Draft EIS_072312.pdf - Middle Fork American River Project ...

20120723-4002 FERC PDF (Unofficial) 07/23/2012
project agreements in which improvement of a road under the jurisdiction of one party is
to be financed in whole or in part from funds or resources provided by the other party.
The current agreement expired on December 31, 2011. PCWA has also undertaken road
improvement projects in accordance with the provisions of project-specific Special Use
Permits issued by the Forest Service.
Forty-six roads (totaling 19.7 miles) and eight trails (totaling 0.5 mile) are used for
ongoing project operation and maintenance. Most of the inventoried roads, 10.73 miles,
are in good condition, 1.82 miles are in poor condition and 7.23 miles range from
good/fair to poor condition. PCWA did not evaluate conditions on 1.2 miles of these
roads. No traffic safety concerns related to blind spots, poor sight distances, or
inadequate signage were identified on the inventoried roads. PCWA identified a total of
18 project and public roads that are potentially used by the public to access dispersed
concentrated use areas near the project. PCWA inventoried the trails it uses for operation
and maintenance and determined they are in good condition except for one trail that is in
poor condition (PCWA, 2008b).
Wildland Fire
Large, catastrophic fires have occurred in the project vicinity since 1908. Most
recently (2001) the Star Fire burned across 17,500 acres of forest within the Eldorado and
Tahoe National Forests and on private land. Fire management in the project vicinity is
the responsibility of the Forest Service and local fire districts. The Forest Service uses
two main strategies for landscape-level fuels management: (1) containing fires with
linear fuelbreaks and defensible fuel profile zones; and (2) using a spatial arrangement of
dispersed vegetation treatments and prescribed fires to interrupt the spread of fire.
3.3.5.2 Environmental Effects
Recreation
This section presents the environmental effects of (1) the recreation plans filed by
PCWA and the Forest Service (condition no. 33); (2) funding for recreation facility
operation and maintenance (condition no. 34); (3) recreation improvements at Cache
Rock (condition no. 35); (4) improvements to Hell Hole administrative site (condition no.
36); (5) reservoir minimum pool elevations and reservoir level objectives (condition no.
37); (6) reservoir fish stocking (condition no. 38); and (7) streamflow requirements below
Oxbow powerhouse (condition no. 39).
Recreation Plan
PCWA proposes to implement the Recreation Plan filed with the license
application (Proposed Recreation Plan [PCWA, 2011a]) to ensure quality experience for
recreation users while protecting natural and cultural resources. This plan states PCWA
would be entirely responsible for all routine and heavy maintenance at project recreation
facilities. Heavy maintenance items identified in the plan as well as reconstruction or
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