Environmental Assessment

PURPOSE AND NEED CHAPTER 1
commercially viable wood fiber to support local mills and the local economy. Vegetation management
and fuel reduction activities are intended to:
Strategically reduce fuel loadings and forest vegetation density so as to lessen the risk that
disturbance events such as insect, disease, and wildfire will lead to large-scale loss of forest and
shrub habitats. As used here, the term, “strategically” means to locate a mix of management
actions in specific places on the landscape where they will reduce the risk to desired habitats.
Emphasis is placed on reducing risks to desired habitats such as late and old-structured stands,
xeric shrublands, and large trees;
protect developments such as the Pine Mountain Observatory, electronic sites; transmission lines,
range improvements, and other similar improvements and facilities from large-scale wildfire; and
provide timber and other wood fiber products to contribute to local and regional economies
resulting from these activities.
Activities are also intended to move toward improving conditions within all management allocations in
the planning area (see below).
Need for Action
It is not practical to rely on natural succession and disturbance processes to resolve decades of fuels
accumulations in much of the planning area. Thinning and other fire/fuel hazard reduction treatments are
necessary not only to reduce the wildfire potential and intensity, but to manage stands that are currently at
risk to bark beetle infestation due to overstocked trees.
There are four major designated land allocations within the planning area that are described in the LRMP.
They are Deer Habitat, General Forest, Scenic Views, and Old Growth. Within these allocations there is
a need for:
1. vegetation conditions that reflect the high frequency/low intensity fire regime that occurred
historically in this area;
2. stand conditions in ponderosa pine that mimic conditions that occur in the presence of endemic
levels of insect and disease activity; and
3. fuel reduction and timber production consistent with management area goals and objectives and
environmental constraints.
Specifically there is a need for:
a) stands of park-like, old growth ponderosa pine similar to those present prior to Euro-American
settlement
b) reduced competition for site resources among ponderosa pine within areas historically
supporting ponderosa pine;
c) reduced natural fuel loadings; and
d) a landscape characterized by discontinuous hazardous fuels. Hazardous fuels are broken up by
fuel condition unlikely to support an uncharacteristic wildfire. Reduced hazardous fuels are
arranged strategically across the landscape and are of a size and orientation that reduce the
likelihood of large fire spread, lessen post-wildfire damage, and facilitate successful fire
suppression under severe wildfire conditions. Strategic locations include:
The areas adjacent to the Pine Mountain Observatory, electronic sites, the Bonneville
Power Administration (BPA) Sand Springs Compensation Station transmission line rightof-way;
and developed facilities associated with the East Fort Rock Off-Highway Vehicle
(OHV) trail system;
adjacent private and public lands; and
adjacent to primary travel routes that provide egress or ingress to the planning area
including Forest Roads 18, 2017, 23, 25, and 2510.
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