Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground ...

Project Level Watershed Analysis
McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal
Project
Shasta-McCloud Management Unit
Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Prepared by Heidi George - Hydrologist
Introduction
Watershed analysis is expected to yield the contextual information needed to define ecologically
and geomorphically appropriate Riparian Reserves. Analysis of site-specific characteristics may
warrant Riparian Reserves that are narrower or wider than the prescribed widths. Thus, it is
possible to meet the objectives of at least the Aquatic Conservation Strategy portion of these
standards and guidelines with post-watershed analysis reserve boundaries for intermittent streams
that are quite different from those conforming to the prescribed widths. Regardless of stream type,
changes to Riparian Reserves must be based on scientifically sound reasoning, and be fully
justified and documented. 1
This Project Level Watershed Analysis characterizes the McBride Springs watershed and
identifies the Desired Future Condition (DFC) for Riparian Reserves to facilitate planning
for the McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project (hereinafter
referred to as Project). Because this is a project-level watershed analysis it only includes
identifying issues or key questions that are related to the Project. While restricted to project
relevant issues or key questions, this analysis does provide an overview of the physical,
biological and human features within public lands in the entire McBride Springs watershed
and the context of this project within this watershed.
The proposed action for the Project is to cut and remove hazardous and diseased trees from
the campground:
1. Immediate hazard tree removal.
The material from the cut trees will be removed from the site or stacked as
firewood for use by campers. Other debris will be chipped and spread on the site,
piled, or piled and burned.
2. Protection and Mitigation Measures including Best Management Practices.
The forest plan for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest allows for falling hazardous trees in
campgrounds within riparian areas when they pose a safety risk. Further direction includes
keeping felled trees on-site when needed to meet coarse woody debris objectives
(LRMP 4-58, 8.b).
1 USDA-FS, Land and Resource Management Plan (Shasta-Trinity National Forests, 1995) Ch. 4-39.
Standards and Guidelines
Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project

Project Level Watershed Analysis Description
A project level watershed analysis (PLWA) is deemed necessary for the Project because in
order to remove hazard trees it will be necessary to enter the McBride Springs intermittent
riparian reserves in the absence of a comprehensive basin-scale (5 th field ) watershed
analysis. This PLWA will focus on how the proposed activity could affect attaining
Aquatic Conservation Strategy Objectives as required by the forest plan.
The format for this PLWA follows the same organization as that used to analyze a basinscale
watershed, while excluding analysis on anything not directly related to the project 8 th
field HUC.
Chapters
1. Characterization
2. ID issues and Key questions.
3. Description of current condition.
4. Description of reference conditions.
5. Synthesis and Interpretation of Information.
6. Recommendations.
The information in Chapters 1, 3, 4 and 5 is needed to assess the issue within the context of
the physical and biological features, biological processes and human uses in the watershed.
Information in Chapters 2 and 6 is mostly limited to issue recommendations.
Chapter 1: Project and Watershed Characterization
Chapter 1 briefly characterizes the Project area and its relationship to the PLWA area.
Public lands within the McBride Springs 7 th field watershed are managed under the Mount
Shasta Management Area direction. 2 The management area is 69,282 acres, much larger
than the McBride Springs watershed (7,803 acres), and is composed of Matrix Prescription
III Roaded Recreation (91%), with the remaining managed for Riparian Reserves and
Heritage Resource Protection as follows:
Desired Future Condition:
The Mount Shasta Management Area is managed
predominantly for Cultural and historic values, visual
quality and recreational values. The forest plan notes that
“With the exception of developed campgrounds, Forest
Service facilities are meeting visitor demand. This need
is balanced by campground facilities in the private
sector.”
Vegetation management activities are consistent with the
above mentioned values in this Management Area.
2 USDA-FS, LRMP (Shasta-Trinity National Forests, 1995) Ch. 4-83.
Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project

Riparian Reserves are applied along both sides of rivers,
stream, lakes and wetlands. Riparian Reserves appear as
natural corridors throughout the Matrix. 3
Management activities are evident but subordinate to the
viewer within this area.
Supplemental Management Direction includes:
“Manage for a high level of water quality of important domestic
water sources at …McBride Springs…” 4
Water samples are taken at all developed recreation sites on the forest and
sent to a water quality laboratory for analysis and approval for culinary use
prior to opening the campground for the public. 5
The upper two-thirds of the watershed is public land while the lower third includes the city
of Mount Shasta and private land ownership. General characteristics for the project and
watershed area are shown in the following table:
Characteristics Project Area Watershed Analysis Area
Area (square miles) 10 acres 7,803 acres
Elevation Range (feet)
The elevation of the project area
ranges between 4800 to 5000 feet.
Elevations range from 7623 feet on
Mount Shasta to approximately 4800.
Relief (Slope Gradients)
Slopes in the project area are
Upper slopes in the watershed are
generally 5% becoming greater than very steep, greater than 100%; mid-
10% upslope and downslope from the
project area.
slopes, 100%; alluvial fan, greater
than 10%.
Aspect South – facing South - facing
Geology
Basalt and andesite boulders lie Andesitic strato-volcano with basalt
above the campground, forming a
colluvial fan with finer material
downslope of the campground.
ridges.
Geomorphology
At base of basalt lava flow adjacent Slopes are formed by lava flow
to large drainage with evidence of features forming ridges on a more
frequent avalanche and debris flow uniform flank as well as frequent
activity.
rock falls.
Hydrology
Snowmelt during the warmer summer
months activates several small
Intermittent streams and springs
occur within the analysis area
intermittent springs and streams in includes a portion of a narrow,
the project area. During very wet avalanche dominated drainage,
periods, closure of some campsites is
required.
Cascade Gulch, lying east of the
project area. Infiltration rates into
the coarse boulder dominated
substrate is high. Intermittent flow
from infrequent rapid snowmelt
events bypasses the project area.
Vegetation
White fir, ponderosa pine, incense Mixed conifer forest with dense
(Forested Areas)
cedar with occasional Douglas fir.
Ponderosa pine and incense cedar
understory and brushfields of
Arctostaphylos and Ceanothus
contains dwarf mistletoe. Annosus occur in the watershed.
3 LRMP Ch. 4-84 to 85.
4 LRMP Ch. 4-86.
5 Results for the McBride Campground water tests are available on file at the Mount Shasta Ranger District.
Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project

Vegetation
(Riparian Areas)
root disease fungi is prevalent in the
white fir component with mortality
across size classes. Understory
vegetation includes manzanita and
white thorn.
Willow, elderberry, thimbleberry,
gooseberry, sedges and grasses.
Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project
Very limited riparian area occurs
upslope from the urban area while
extensive wetlands dominate the
lower portion of the watershed
including within well-developed
areas in the city of Mount Shasta.
Table 1:
Watershed characteristics for the Project area and the Project Level Analysis Watershed.
Hydrologic Location: McBride Campground lies on the western flanks of Mount
Shasta within a 7 th field hydrologic unit, McBride Springs (18020005010302). The
McBride Springs watershed is tributary to Cascade Gulch-Mount Shasta (6 th field), Box
Canyon (5 th field) and Sacramento Headwaters (4 th field) hydrologic units.
The scale selected for this PLWA is based on the smallest watershed that has readily
available information that addresses the proposed activity. Analysis of a larger watershed
may not detect any effects from the proposed activities; analysis of a watershed area
smaller than the 8th field HUC may magnify any effects.
Chapter 2: Issues and Key Questions
Issue:
Effects of the proposed activities on riparian habitat and Aquatic Conservation Strategy
objectives.
Key Questions:
Are the proposed activities consistent with the Aquatic Conservation Strategy (ACS)
objectives? How will proposed activities affect the Aquatic Conservation Strategy and the
condition of Riparian Reserves in the analysis watershed? How will the activities proposed
in and adjacent to the McBride Springs Riparian Reserve affect habitat in the Riparian
Reserves at this site?
Chapter 3: Current Conditions
The purpose of Chapter 3 is to provide a general description of current conditions for
aquatic, terrestrial and human uses in the project area. Only information relevant to the
issues and key questions is presented.
Climate

The project area is located in the extreme northern end of the Mediterranean Highland
Climate Region and is characterized by warm dry summers and cool wet winters. Annual
precipitation in the project area is estimated to be approximately 66 inches with the
majority of this precipitation falling as snow. Additionally, Mt. Shasta provides a strong
orographic influence upon storms approaching from the southeast and creates a deeper
snowpack in the vicinity. Thunderstorms produce occasional summer precipitation events.
The project area lies between 4,480 and 5000 feet in elevation with south-westerly aspect.
A disturbance climatic regime is strongly influenced by the location of the project on the
flanks of Mount Shasta at 14,179 feet summit elevation.
Geology and Geomorphology
Mount Shasta is a stratovolcano with a history of eruptive episodes of lava and pyroclastic
flows. Individual lava flows stand out as buttes on the more gentle flanks of Mount Shasta
immediately above the project area and form the steep ridges in the watershed analysis
area. Deposits of glacial outwash material lie on and adjacent to rock outcrops and fill the
very steep drainages. The dominant processes occurring today within the watershed that
affect the human environment include rockfall, debris flow and avalanches. The history of
debris flow in the 7th field watershed is recent: in 1997 a rain on snow event, with a 100
year recurrence interval, initiated a debris flow in the drainage east of Cascade Gulch
activating 2.5 miles of glacial outwash material that reached the city limits.
Hydrology and Riparian Reserves
Springs and channels occur in the project area and flow intermittently. Although snowmelt
and groundwater recharge occurs earlier in the spring, groundwater activates the springs
and flow occurs in the summer. During these periods of surface flow, soils become
saturated and overland flow occurs below the springs and upslope of the campsites making
some campsites unsuitable for camping.
Small drainage ditches can be seen upslope of several campsites from past efforts to
control and intercept overland flow before reaching individual campsites. The current
management practice is to protect soils by closing wet campsites until they dry out.
The riparian reserve within the McBride Springs Campground project area maintains
facultative and obligate riparian vegetation with limited water from the spring source and
short duration flow in the intermittent stream. The intermittent stream carries annual
surface water from the spring down slope through the campground and downstream of the
project area. This occurs primarily in the months of July and August when snowmelt
recharges the groundwater and allows surface flow to occur. It is not known how far this
flow continues down slope; however there is evidence of scouring due to runoff in the road
crossings of Cascade Gulch. The intermittent stream stemming from McBride Springs is
the only known intermittent stream that conveys this annual water in the upper reaches of
this watershed or supports riparian vegetation.
Most of the intermittent streams in the watershed have such high infiltration that they
infrequently convey water; when they do they function to maintain important connectivity
for terrestrial and aquatic organisms. Other intermittent streams function to deliver large
sediment loads to the reaches at lower elevations and have no riparian vegetation
associated with them. Maintaining the integrity of these channel features is important to
Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project

maintaining hillslope processes, such as existing natural erosion rates, without accelerating
them.
Episodic flood events are responsible for the large debris flow channels that characterize
the larger drainages. Water flows in these channels in response to snowmelt conditions and
occasional rainfall. Debris flows are associated with these channels, for example, Cascade
Gulch, and carry rock, water and sediment from higher elevations in narrow deep canyons
to lower elevations where sediment is deposited on debris fans that splay out across a wide
swath. Riparian reserves associated with these types of intermittent streams are subject to
large-scale natural disturbance from debris flows as well as avalanches.
Vegetation
Very limited aquatic, riparian and meadow habitats are present within and adjacent to the
Project. White fir, ponderosa pine and cedar dominate the overstory vegetation in the
project area. The understory is comprised of a diverse riparian plant community, including
willow providing subdominant plant community structure and many forbs and grasses in
the understory near the ground. Mature willow reaches upwards of twenty feet in height
where some sunlight is able to reach the forest floor. This vegetation provides root strength
to the streambanks which qare in a highly functional condition. The vegetation influenced
by the springs and extended periods of wetting adjacent to the intermittent channel
includes obligate and facultative plants associated with wet soils.
Recreation
The McBride Springs Campground provides opportunities for developed camping, and
is utilized primarily during summer. Users enjoy camping, picnicking, and hiking
along the campground trails.
McBride has 11 campsites that are usually full during camping season.
With the current situation from campground closure, users have had to camp at either
Panther Meadows or Bunny Flats. This has caused campers to adjust their plans
accordingly, placing extra pressure on these already well-utilized sites since the
campground was closed for safety reasons.
The campground is closed in the fall, winterized and opened in the spring as conditions
allow.
Equivalent Roaded Area and Soils
The project area is approximately ten acres, approximately 0.1 percent of the 7,803 acre
7th field hydrologic unit. The threshold of concern for the McBride Springs hydrologic
unit is adopted from the larger 5 th field Box Canyon Watershed which has a threshold of
concern equivalent roaded area of 18%.
The current ERA for the McBride Springs hydrologic unit is 3.4% primarily from roads.
A large portion of the lower portion of the watershed is urban and urban interface. The
upper watershed is mixed-conifer with manzanita and ceanothus brushfields.
Approximately half of the upper watershed upslope of the urban area is in plantations.
Timber harvest activity from the Mountain Thin and Fuels Management Project is
ongoing. No recent fires have occurred in the watershed.
Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project

7 th Field
Hydrologic
unit code
18020005010302
Name
McBride
Springs
Drainage
Area (acres)
Forest Plan
TOC (%)
Existing
ERA (%)
7,803 16 3.4
Soil Map Units in the watershed:
Rock outcrop-Sheld family association, 60 to 80% slopes, Rock outcrop (40%)
very steep lava flows on volcanic peaks. Vegetation is Scree/Scrub; Sheld family
(40%), very steep mountain sideslopes. Vegetation is Scree/Scrub Scree/Conifer.
Rock outcrop includes extremely cobbly glacial moraines and deposits of tuff
breccia and welded tuffs.
Washougal family (80) %, 20 to 40 % slopes, gently sloping volcanic sideslopes,
buttes, lava flows. Typical Vegetation Series is Sierran-Cascade Mixed Conifer
Forest, Greenleaf manzanita and chaparral.
Sheld-Revit families- Glacial outwash association, 10 to 35% slopes
Map unit components: Sheld family (40%) in the drainages and outwash channel,
Typical Vegetation Series is Snowbrush Chaparal Red-Fir White-Fir Forest; Revit
Family (30%) in the outwash flats, gently sloping side slopes, Red-Fir White-Fir
Forest, Rubble land (30%), channels, moraines, drainages, Typical Vegetation
Series is Exposure Chaparral Scree-Scrub; complex landforms with very steep
drainages, moraines and glacial outwash flats. (This lies outside of the project
area).
Sadie family, deep (75%), gentle mountain sideslopes, lava flows. Typical
Vegetation Series is White Fir Forest, Ponderosa Pine Forest. This soil has
moderate erodibility.
Chapter 4: Reference Conditions
The purpose of Chapter 4 is to focus in on the historical activities that have affected
watershed condition and are relevant to the proposed project.
Historical accounts were made by visitors traveling as early as 1854. 6 First ascents of
Mount Shasta describe the vegetation from the lower elevations near the City of Mount
Shasta, up Cascade Gulch and continuing beyond McBride Springs. From these accounts,
the vegetation is described as being expansive and impenetrable shrub fields interrupting
large stands of sugar pine and ponderosa pine, with little understory.
One reference regarding what may possibly be McBride Springs “1866 Ascent of Mount
Shasta in August” is noteworthy:
6 Cassidy, J. March 2004. “Chronological Vegetation History of Mt. Shasta for the Mountain Thin Project.”
Version 1. Mountain Thin Vegetation and Fuels Management Environmental Assessment.
Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project

“Our road lay through dark heavy forest of pine, cedar, fir, and thickets of
underbrush which were, in places, almost impenetrable… An hour and a
half’s ride brought us to Cedar Seat Camp – a cozy little retreat hid away in
the “deep tangled wildwood” by a little mountain rivulet of sparkling water
which coursed its way from the frozen snows of Mount Shasta.” Source –
Yreka Union August 18, 1866. Location – from Strawberry Valley on
horseback with Sisson and others. 7
Fires were regularly observed during 1854 to 1884 according to these historical accounts,
with smoke or haze from forest fires annually obscuring the sky after July until the fall
rains. After 1886 fires and timber cutting, forested stands were recorded as being replaced
by extensive brush fields.
The 8th field watershed (2,642 acres) that surrounds the McBride Springs Campground
project area has had road construction since the early 1900’s. Trails followed by roads
with narrow widths were replaced with paving and proper road drainage. Road access on
the Everitt Memorial Highway has always been dependent on the snow conditions and are
usually plowed to keep the road open for recreation beyond McBride Springs at Bunny
Flat. Road closure due to abundant snow can sometimes keep the roads closed from
December until late May. The McBride Springs Campground is typically gated closed in
October, opening when ground conditions and maintenance allow.
Chapter 5: Interpretations
Chapter 5 of this analysis addresses the key question for the proposed project.
The Effects of Proposed Management Activities in Riparian Reserves:
The proposed McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project is consistent
with the ACS objectives. On a watershed scale, activities from the implementation of the
Project are expected to be negligible and unmeasurable. On a project scale, because
activities are proposed for Riparian Reserves the proposed project may have a temporary
effect from minimal ground disturbance on the existing hydrologic processes and function
within the reserve. No effects from the project are anticipated outside of the campground
boundary.
Very wet periods such as rain on snow events allows surface water to flow in the
intermittent channels in the campground and sometimes throughout the watershed as well
as in the steep drainages that parallel the project area. These events are more episodic in
nature and may produce debris flows in the drainages that have reached the alluvial fan
upslope of the City of Mount Shasta. This is a natural geomorphic process that is not
affected by the project.
7 Cassidy, J. March 2004. “Chronological Vegetation History of Mt. Shasta for the Mountain Thin Project.”
Version 1. Mountain Thin Vegetation and Fuels Management Environmental Assessment.
Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project

Light campground recreational activities associated with camping, walking on the short
trails, and campsite maintenance such as clearing winter debris from paved roads and
campsites occur near and within the campground. Soils are saturated each year below the
springs and ditches that were constructed to divert surface flow away from campsites
interupt wetland function. Closing campsites due to wet soils eliminates camping
opportunites at the campground, and as the ditches are still somewhat functional reduces
connectivity of the hillslope to the intermittent channels. This situation does not occur
elsewhere in the watershed and is limited to the McBride Campground.
Landings are required to stage the large logs and any biomass. Potential landings were
identified in the field and were located in existing openings outside of the riparian area in
uplands surrounded by upland vegetation. Such minimal ground disturbance is not
expected to disrupt forest soil building processes and should be difficult to detect after
several seasons of litter-fall and snowfall.
A description of how the project will or may affect each ACS objective is presented in
Table 2.
Table 2: Effects of Proposed Activities on ACS Objectives.
Aquatic Conservation Strategy Objectives Effects of Proposed Management Activity
1. Maintain and restore the distribution, diversity, and
complexity of watershed and landscape-scale features to
ensure protection of the aquatic systems to which species,
populations and communities are uniquely adapted.
2. Maintain and restore spatial and temporal connectivity
within and between watersheds. Lateral, longitudinal, and
drainage network connections include floodplains,
wetlands, upslope areas, headwater tributaries, and intact
refugia. These network connections must provide
chemically and physically unobstructed routes to areas
critical for fulfilling life history requirements of aquatic
and riparian-dependent species.
3. Maintain and restore the physical integrity of the
aquatic system, including shorelines, banks, and bottom
configurations.
4. Maintain and restore water quality necessary to support
healthy riparian, aquatic, and wetland ecosystems. Water
quality must remain within the range that maintains the
biological, physical, and chemical integrity of the system
and benefits survival, growth, reproduction, and migration
of individual composing aquatic and riparian
communities.
5. Maintain and restore the sediment regime under which
aquatic ecosystems evolved. Elements of the sediment
regime include the timing, volume, rate, and character of
sediment input, storage, and transport.
6. Maintain and restore instream flows sufficient to create
and sustain riparian, aquatic, and wetland habitats and to
retain patterns of sediment, nutrient, and wood routing.
By removing the hazard trees in the campground, the
distribution, diversity and complexity of the watershed
will be maintained and incrementally improved as more
light will benefit riparian vegetation vigor.
The proposed action will maintain spatial and temporal
connectivity of meadow habitats within the McBride
Springs Campground.
The proposed action will have an overall neutral effect on
the physical integrity of the aquatic system. Some short
term negative impacts could occur due to removal of
vegetation in near streamside areas, however these
impacts are expected to be offset by improved vigor of the
riparian vegetation.
The proposed action will have a neutral effect on water
quality. Best management practices and resource
protection measures will be in place to avoid impacts to
water quality from the activity.
The proposed action will have a neutral effect on the
sediment regime. Slopes within the riparian reserve are
primarily less than 2% with steeper slopes approaching
10% primarily outside of the proposed action activity.
The potential for runoff from the surrounding slopes into
the intermittent creek is low.
The removal of conifers may reduce evapotranspiration
enough to have a limited, albeit immeasurable, increase in
duration and volume of instream flows in the intermittent
Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project

The timing, magnitude, duration, and spatial distribution
of peak, high and low flows must be protected.
7. Maintain and restore the timing, variability, and
duration of floodplain inundation and water table
elevation in meadows and wetlands.
8. Maintain and restore the species composition and
structural diversity of plant communities in riparian areas
and wetlands to provide adequate summer and winter
thermal regulation, nutrient filtering, appropriate rates of
surface erosion, bank erosion, and channel migration and
to supply amounts and distributions of coarse woody
debris sufficient to sustain physical complexity and
stability.
9. Maintain and restore habitat to support well-distributed
populations of native plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate
riparian-dependent species.
Chapter 6: Recommendations
channel and because of the small scale of the project, are
expected to occur for a very limited duration.
The removal of conifers could have a small effect on the
timing, variability, and duration of floodplain inundation
within the project area. It is also possible that the conifer
removal could have a more sustained effect on the
meadow hydrology by raising water table levels during
periods of runoff.
Removal of conifers will maintain the small meadow
habitats and stream-side riparian vegetation. Mature
willow provides abundant woody debris recruitment for
maintaining channel structure.
The proposed action will have a positive effect in
maintaining and restoring habitat to support populations of
native plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate ripariandependent
species.
Appropriate management activities for Riparian Reserves include those activities that
restore and preserve Riparian Reserves, are consistent with the Aquatic Conservation
Strategy and move the reserves towards a Desired Future Condition.
Plan and implement vegetation management activities that restore and/or preserve the
aquatic, riparian and meadow habitats unique to the McBride Springs landscape.
Manage Riparian Reserves to meet Aquatic Conservation Strategy Objectives and to
move Reserves towards desired future conditions. 8
No adjustments to the Riparian Reserve widths are recommended from this McBride
Springs PLWA.
To harvest the true fir hosts of the annosus disease, heavy equipment is required to
enter the riparian reserves at the McBride Springs Campground. To protect the
immediate floodplains and banks of the channels and springs, an Equipment Exclusion
Zone (EEZ) should be designated.
Twenty feet out from any spring, intermittent stream or ditch except for stream
crossings a 20 foot EEZ, measured from the channel banks outward on each side, will
be designed to avoid impacts to hydrologic and riparian vegetative features. 9
No ground disturbance within this zone should occur from equipment capable of
reaching in from outside the zone. Where this is not possible, as in the stream
crossings, minimal ground disturbance may occur within the EEZ where directional
hand-falling conifer requires the log to be dragged out by a grapple line attached to
heavy equipment such as a skidder.
8 USDA-FS, Land and Resource Management Plan (Shasta-Trinity National Forests, 1995) Ch. 4-39.
The desired future condition for the Mount Shasta Management Area as described in the LMP pp. 4-84 and
Forest Wilderness areas LMP pp. 4-87.
9 Further described in this document under Best Management Practices.
Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project

Examples of management activities that are consistent with the desired future condtion
include camping, commercial or noncommercial harvest of diseased and disease-prone
conifers, prescribed or natural fire, and returning slopes to near-original contours
disturbed from past flood control efforts.
Improving connectivity of surface water within the campground by returning hillslopes
to pre-drainage contours is recommended.
During development of the project specific watershed analysis it was found that
campground users have been displaced during the McBride campground safety
closures. A comprehensive watershed analysis would evaluate the use at the alternative
sites that campers chose to go to and address issues and opportunities found there.
Conduct a comprehensive Watershed Analysis for the Shasta SW Planning Watershed
within the Box Canyon Watershed (HUC 5).
Plan and implement management activities to reduce impacts to meadow, aquatic and
riparian habitats camping use at McBride Springs Campground.
Evaluate potential for completing a basin scale Watershed Analysis and a
comprehensive Roads Analysis for the Mount Shasta Watersheds. Not having these
Watershed and Roads Analyses greatly limits opportunities for doing beneficial
projects in some Riparian Reserves. With these analyses, restoration opportunities,
including road decommissioning and restoration projects in Riparian Reserves, are
more fully considered within a watershed context.
Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground Diseased Trees Removal Project