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Show Field Trip Set For Review Of Proposed Changes For Aquarius Ecosystem BOULDER - The Forest Service is seeking input on a major ma-jor project proposed for portions of the Escalante Ranger District and the Teasdale Ranger District some 18 miles northwest of Escalante. Esca-lante. The area includes Dark Valley, Big Lake and Philo Lake in the Teasdale District and Barney Top, Griffin Top, and Big Swale areas of the Escalante District. The Forest Service has set up a public field trip day so that interested individuals may view the project area. Participants will ic:ys rhe Escnlanre District Office at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 29 and must bring their own lunch and wear appropriate clothing. So that transportation arrangements can be made, they should call first to 435-826-5400. Public comments may be submitted until Oct. 12. Details for submission may be obtained from District Ranger Kevin Schulkoski at the Escalante District Office. Known as the Aquarius Ecosystem Eco-system Restoration Project (AERP), the 81,104-acre area is comprised of four major watersheds: water-sheds: Pleasant, Boulder and Antimony An-timony Creeks and the Escalante River where elevations range from 9000 to 11,000 feet. The Forest Service has proposed pro-posed several actions to move the existing conditions toward desired future conditions. They include commercial timber harvesting, aspen regeneration, management ignited prescribed fire, and travel management. Within the 16,215 acres of aspen, fire will be used on only 50 acres that are isolated and impractical commercially. Mechanical Me-chanical commercial and noncommercial non-commercial treatments are set on 3 1 00 acres. Patch cuts and clear cuts may be used where commercially eco-nomical within 14 mile of an existing road. Fire will also be used on 1600 acres, either alone or as a followup to the mechanical treatment. The Forest Service is looking to maintain a mosaic of aspen and conifer stands with a variety of age classes across the landscape land-scape and enhance the opportunity oppor-tunity to sustain healthy aspen forests over the long-term and provide forest products to the forest industry. In the Englemann spruce-subalpine spruce-subalpine fir forests, the plan is to treat approximately 200 acres of aspen with prescribed stand replacement fire only to stimulate aspen regeneration and eliminate existing aspen and conifers. Another 12,000 acres will be harvested by tree thinning under an individual tree selection system, reducing density while maintaining size variety. Approximately 1600 acres of serai (young or early-age) aspen will be regenerated commercially and non-commercially in the sprucefir forest, usir.g fire after cutting to remove residual conifers. The purpose is to maintain stand densities at moderate levels with a variety of age classes and to provide for a mix of aspen clones because more aspen is currently being lost than replaced by aspen regeneration. Proper management is expected to prevent large scale losses caused by the spruce beetle. Significant changes that will result from the project will be road closures, proposed as follows: fol-lows: (1) 16.3 miles of existing roads would be utilized for harvest har-vest and regeneration activities and- would be closed with physical phys-ical barriers upon project completion; comple-tion; (2) 39.6 miles of existing roads would be improved for project activities and would be obliterated and revegetated upon project completion; (3) 13.25 miles of new road construction would be required for project implementation and then would be closed with physical barriers upon project completion; (4) 7.6 miles of new road construction would be required for project (See AQUARIUS on Page 4A) AQUARIUS From front Page implementation and then obliterated obli-terated and revegetated upon project completion; and (5) approximately ap-proximately 15 miles of roads that are not being utilized for harvest activities will be closed and obliterated. ob-literated. The 228 miles of road cur-, rently open would be reduced to 136 by project's end. The current density of 1.88 miles of road per square mile would be reduced to 1.08. The Forest Service says the reduction is needed because many travel routes throughout the area were not properly located and constructed with proper drainage drain-age devices and have created erosion problems. Also, road densities den-sities are excessive to the Forest Service's ability to maintain the roads to agency standards. Under the project, trailhead development is proposed as follows: fol-lows: (1) a trailhead to be constructed con-structed for the Powell Point Trail (6.0) at the junction of the Powell Point non-motorized trail and the end of FS road 1516; construction would include a parking area, signs and information informa-tion kiosk; FS road 1516 would be reconstructed and left open; (2) a trailhead to be constructed for the Gap trail (1.51) at the end of FS road 1370; included would be a parking area, signs and an information kiosk; (3) a trailhead to be constructed at Clayton Guard Station to serve Grass Lakes (1.61), Pacer Lake (4.0), Poison Creek (3.0) and Antimony Lake (2.0) motorized trails; construction would include a parking area, signs and an information kiosk; (4) a trailhead . to be constructed for the North Creek non-motorized trail; construction con-struction would include a parking area, signs and an information kiosk; and (5) construction of a parking area at the end of the road at Row Lakes (FS road 0176). The Forest Service analysis revealed that motorized and non-motorized non-motorized recreation use is increasing resulting in a need to provide safe public access. Existing Exist-ing trailheads are rudimentary and undeveloped and there is a need to design and construct trailheads which include parking areas, signs and kiosks. The absence of designated trailheads has caused soil and water resource damage. The purpose of the proposed action in the coniferous forests is to (1) improve species diversity, and forest structure and pattern characteristics; (2) increase the number of matureold stage spruce; (3) manage risk to bark beetles and other insects and diseases to endemic levels; (4) increase serai aspen and representation represen-tation of young aspen clones in the sprucefir type; and (5) provide pro-vide opportunity for community based forestry business. The purpose of the treatments in the aspen component are to (l)increase species diversity across the landscape to reduce catastrophic losses associated with forest pests and fire; (2) increase the amount of aspen clones in the early-to-young stage on up to 30 percent of the existing stands; (3) maintain aspen range within sprucefir dominated stands; (4) reduce conifer invasion inva-sion in the aspen type; (5) improve im-prove or maintain the visual form, color and textural diversity in the landscape viewed by forest users; (6) improve structural diversity associated with wildlife habitat; and (7) provide opportunity for community-based forestry business. busi-ness. The purpose of proposed travel management is to (1) restore watershed values in areas where unacceptable soil and water resource re-source damage is occurring. Closing and rehabilitating un-needed un-needed roads will reduce the adverse impacts occurring; (2) reduce long-term maintenance costs; (3) provide access to treatment treat-ment areas, trailheads, dispersed recreation areas, and other areas of high recreation use; (4) provide for safe travel on forest roads; and (5) reduce road densities to maintain main-tain or improve wildlife habitat effectiveness. |
