[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 46 (Wednesday, March 11, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10529-10533]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-5019]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Big Grizzly Fuels Reduction and Forest Health Project, Eldorado 
National Forest, Placer County, CA

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.

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SUMMARY: The USDA, Forest Service, Eldorado National Forest will 
prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for a proposal to treat 
approximately 6,200 acres of National Forest System land for fuels 
reduction and forest health objectives. The project area is situated on 
the Georgetown Ranger District approximately 15 air-miles northeast of 
Georgetown, CA in the vicinity of Nevada Point Ridge, Devils Peak and 
Bear Springs. The intent of this project is to reduce potential fire 
hazard within the project area, to provide for increased resilience 
when a wildfire occurs within the project area, to provide for improved 
forest health, and to increase the rate of development of old forest 
characteristics. The Proposed Action consists of commercial and 
precommercial tree thinning with follow-up tractor piling or 
mastication; mastication of select, existing plantations with a follow-
up treatment of herbicides to reduce brush competition and fuel 
buildup; the planting of conifers in expanded canopy gaps with a 
follow-up treatment of herbicide; and prescribed burning. Silvicultural 
treatments for each stand were chosen for their ability to meet the 
stated purpose and need. The focus of each treatment is based on the 
desired quality of each treatment area after management rather than the 
quantity or quality of the products removed from each area. In fact, 
some treatments would not remove forest products. Approximately 15 
miles of native surface road reconstruction and 1 mile of new road 
construction are proposed in order to facilitate the treatment 
activities. The land allocations within the treatment areas, as 
identified in the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment Final 
Supplemental EIS (SNFPA FSEIS), are general forest, spotted owl home 
range core areas, old-forest, and riparian

[[Page 10530]]

conservation areas adjacent to perennial, seasonal, and ephemeral 
streams.
    The purpose of the project is: (1) To change existing forest 
surface, ladder and crown fuel profiles in order to reduce potential 
wildfire intensity and behavior to mitigate the consequences of large, 
potentially damaging wildfires on selected forested areas; (2) to 
improve stand vigor and resistance to disease and insect mortality; (3) 
maintain and/or establish a composition of tree species and size 
classes that are closer to the historic levels for the area, and 
correspondingly sustainable into the future; and (4) to treat hazard 
fuels in a cost-effective manner to maximize program effectiveness.

DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received 
within 30 days of the publication of this Notice of Intent in the 
Federal Register. The draft environmental impact statement is expected 
in May 2009 and the final environmental impact statement is expected in 
October 2009.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Ramiro Villalvazo, Forest 
Supervisor, Eldorado National Forest, 7600 Wentworth Springs Rd., 
Georgetown, CA 95634 Attention: Big Grizzly Fuels Reduction and Forest 
Health Project.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dana Walsh, Project Leader, Georgetown 
Ranger District, 7600 Wentworth Springs Rd, Georgetown, CA 95634, or by 
telephone at 530-333-4312.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Purpose and Need for Action

    (1) The primary purpose of the project is to change existing forest 
surface, ladder and crown fuel profiles in order to reduce potential 
wildfire intensity and behavior to mitigate the consequences of large, 
potentially damaging wildfires on selected forested areas.
    There is a need to change potential fire behavior during weather 
conditions that produce wildfire behavior with extreme fire intensity 
and severity across a large portion of the landscape. The fuels 
conditions within the project area make the area prone to the risk of a 
stand-replacing catastrophic wildfire. The risk of losing key ecosystem 
components in this area is high. Treatments are needed that would be 
effective in terms reducing potential wildfire damage to intrinsic, 
forest related resources. Within the vicinity of the Big Grizzly 
project, lightning, dispersed recreation use, off-highway vehicle use, 
and traffic on the Eleven Pines and Nevada Point Ridge Roads are 
potential sources of wildfire ignition.
    The effects of the Eldorado National Forest's Cleveland Fire 
(23,000 acres), Icehouse Fire (18,000 acres), Wrights Fire (8,000 
acres), Star Fire (17,000 acres) Fred Fire (7,700 acres), Power Fire 
(16,800 acres), and numerous other large, wetland fires in California 
and across the western United States emphasize the desirability and the 
urgency of managing forest stands to reduce the likelihood of 
catastrophic wildfire. In the absence of fuel reductions it is likely 
that wildfire would determine the future landscape, threatening lives 
and property.
    Forests in this area were historically subject to frequent low 
intensity fires that resulted in open, fire-resistant stands of trees. 
Multiple decades of fire exclusion, grazing by domestic livestock, 
previous stand replacing wildfire, mining, and historic logging 
practices, including selective logging of large pines and lack of 
follow-up slash treatment, have contributed to altered fire regimes, 
heavy fuel loadings, and changed vegetation composition and structure. 
As a result, the number, size, and intensity of wildfires have been 
altered from their historical range.
    By itself prescribed fire would be difficult to apply in the 
majority of the project area due to the fuel accumulation, changes in 
stand structure, and operation limitations in its use. Mechanical 
treatments can be effective tools to modify stand structure and 
influence subsequent fire severity and extent. In many stands 
mechanical thinning followed by prescribed fire is necessary to achieve 
forest resilience much faster than with prescribed fire alone.
    Fire behavior is strongly influenced by stand structure as it 
relates to live and dead fuel loading and ladder fuels. Reducing crown 
density and both ladder fuels and surface fuels is essential to 
effectively change fire behavior. Reducing surface fuels and ladder 
fuels reduces the likelihood of crown scorch and crown ignition. The 
theoretical basis for changing fuel structure to reduce fire hazard is 
well established.
    The theoretical benefits of fuel manipulation are supported by real 
world reviews of wildfires and their interaction with fuel treatment 
areas. Fuel treatments similar to those proposed on this project have 
also been demonstrated to be effective in recent research conducted on 
post-fire vegetation on the Angora and Cone Fires completed by the U.S. 
Forest Service. Results from a recent study on the effectiveness of 
pre-fire fuel treatments for several wildfires that burned in 2003 and 
2004, including the Power Fire on the Eldorado National Forest further 
validate the use of a combination of canopy thinning and surface fuel 
treatments. Studies have demonstrated that the treatment of surface 
fuels alone is generally effective in altering fire severity; however, 
treatments that included canopy thinning followed by surface fuel 
treatment were found to be the most effective at reducing canopy scorch 
and tree mortality. Additionally, the effectiveness of treatments that 
reduced both canopy and surface fuels were found to increase with 
weather severity, i.e., the more extreme the fire conditions, the more 
valuable fuels treatments proved to be.
    Reviews have pointed out that thinning treatments that are followed 
by reduction of surface fuels can significantly limit fire spread under 
wildfire conditions. Current research demonstrates the potential of 
fuel treatments to reduce large fire growth. Fuel treatments are most 
effective when the spatial arrangement of the treatment units is 
considered and planned for. The Big Grizzly project has been developed 
on the basis of anticipated treatment effectiveness and spatial 
arrangement of proposed treatment areas. Treatments within 
Strategically Placed Landscape Treatment Areas (SPLATs) can increase 
the effectiveness of fire suppression efforts, and substantially 
decrease the risk to life and property. This project would directly 
reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire to multiple resources within 
and adjacent to the project area. In addition to implementing a spatial 
design for the project that might be optimal for reducing fire spread, 
the Big Grizzly Project has also been developed based on the historical 
ecological processes and landscape patterns within the project area.
    Treatments are not intended to specifically facilitate fire 
suppression efforts. The focus of fuels treatments is to improve the 
ability of treated stands to withstand the adverse effects of future 
fires. However, safe and effective initial attack by hand crews and 
engine modules, the initial attack forces of the Georgetown Ranger 
District, is imperative due to current wildfire policy for the project 
area and air quality restrictions within the state which require 
continued fire suppression.
    Selected plantations currently exhibit a buildup of woody brush 
species such as green leaf manzanita, deerbrush, whitethorn, and bitter 
cherry. The existing conditions of the plantations include an average 
brush component 4-10 feet in height with brush cover levels of 30 to 
100%. Currently, flame lengths

[[Page 10531]]

from a wildland fire burning under the 90th percentile weather 
conditions could easily make the transition from surface fire into the 
crowns of the trees, causing high mortality within plantations and 
continued fire spread into the surrounding forest stands.
    The National Fire Plan and the Cohesive Strategy, developed after 
the severe wildfire season in 2000, provides direction to the Forest 
Service to reduce the amount of fuel in fire-prone forests to protect 
people and sustain resources. Additionally, the Record of Decision 
(ROD) for the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment (SNFPA) sets 
priorities for management activities that would restore natural 
ecosystem processes while minimizing the threat fire poses to lives, 
structures, and resources through site specific prescriptions designed 
to modify fire intensity and spread in treated areas.
    (2) The second fundamental purpose of this project is to also 
improve stand vigor and resistance to disease and insect mortality.
    There is a need to improve the health of trees within the project 
area by removing unhealthy trees and reducing stand density. Over-dense 
stands are experiencing inter-tree competition for resources and are at 
risk for high levels of mortality in the near future. Some stands 
within the project area are already experiencing high levels of 
mortality due to disease and insect activity. Although some of the 
stands in the project have been thinned and salvage logged in the past, 
the predominantly white fir stands are expected to continue to decrease 
in health and vigor over time due to insects, annosus root rot, and 
other disease pathogens. These stands will continue moving farther from 
their desired future condition as high levels of mortality decrease 
canopy cover, stocking, and growth at a stand level.
    The project area is currently at risk due to insect and disease 
related mortality. Increased densities of trees, higher levels of 
disease and insect attack, and an accumulation of ground and ladder 
fuels within stands indicate unhealthy conditions. Denser stands, such 
as those that have developed in the project area, demand more water and 
other limited resources. As a result, over-dense stands are less 
resistant to insect and disease-related attack, especially during 
periods of extended drought, which then increases the potential for 
extreme fire behavior in the area. Large areas of the landscape are 
dominated by shade-tolerant, drought-and/or fire-intolerant species 
(white fir, incense-cedar, and Douglas-fir). The structure of the 
current forested landscape represents an unstable, unsustainable, and 
therefore undesirable departure from the historic landscape for this 
area.
    The SNFPA directs that prescriptions for treatment areas address 
identified needs to increase stand resistance to mortality from insect 
and disease by thinning densely stocked stands to reduce competition 
and improve tree vigor. Forest health specialists have reviewed 
treatment areas and have confirmed that insect and disease pathogen 
activities within stands have increased the risk of mortality due to 
high stand density and current species composition.
    (3) A purpose of this project is also to maintain and/or establish 
a composition of tree species and size classes that are closer to the 
historic conditions for the area and correspondingly sustainable into 
the future.
    There is a need to apply the necessary silvicultural and fuels 
reduction treatments to accelerate the development of key habitat and 
old forest characteristics, increase stand heterogeneity, restore pine, 
and to promote hardwoods. The project area is characteristic of much of 
the mixed-conifer zone of the Sierra Nevada with few or no stands 
remaining that can be described as natural. To various degrees the 
forest has been changed from one dominated by large, old, widely spaced 
trees to one with dense, fairly even-aged stands with most of the 
larger trees between 80 and 100 years old. This is an unstable, 
unsustainable forest that is susceptible to drought-induced mortality, 
bark beetle infestation, and severe wildfire.
    Many of the stands within the Big Grizzly project area have been 
type converted from pine to white fir through natural mortality and the 
selective logging of pine. Rather than attempt to restore the stands to 
a specific point in history, there is a need to restore a forest 
structure that is more resilient to drought, insect and disease 
pathogens, and wildfire. As discussed above, as a result of the current 
species composition and risk from fire, insect and disease pathogens, 
these stands are not sustainable. Proposed treatments would promote 
shade intolerant pines and hardwoods while decreasing the amount of 
shade tolerant white fir and incense cedar, thereby moving stands 
closer to a more sustainable species composition.
    Reduced competition would enable trees to grow larger more quickly, 
thereby providing greater numbers of large trees and snags for the 
future. Treatment would also reduce the risk of fire related mortality 
to large trees that are currently within the units, maintaining the 
valuable structure they provide within the stand.
    There is a need to control spacing and species composition in the 
plantations to accelerate the development of old forest 
characteristics. While the plantations do not currently have the 
structure that would allow them to function as old forest habitat, 
since they consist primarily of young ponderosa pine, they provide 
important reservoirs of pine within the landscape. Thinning in 
plantations and natural stands would facilitate tree growth allowing 
stands to more rapidly develop large trees, and increase the 
probability that these stands would survive into the future. These 
stands could then be managed to ensure the development of additional 
components of structure for old forest dependent species.
    (4) A purpose of the project is to treat hazard fuels in a cost-
effective manner to maximize program effectiveness.
    There is a need for this project to be cost effective so that the 
maximum benefit can be achieved through the work performed. The SNFPA 
provides direction to design area treatments that are economically 
efficient where consistent with desired conditions, using wood by-
products from over-dense stands to offset the cost of fuels treatments. 
The removal of commercial sized trees would partially offset the 
substantial costs associated with the expensive investment components 
of this project, including the treatment of surface fuels, cutting and 
removal of the non-commercial ladder fuels, mastication and herbicide 
treatments.

Proposed Action

    To move stands toward the Desired Future Condition for the various 
land allocations as described in the Record of Decision for the Final 
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Sierra Nevada 
Forest Plan Amendment dated 1/21/2004, the Proposed Action includes a 
combination of fuels reduction and forest health improvement actions. 
Silvicultural treatments for each stand were chosen for their ability 
to meet the stated purpose and need. The focus of each treatment is 
based on the desired quality of each treatment area after management 
rather than the quantity or quality of the products removed from each 
area. In fact, some treatment would not remove forest products.
    <bullet> Approximately 3,200 acres are proposed to be treated using 
understory thinning involving the cutting and removal of both 
commercial and non-commercial size trees. Follow-up mastication or 
tractor piling and pile

[[Page 10532]]

burning would occur shortly after the thinning is completed. Follow up 
prescribed burning would occur approximately 2-7 years after the pile 
burning is completed.
    <bullet> Approximately 900 additional acres are proposed for stand 
improvement cutting for forest health through the removal of suppressed 
and dying trees. In order to facilitate the restoration of pine species 
to stands, the creation of gaps of up to 3 acres in size is proposed 
within these 900 acres of stand treatments. Gap establishment would be 
accomplished through the harvesting of white fir trees and conifer 
trees of other species that are within; and immediately adjacent to 
selected, existing canopy gaps that are currently greater than 1/2 acre 
in size and that are expanding due to root rot. Healthy pine trees 
would be specifically retained within the selected gaps. The selected 
gaps would have the slash tractor piled and then the gaps would be 
planted with ponderosa pine, sugar pine and Douglas-fir at a 12x12 foot 
spacing. At the time of planting, the planted seedlings would be 
released from competing vegetation by hand scalping. A follow-up ground 
based application of herbicide would occur within the gaps within 1-5 
years to control competing vegetation. Gaps would be established on 10-
30% of the acres in any given stand. Planting of pine within these gaps 
would move the stands toward their desired future, thereby moving the 
stand structure and composition to a more resilient condition.
    <bullet> Units 3 18-1, 320-43, 320-67, and 320-7 1, approximately 
900 acres, would require a non-significant forest plan amendment 
because the proposed activities would reduce the canopy cover below 40 
percent. The amendment is necessary to meet forest health objectives of 
minimizing the impact of Heterobasidion annosum, the most important 
disease found in the project area.
    <bullet> The proposal also includes precommercial thinning and 
mastication of approximately 120 acres of <50-year old plantations, 
mastication with follow-up ground based application of herbicide on 
approximately 1,100 acres of 15-30 year old plantations, and 
mastication with follow-up ground based application of herbicide on 
approximately 75 acres of 47 year old plantation currently located 
within the project area. These treatments would reduce future fuel 
loading, alter the vegetative structure to reduce the risk of loss to 
wildland fire, improve forest health by reducing susceptibility to 
insect and disease pathogens, and create conditions that accelerate the 
development of old forest characteristics.
    <bullet> Prescribed burning as the only treatment is proposed on 
approximately 800 acres of the project area to reduce the amount of 
ground fuels between thinning units thereby making the proposed 
thinning treatments more effective.
    <bullet> Approximately 1 mile of road construction and 
approximately 15 miles of road reconstruction is estimated to be 
necessary to facilitate accessibility to perform proposed fuel and 
forest health treatments.

Nature of Decision To Be Made

    The decision to be made is whether to adopt and implement the 
proposed action, an alternative to the proposed action, or take no 
action to improve forest health, and to reduce fuels.
    Other alternatives would be developed if significant issues are 
identified during the scoping process for the environmental impact 
statement. All alternatives will need to respond to the specific 
condition of providing benefits equal to or better than the current 
condition.

Scoping Process

    Public participation will be especially important at several points 
during the analysis. The Forest Service will be seeking information, 
comments, and assistance from Federal, State, and local agencies and 
other individuals or organizations that may be interested in or 
affected by the proposed action. To facilitate public participation, 
information about the proposed action will be mailed to all who express 
interest in the Proposed Action.
    Comments submitted during the scoping process should be in writing 
and should be specific to the Proposed Action. The comments should 
describe as clearly and completely as possible any issues the commenter 
has with the proposal.

Comment Requested

    This notice of intent initiates the scoping process which guides 
the development of the environmental impact statement.
    Early Notice of Importance of Public Participation in Subsequent 
Environmental Review: A draft environmental impact statement will be 
prepared for comment. The comment period on the draft environmental 
impact statement will be 45 days from the date the Environmental 
Protection Agency publishes the notice of availability in the Federal 
Register.
    The Forest Service believes, at this early stage, it is important 
to give reviewers notice of several court rulings related to public 
participation in the environmental review process. First, reviewers of 
draft environmental impact statements must structure their 
participation in the environmental review of the proposal so that it is 
meaningful and alerts an agency to the reviewer's position and 
contentions. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NIRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 
553 (1978). Also, environmental objections that could be raised at the 
draft environmental impact statement stage, but that axe not raised 
until after completion of the final environmental impact statement may 
be waived or dismissed by the courts. City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 F.2d 
1016, 1022 (9th Cir. 1986) and Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. v. Harris, 490 
F. Supp. 1334, 1338 (E.D. Wis. 1980). Because of these court rulings, 
it is very important that those interested in this proposed action 
participate by the close of the 45 day comment period so that 
substantive comments and objections are made available to the Forest 
Service at a time when it can meaningfully consider them and respond to 
them in the final environmental impact statement.
    To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues 
and concerns on the proposed action, comments on the draft 
environmental impact statement should be as specific as possible. It is 
also helpful if comments refer to specific pages or chapters of the 
draft statement. Comments may also address the adequacy of the draft 
environmental impact statement or the merits of the alternatives 
formulated and discussed in the statement. Reviewers may wish to refer 
to the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations for implementing 
the procedural provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act at 
40 CFR 1503.3 in addressing these points.
    Comments received, including the names and addresses of those who 
comment, will be considered part of the public record on this proposal 
and will be available for public inspection.
    (Authority: 40 CFR 1501.7 and 1508.22; Forest Service Handbook 
1909.15, Section 21.)
    Ramiro Villalvazo, Forest Supervisor, Eldorado National Forest is 
the responsible official. As the responsible official he will document 
the decision and reasons for the decision in the Record of Decision. 
That decision will be subject to Forest Service appeal regulations (36 
CFR part 215).


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    Dated: January 27, 2009.
Ramiro Villalvazo,
Forest Supervisor.
 [FR Doc. E9-5019 Filed 3-10-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-11-M