forest plant species of local concern, MA 3.1 botanical areas, and 

riparian/wetland/fen areas.

Table B-1. Routes requiring design criteria

Species Occurrence Route number Alt. B Alt. C Alt. D

Routes to be designed, removed, or rerouted to avoid impacts to Region 2 sensitive species

Bearlodge Ranger District

Botrychium campestre BOCA5-8 872.3 X

Botrychium lineare BOLI7-1

864.1 (outside 

Dugout Gulch 

Botanical Area)

X X

Carex alopecoidea CAAL8-12 U71002 X

CAAL8-31 841.1L X X

Cypripedium parviflorum CYPA19-10 863.2C X X

Viburnum opulus var. americanum VIOPA2-2, VIOPA2-16 864.1 (in Dugout 

Gulch Botanical Area) X X

03DUG3A, 94S460B U650017 X X

Northern Hills Ranger District

Carex alopecoidea CAAL8-22 U710024 X

Cypripedium parviflorum 950070B U080045 X X X

Platanthera orbiculata 01G040 CZ0418, U010076 X X

PLOR4-18 U010071 X X

Sanguinaria canadensis SACA13-2 567.1F X X X

SACA13-2 172.1A X X X

Viburnum opulus var. americanum VIOPA2-4 U080156 X X

980010 CZ4846 X X

Mystic Ranger District

Cypripedium parviflorum CYPA19-2 CZ1790 X X X

Routes requiring design criteria to avoid impacts to Black Hills NF plant SOLC

Mystic Ranger District

Gentiana affinis 07M008A CZ4927 X

Hell Canyon Ranger District

Gentiana affinis GEAF-4 HC9 X X

07B040A CZ3526 X X

07B042 HC1 X X

Routes requiring design criteria to avoid impacts to M.A. 3.1 Botanical Areas

Bearlodge Ranger District

Dugout Gulch Botanical Area 864.1C X X

864.1 X X

864.1A X

Routes requiring design criteria to avoid impacts to fens

Mystic Ranger District

South Fork Castle Creek fen 385.1A X X X
Black Hills National Forest Travel Management Plan

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Species Occurrence Route number Alt. B Alt. C Alt. D

Newton Fork fen 304.1L X X X

Cultural Resources

The USDA Forest Service, in consultation with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, developed 

a policy statement in February 2005 designed to address specific issues related to the designation of 

motorized vehicle systems on the nation's national forests (USDA Forest Service 2005e). The policy 

stated that only certain elements of the 2005 Travel Management Rule are to be considered undertakings 

with the potential to affect historic properties, triggering evaluation under Section 106 of NHPA and 36 

CFR §800. The categories cited are:

Construction of a new road or trail;

Authorization of motor vehicle use on a route currently closed to vehicles; and

Formal recognition of a user-developed (unauthorized) route as a designated route open to motor 

vehicles.

The following indicators are used to measure effects to cultural resources:

Number of historic properties within unauthorized routes at risk from ongoing use

Degree to which the integrity of historic property values are diminished

The magnitude of effect to a historic property's integrity determines the severity of any direct, 

indirect, or cumulative effects. A four-category system is utilized: no/negligible, minor, moderate, 

and major. These categories represent a progressive scale that provides a qualitative assessment of 

the severity of any direct, indirect, or cumulative effects to the integrity of a cultural resource site.

No distinction is made between “no” effect and “negligible” effect. The majority of cultural 

resources in the project area have been impacted by some type of motorized activity. The most 

innocuous effects can be described as “negligible” as opposed to “none.” In either case, the effect to 

historic properties is minimal and no protection measures are required.

If the severity of effect is determined to be minor, some type of protection measure may be required.

In nearly all cases the preferred method will be to include the site in a well-defined monitoring plan 

designed to ensure that the minor degree of disturbance (or potential for disturbance) initially noted 

does not exhibit a tendency to increase in severity over time.

If the severity of effect is determined to be moderate, some type of protective measure is required. In 

most cases, the preferred method will be to cap the site with a geotextile material and cover the 

fabric with a protective barrier most frequently composed of crushed rock, thereby eliminating the 

potential for effects to cultural resources.

If the severity of effect is determined to be major, more complex and potentially costly mitigation 

measures are required to prevent adverse effects to the resource. In most cases, the only viable 

option may be to reroute the road/trail around the resource.

If, during the implementation stages of this project, any cultural artifacts and/or features, skeletal remains, 

or other indicators of past human activities are encountered, all ground-disturbing activities must stop and 

a Forest Service archaeologist be contacted. The archaeologist, in consultation with the appropriate SHPO 

and Native American tribes, will determine the appropriate course of action.
Final Environmental Impact Statement

3

Engineering and Transportation Design Criteria

Roads and trails that make up the Forest transportation system will be constructed and maintained, to the 

extent practical, in accordance with Forest Service design standards and Region 2 Watershed 

Conservation Practices Handbook.

Hydrology and Fisheries

Road/Trail Drainage within the Water Influence Zone (WIZ)

Provide adequate road and trail cross drainage to reduce erosion (guideline 9202e) by installing 

waterbars/rolling dips within the WIZ using the following as a guide:

One waterbar/rolling dip should be installed as close to the 

stream crossing as possible (on both sides) to redirect 

concentrated water off the trail and allow for filtration of 

concentrated water before entering the stream to disconnect 

the pollutant sources (sediment).

The waterbars/rolling dips just before the stream crossing 

should be hardened with gravel to maintain function.

If there is no opportunity to drain waterbars/rolling dips, 

small sediment basins should be used to maintain the above 

water bar/rolling dip spacing.

Stream Crossings

Design and construct all stream crossings and other instream structures to provide for passage of flow 

and sediment, withstand expected flood flows, and allow free movement of resident aquatic life 

(standard 1203). (No native material crossings, gravel or large gravel rocks should be used because 

these do not protect the stream bottom and banks. They allow sediment to be generated during the 

crossing of each vehicle.)

○ Perennial stream crossings on the following routes (Table B-3) should be armored or remediated 

as soon as practicable in this order of priority, if designated on the MVUM. Prioritization is based 

primarily on whether a stream crossing was on a user-created route or a proposed new route 

requiring construction versus an existing system route that was engineered, the level and type of 

use, degree of anticipated impact, and aquatic resource value.

Table B-3. Priority of armoring or remediation for perennial stream crossings

Route Stream crossing Alt. B Alt. C Alt. D Ranger District

CZ-4895 Rapid Creek x Mystic

CZ-3050 South Fork Castle Cr. x x x Mystic

CZ-3462 Heely Creek x x x Mystic

CZ-3464 Heely Creek x x x Mystic

CZ-0886 Heely Creek x x Mystic

MY84 Heely Creek x x x Mystic

U230014 Tributary – Ditch Cr. x x x Mystic

CZ-4927 Castle Creek x Mystic

U120146 Gimlet Creek x x Northern Hills

CZ-4846 Gimlet Creek x x Northern Hills

MY3 Gimlet Creek x x x Northern Hills

MY66 Spring Creek x Mystic

MY50 Horse Creek x Mystic

Table B-2. Spacing for waterbars

Road or trail 

grade (%)

Spacing between 

waterbars (feet)

2 250

5 135

10 80

15 60

20 45

Source: SD State University et al. (2003)
Black Hills National Forest Travel Management Plan

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Design options for mitigation. (The goal is to protect the stream bottom and banks to prevent 

sediment from entering the stream or being mobilized when vehicles cross and to prevent widening of 

the stream.)

○ Bridge

○ Cattle guard (bridge)

○ Arch/half round culvert (width is at least bankfull width)

○ Concrete rails/mats (buried so top of rails/mats is at the stream bed elevation)

○ Culvert (diameter or width is at least bankfull width and buried so stream substrate is in the 

bottom of the culvert)

○ Other material may be used as it becomes available as long as it meets the goal to prevent 

sediment and stream widening

Generally, the road/trail grade to the crossing will be less than 5 percent.

Minimize fill in floodplains to facilitate crossings to allow flood flows to pass with minimal 

interruption.

Perennial stream crossings on the following routes should be monitored annually for the first 3 years 

if designated on the MVUM to determine if unacceptable resource damage is occurring to 

streambanks and riparian vegetation. If so, the streambanks should be mitigated at a designated 

crossing location per the options identified above.

Table B-4. Perennial stream crossings to be monitored

Route Stream crossing Alt. B Alt. C Alt. D Ranger District

CZ-4829 Elk Creek x x Northern Hills

CZ-4859 Jim Creek x x Northern Hills

CZ-4878 Prairie Creek x Mystic

CZ-4889 Tributary – Spring Creek x Mystic

CZ-4889 Victoria Creek x x x Mystic

CZ-4895 Prairie Creek x Mystic

CZ-4910 Estes Creek x x Northern Hills

CZ-4927 Slate Creek x Mystic

CZ-4928 Newton Fork Creek x Mystic

U270093 Tepee Gulch x x Mystic

Closing Roads

When possible and circumstances permit, road/stream crossings on perennial and intermittent streams 

on closed roads will have the crossing rehabilitated by restoring the natural shape (including stream 

width) to allow natural flows at all stages by pulling culverts and by removing any fill placed in the 

floodplain.

Fish Spawning Protection

The following design criteria should apply for instream construction activities to install, repair or 

remove road/trail crossings on perennial streams to meet the Region 2 Watershed Conservation 

Practices Management Measure 3; Design Criteria (c) to keep heavy equipment out of streams during 

fish spawning, incubation, and emergence periods.

○ In all South Dakota streams classified as cold water streams, when water flow is present, the 

discharge of dredged or fill material shall not take place between October 15 and April 1.

○ In Wyoming, the period and timing of in-water construction should be adjusted as necessary to 

avoid conflicts with brown or brook trout spawning from September 15 through November 30.
Final Environmental Impact Statement

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Wet Areas/Wetland Areas

Areas not connected to streams that are wet and have riparian/wetland vegetation will be avoided and 

runoff from the roads/trail will not be drained into these areas.

Avoid creating elevated roads or trails through wetlands, to avoid disrupting the flow of water 

through the wetland.

Trailheads

Do not locate new trailheads or expand existing trailheads in the WIZ (a minimum 100-foot buffer 

from waterbodies).

Game Retrieval and Road Egress

Prohibit land vehicles from entering perennial streams where resource damage would occur except to 

cross at specified points (guideline 9107).

Vehicular traffic, except for snowmobiles, will be restricted to roads and trails in riparian areas 

(guideline 9108).

Walk-in fisheries are closed to motorized travel (guideline 9109).

Dispersed Camping

Discourage dispersed camping within a minimum of 100 feet from lakes and streams unless 

exceptions are justified by terrain (guideline 5301).

Range and Weeds

Any road closures that install impassable physical barriers, such as large rocks or earthen berms that 

could restrict administrative access, should be done on a site-specific basis with interdisciplinary 

input.

Any new road or trail that crosses a fence would have gates or cattle guards installed (consider selfclosing gates on trails).

Roads and trails that experience increase volume of use due to changes from travel management or 

use patterns will need to be looked at for installation of appropriate sized cattle guards on roads or 

trails, or possibly self-closing gates on trails. This would be needed where changes or increased use 

allowed unscheduled or unplanned livestock movement through existing fences. (On roads and trails 

where changes in or increased volume of public motorized travel cause unscheduled or unplanned 

livestock movement through existing fences, consider installation of appropriate sized cattle guards 

on roads or trails, or possibly self-closing gates.)

Wildlife

The Powerline Trailhead (Alternatives B, C, and D) would be closed seasonally or otherwise designed 

with barricades placed at the proposed trailhead or otherwise designed to continue to limit parking to 

one or two vehicles with trailers, before being added to the MVUM, to be consistent with Forest Plan 

standard 3111.

The following routes or a portion of these routes would be closed seasonally from April 1 to August 

15 to protect nesting goshawks, for the alternatives indicated (Table B-5, next page).
Black Hills National Forest Travel Management Plan

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Table B-5. Routes closed seasonally (April 1–August 15) to protect nesting goshawks

Route number Alternative B Alternative C Alternative D

Bearlodge Ranger District

832.1 X

830.3 X

830.1B X

U680017 X

U680015 X X

U680078 X

863.3G X

U720011 X

805.3O X

875.2B X

875.2A X

875.2F X

806.2A X X

875.1C X X

875.1A X X

U710120 X X

875.2D X

875.2F X

806.2E X X

806.2F X

806.2B X

806.2G X

Northern Hills Ranger District

733.3E X X

733.3D X X

733.3A X X

733.3C X X

CZ-3569 X

U120121 X X

U120124 X X

U120148 X X

U130161 X X

Mystic Ranger District

CZ-4887 X

159.1B X X X

CZ-4878 X

389.1K X X

423 X X X

304.1H X X X

304.1F X X X