Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground ...

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“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
Page 1 and 2: Project Level Watershed Analysis Mc
Page 3 and 4: Riparian Reserves are applied along
Page 5 and 6: The project area is located in the
Page 7: 7 th Field Hydrologic unit code 180
Page 11: Examples of management activities t

Project Level Watershed Analysis McBride Springs Campground ...

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