SEELEY LAKE – The Lolo National Forest (LNF) is proposing land management activities within a 61,300-acre project area for the Center Horse Landscape Restoration project located about 14 miles north of Ovando, Mont. on the Seeley Lake Ranger District (SLRD). Members of the community attended the public meeting and made comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Tuesday, Jan. 19. The 45-day comment period on the draft EIS ends Feb. 16.
The Center Horse project area is part of the Southwest Crown Collaborative (SWCC). In 2010, the SWCC was one of ten national collaboratives awarded funding through the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP).
The purpose of the CFLRP is to encourage the collaborative, science-based ecosystem restoration of priority forest landscapes. The main objectives include fuels mitigation, forest restoration and watershed improvement.
The National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) process began in the summer of 2012 with public scoping. Following the open comment period, public meetings and field trips, the LNF received 29 comments on the proposed project. Concerns expressed included:
• Potential ecological harm due to thinning.
• Effects on white bark pine and other sensitive/threatened plants.
• Old growth suggesting a diameter limit, no treatment but instead focusing on recruitment and no logging or roads.
• Effects of temporary roads required for commercial activity.
• Effects on wildlife from harvest.
• Effects on private access for the 80-acre parcels of private land within the project area.
• Effects of burning on noxious weeds.
The Draft EIS was released December 2015. Four purpose and need statements defined the major project objectives.
1. Improve/restore forest composition, spatial arrangement and structure. This would be accomplished by reducing the density of smaller diameter trees and overstory trees, while still retaining large trees to promote fire resilient stands; use prescribed fire to mimic natural patterns to increase habitat and native species diversity.
2. Restore fire-adapted ecosystems including improving water quality and restoring or enhancing fish and wildlife habitat.
3. Conserve and improve soil resources.
4. Right size the existing transportation network to meet public and administrative needs while at the same time eliminating unneeded roads and trails. This would be accomplished through decreasing the overall miles of roads, reducing long-term maintenance costs and impacts to aquatic/watersheds through road decommissioning, road storage and culvert removal. The impacts of the roads left on the landscape would be reduced by road relocation, culvert upgrades, increased drainage and road narrowing and surfacing.
“The purpose and need were built on past exclusion of fire and treatment of the landscape,” said LNF East Zone Fisheries Biologist Shane Hendrickson. “We want to bring the landscape back into a resilient landscape.
Based on the public concerns, actions and needs, the draft EIS proposed in December 2015 offers three alternative actions:
1. No Action – Alternative A: No restoration, fuels reduction or reforestation activities would be implemented to accomplish project goals. However, ongoing forest activities would continue including prescribed burning, weed treatment and road maintenance. Hendrickson said this no action alternative is unique because it is part of the SWCC proposal that allows some projects to still be completed even if this is the chosen alternative.
2. Alternative B (modifications from the original Proposed Action):
• Treatment acres reduced from 16,545 to 9,164 acres. Reduction excludes high quality lynx foraging habitat. Treatments include commercial thinning, non-commercial thinning and prescribed burning. The percentage of timber harvested is estimated to be 97 percent saw logs and three percent pulp. The revenue generated from the sale of the logs and pulp is estimated to be $1,653,540 and would help off-set the cost of the project.
• 14 culverts removed or replaced instead of the proposed eight. Number increased due to better mapping and more time in the field.
• Small tree thinning on 28 acres within Lynx Analysis Units
• Proposed road treatments: 15.8 miles of roads added to the official road system; 3.3 miles of road rerouted; 4.5 miles of road converted to trails; 157 miles of road decommissioned; 27.6 miles of road bed maintained, but may not be drivable until cut out; 21 miles of temporary/short term road to facilitate project completion and then decommissioned; 2.3 miles of road removed from the LNF travel plan and will not be drivable following project completion.
3. Alternative C: The same proposed treatments as Alternative B except:
• Vegetation treatment on 7,016 acres.
• No commercial activities. Nothing will be sold as biomass or logs.
• The 21 miles of temporary/short term roads will not be constructed
• Road Best Management Practices will be applied on 40 miles of roads instead of 100 miles.
• The project cost for timber harvest and other planned activities would cost $1,652,640 less than Alternative B, unless the timber products are sold for estimated value. Then Alternative C would cost $1,100 more.
In the presentation, Hendrickson highlighted the main difference in the effects on fisheries and hydrology between the various alternatives included:
• If Alternative A is chosen, there will be no long-term benefits to watershed resiliency because there will be no road decommissions or re-routes.
• With both Alternative B and C there will be short-term sediment spikes from culvert upgrades and removal, increase in accessible habitat, sediment reduction, benefits to watershed resiliency and improved stream channel conditions.
• Alternative C will not have the short-term sediment increases from log haul and temporary road construction.
The final EIS decision and draft record of decision is expected to be released in the spring of 2016 with the objection period beginning in the summer of 2016. The implementation of some activities may begin as early as 2017.
More information about this project can be found on the LNF website at http://www.fs.usda.gov/lolo or contact Tami Paulsen, Project Leader, at 406-329-3731. Comments should be sent to Tami Paulsen, Missoula Ranger District, 24 Fort Missoula Road, Missoula, MT 59804.
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