1. Effects to Vegetation Conditions 

There are a number of issues associated with other resources or values where vegetation 

conditions play a key role. For example, activities associated with the Proposed Action may 

affect wildlife travel corridors and migration routes. These issues are addressed in other 

sections of this Final EIS relating to the resource or value associated with the issue such as 

water, wildlife, or soils. Vegetation analysis will focus on two issues related to vegetation 

(seral stage) conditions, and long-term forest health. 

a. Direct and Indirect Effects 

A diversity of seral stages is necessary to maintain essential ecosystem processes. Stand 

condition or stand age distributions that are in some sense balanced on local or landscape 

scales provide a range of seral stages and stand conditions and a variety of wildlife habitats, 

and are an essential part of long-term sustainability of both commodity and non-commodity 

values (PNW-GTR-435, 1998). 

The seral stage mix and stand conditions in forest stands would not change from 

implementation of the Action Alternative. The density management harvest types generally 

have little effect on the seral stage, but instead reduce the number of trees just enough to 

provide for optimal growth of residual trees. 

The prescribed fire on the serpentine/peridotite and meadow areas would improve the quality 

of early seral habitat in these areas. The restoration of these areas would assist the recovery 

of these areas from the effects of fire suppression. 

Table IV-9. Acres of Silvicultural Treatments by Action Alternative 

Code Silvicultural 

Treatment Alternative 1 Alternative 2 

HITM Variable density 

management 0 2,093 acres 

HITM/HITR 

Variable density 

management - 

clearing around 

pines and oaks 

0 Acres included in 

above number 

Small diameter density 

management 

Thin from below 

and clear around 

pines and oaks 

0 619 acres 

Treatment of Activity 

Fuels from the variable 

density management 

and the small diameter 

density management 

Underburning, 

handpiling and 

burning, machine 

piling and 

burning, and 

chipping 

0 2712 acres 

Underburn on 

Serpentine/peridotite Prescribed Fire 0 1812 acres 

Meadow Burn Prescribed Fire 0 122 acres 
The Action Alternative would not change the current amount of late seral conditions within 

the Study Area. It would, however, accelerate the development of large trees in early and 

mid seral stages. 

There are a number of issues associated with other resources or values that may result as an 

indirect effect where vegetation conditions play a role. For example, vegetation activities 

may affect wildlife. These issues are addressed in other sections of this EA relating to the 

resource or value associated with the issue such as wildlife, soils or economics. 

b. Cumulative Effects 

All cumulative actions assume that no other (reasonably foreseeable) vegetation management 

or other actions with a measurable adverse effect would occur, other than that being proposed 

under Butcher Knife Slate, for the next ten (10) years. If vegetation management is proposed 

in the future, there is no reasonable way to predict what methodology or consequences those 

future actions would be at this time. Any proposed action beyond the 10-year timeframe 

would have to consider (presumably under a NEPA process) the current conditions at that 

time, created by actions at this time. 

2. Effects on Forest Health 

Activities associated with the Proposed Action would not affect the current mix of seral 

stages and would affect the long-term health of forested stands. “Forest health” is a relative 

term. It depends not only on the capabilities of the ecosystem but also on human values and 

objectives. Whether or not a forest is unhealthy depends upon the cultural lens that influences 

how we think (Amaranthus 1995). “Forest health” can mean many different things to many 

different people, so it is imperative that the term is defined before any meaningful discussion 

can occur. 

In 1995, Jack Ward Thomas gave this useful definition: Ecosystem health incorporates 

resiliency and diversity of composition, structure, and function - - including the variety of 

genes, species, plant and animal communities, and the processes that connect them through 

time. So, active forest management to maintain forest health is rooted in the concept of land 

health and reflects a condition where biotic and abiotic influences do not threaten capability 

of attaining resource management objectives - - now or in the future. A healthy forest is one 

that is a fully functioning community of plants and animals and their physical environment. 

Such is more than “tree health” or even of “stand health.” In this concept, fire, insects, and 

disease (at appropriate levels) are components of healthy forests. These appropriate levels are 

defined by the human objectives of management and by the feasibility of management 

actions. 

The “objectives of management” for the Butcher Knife Slate Study Area are described by the 

Management Area Strategies associated with land allocations from the Siskiyou National 

Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (1990), as amended by the Northwest Forest 

Plan (1994). Two foundational objectives that relate directly to vegetation and forest health 

include managing for biological diversity, and managing for sustainability. 

Activities associated with the Proposed Action, (location, extent, and type of treatments) may 

affect the long-term health of forested stands, insect populations, and blister rust. 
Silvicultural systems can be used as a tool to modify forest stands in the Study Area to meet 

land management objectives. These objectives include, among others, (1) the improvement of 

overall forest health by stimulating natural processes that encourage more stable and resilient 

forest vegetation conditions including larger trees, (2) management and improvement of 

stand densities and species composition in overstocked natural and created sapling and pole 

stands, and (3) reducing fuel loads while providing a yield of commercial timber and other 

commodities, in concert with land management allocation and direction. 

a. Direct, Indirect, and Cumulative Effects 

Stand manipulation techniques proposed under the Action Alternatives include density 

management of overstocked stands. Other associated projects include density management 

of small diameter stands for forest health and future stand development. 

The white oaks, black oaks, sugar pine, and ponderosa pine are experiencing high rates of 

mortality due to the ingrowth of Douglas-fir due to fire suppression. Without silvicultural 

treatments, many other stands could potentially be in this situation. In addition 

A number of stands have insect and disease pathogens, as well as other diseases that threaten 

the capability of achieving management objectives for those stands. 

Careful design and implementation of protective measures can minimize potential tree or 

stand losses from disease agents. Variation in age and distribution patterns that maintain a 

mixture of species would provide a broad base of ecosystem resilience to changing 

environments and threats from insect and disease. 

Forest management activities have direct effects on the vegetative composition and 

successional pattern of the forested landscape. The changes resulting from management at the 

stand level affect both the diversity of species, and can affect the mosaic of successional 

stages across the landscape. Management activities can be designed to emulate natural 

disturbances. The extent to which silvicultural systems regenerate stands, maintain stand 

structure and vigor, or thin portions of the forested stands determines the potential for 

replication of these naturally occurring disturbances. 

Silvicultural systems can also be used to meet wildlife habitat objectives associated with 

biological diversity. Timber harvest and other vegetative manipulation impact short- and 

long-term habitat requirements of species that inhabit all portions of the forest. 

Alternative 1, No-Action 

This alternative proposes no silvicultural management activities for the decade. Processes 

associated with naturally occurring succession, in the absence of fire, would continue. The 

current mix of seral stages would remain the same. Forest health is anticipated to continue to 

decline due to those areas that are overly dense, affecting growth. Mortality would continue 

in and around black oaks, white oaks, sugar pines, and ponderosa pines. A higher risk of 

stand replacement wild fire with resulting early seral stages would exist due to the high 

existing fuel loadings and high tree densities. 

Alternative 2, Proposed Action
The consequences on seral stage composition would be no change of areas especially in a late 

seral condition. The effect on forest health would be increased stand vigor, species diversity 

(especially oaks and pines) and structural diversity on approximately 2,712 acres, through the 

application of density management treatments. A lower risk of stand replacement wild fire 

with resulting early seral stages would exist due to the reduction of existing fuel loadings and 

tree densities over a large portion of the planning area.