Ochoco National Forest

Page Contents

• Forest Plans
• Lookout Mountain Ranger District
• Paulina Rock Ranger District

Forest Plans

Travel Management Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement

The Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests and Crooked River National Grassland jointly released a Travel Management Project draft Environmental Impact Statement for public comment on October 9, 2009. This Travel Management Project will cover major portions of Deschutes, Jefferson, Crook, Klamath, Lake, Grant and Wheeler Counties in Oregon. The Travel Management Plan implements the 2005 Travel Management Rule reverses the previous rule that allowed off road travel anywhere, unless specifically prohibited, to prohibit off road travel everywhere, unless specifically allowed. Clearly, the content of the travel management Plan will have significant meaning to the forests, deserts, and grasslands of Central Oregon and to its citizens. The Forest Service has posted extensively information on this Travel Management Plan and the draft Environmental Impact Statement on its web site at Planning and Environmental Analysis- Travel Management Project. You are urged to carefully read the Forest Service and Grasslands proposals and provide your comments to Asante Riverwind. The Forest Service is holding a series of Open Houses around the region from October 20th through November 5th to explain the Travel Management Plan from their perspective. The locations and times for these hearing are posted on the Forest Service web site linked above, and are also posted on our Community Events page. (10-16-09)

Invasive Plant Treatments Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement

In June 2009 the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests and Crooked River National Grassland jointly released a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) for Invasive Plant Treatments. This DSEIS supplemented the Region 6 Invasive Plant Program Final Environmental Impact Statement issued in 2005. The DSEIS addresses how the Forest Service will address the problems posed by invasive plants through new treatment strategies. The full text of the DSEIS can be read on the Forest Service web site at Deschutes-Ochoco NF Invasive Plant Draft Supplemental Environment Impact Statement.

The Sierra Club reviewed the DSEIS and recommended that it withdrawn and significantly revised. The comments submitted requested that the following issues be addressed:

• Withdraw the use of known and suspected toxic herbicides, and new as yet unproven chemical and bio-control formulations
• Prioritize natural, manual, and where appropriate (already significantly disturbed areas such as roadsides) mechanical removal and control of invasive exotic plants.
• Proactively address root causes of invasive plant introduction and spread. Paramount among these are livestock grazing, roads, logging, riparian degradation, and off road vehicles. Soil disturbance, soil and vegetative community degradation; altered hydrological patterns, riparian and water system degradation; and excessive road densities, use, access, and ecosystem fragmentation.
• Address root causes of the introduction and spread of invasive plants, such as: authorizing additional logging thinning, ORV systems, new roads construction.
• Analyze the proposed Invasive Plant Treatments and the cumulative and synergistic effects of past, recent, current, known, and likely future federal and adjacent non-federal timber sales, livestock grazing, road use and management, recreation, mining, ORV systems and use patterns (authorized and unauthorized), and other non-federal weed control projects in the region that utilize herbicides and bio-controls (state, county, municipal, agriculture, railway, and private).

The full text of the Sierra Club comments can be read at Deschutes/Ochoco/Crooked River National Grasslands Invasives DEIS Comments, August 7, 2009. (8-10-09)

Lookout Mountain Ranger District

1. Big Summit Range Allotment Management Plan - The Lookout Mountain Ranger District is proposing to reauthorize term grazing permits and modify grazing management in five allotments: Big Summit, Brush Creek, Pringle, Lost Horse, and North Fork. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement was released in July 2009 and can be read on the Forest Service web page Big Summit Range Allotment Management Plan. Maps are also available on this page. The Sierra Club has reviewed this proposed action and found that there are significant shortcomings in the DEIS relative to protection of water quality, aquatic species, and bird habitat. Consequently, the DEIS violates both NEPA and the Federal Multiple Use laws. The full Sierra Club comments can be read at Big Summit Cluster Grazing Allotment DEIS Comments. (8-27-09)
2. Lookout Mountain Prescribed Burn Project - The Lookout Mt. Ranger District proposes to use prescribed fire to re-introduce fire disturbance in the Lookout Mountain area. They are proposing a series of controlled burns starting in the Fall of 2009 and continuing for the next several years. Generally, with adequate provisions to protect a range of native species during the vulnerable mid to late spring season (nesting birds, denning mammals with young, emerging plants, and invertebrate species re-emerging after winter's snows), and provisions to ensure the area's remaining old growth trees don't succumb to fire due to excessive duff and fuels buildup near their base, returning fires to the area's fire ecology forest ecosystems is a necessary ecologically beneficial step in the proactive long-term restoration of the area. The Forest Service Scoping Letter and a map are at Lookout Mountain Prescribed Burn. The Sierra Club comments on this project are at Lookout Mountain Prescribed Fire Project Comments. (5-28-09)
3. Canyon Fuels Reduction Project - This project proposes commercial logging across 4,859 acres of forest, pre-commercial thinning on 5,494 acres, "prescribed" fire (more correctly known as controlled fire) to "reduce fuels" on 1,989 acres, juniper cutting on 1,397 acres, and riparian and hardwood logging-thinning actions on 236 acres. The agency proposes 19.5 miles of new road construction and 13.2 miles of road reconstruction. As proposed, we have serious ecological and legal objection to the Canyon Project, which largely fails in its assumptions to be based upon credible science, and the natural variability of the area's ecological processes, functioning, and resilience.
   
   It is clear from reviewing the proposed project actions, and the actual impacts of the similarly premised adjacent Spears project, that implementation of the Canyon Project's proposed logging activities would irreparably degrade forest ecology, wildlife habitat, and impair water quality in the area's watersheds, and be inconsistent with credible science and the purported ecological objectives of the project.
   
   Proposed new and so-called "temporary" new road building; thinning of mature sized and mature and old characteristic trees; impacts to listed species, indicator species, and species of concern including (but not limited to) goshawks, flammulated owls, neotropical migrant and native interior forest bird species, lynx, wolverine, marten, elk, deer, bear, cougar, small mammals, bats, and other wildlife species; impacts from ground-based heavy logging machinery; ground and airborne sedimentation into area watersystems; and cumulative impacts from this and other area projects would undeniably result in further significant degradation of the ecological integrity, wildlife habitat, soil hydrology, and aquatic systems in and around the project area.
   
   For more details on this and our objections to the proposed scoping statement, read the Canyon Scoping Comments. The Forest Service scoping letter and a map are available at Ochoco National Forest, Canyon Fuels and Vegetation Project. (3-20-09)
4. Spears timber sale FEIS - Volunteer help is needed monitoring, documenting, and assessing impacts and effectiveness of this "fuels and fire risk reduction" project. The Spears thinning-logging is being implemented over the next two years, with areas needing survey hikes this spring through fall season. After years of contention, including a successful appeal and lawsuit that stopped earlier versions of this timber sale, conservation issues were incorporated through successful appeal settlement negotiations last fall. The negotiated settlement helps protect interior forest dependent wildlife & aquatic species, and mixed conifer old growth forests, while allowing small diameter thinning, controlled burning, and some logging-thinning of ponderosa pine forest stands. The settlement is unit specific, using variable diameter limits and/or basal area retention specific to unit forest type and wildlife concerns, ranging from 16" to 18" diameter limits, with basal area retention in mixed conifer and connective areas averaging 85 sq. ft. Some units were dropped entirely, while portions of others have been dropped. In addition to unit specific modifications, another 10% of the overall logging will be dropped to protect habitat features across the landscape. The remainder of the project units are primarily already logged ponderosa pine forests. These have a 21" diameter maximum cutting limit, however, most of the trees felled are to be under 16" diameter. Overall, this is a conservation-proactive victorious settlement, helping to protect the area's interior forest wildlife species and their habitat, while setting protective lower diameter precedents for mixed conifer forests. Monitoring and assessment results will be used in ongoing conservation efforts to modify or halt logging projects- to protect the region's forests and wildlife from harm.
5. McKay Creek Trail Damage, photo by Marilyn Miller McKay OHV - It's finally official. McKay, which currently has had a year long emergency closure, has been dropped from further consideration by the agency for inclusion in an OHV trail system, and is now permanently closed to OHVs. Our thanks to numerous volunteers, Friends of McKay, other allies, and Ochoco Forest Supervisor, District Ranger, and staff. However, Friends of McKay volunteer patrols continue to report instances of violations of the OHV closure order, including trash dumping and shooting. Discussions with Friends of McKay volunteers regarding next steps are in progress. This is a partial success story, however, continued vigilance and volunteer monitor are essential to enforcing adherence to closure of this area.
6. Big Summit OHV - In replacement of McKay Creek (see above), the agency is following the travel management collaborative group common ground recommendations for possible OHV trail systems in the Big Summit area of the Ochoco. Initial communication is beginning with Friends of McKay and Sierra Club volunteers about coverage of conservation issues in the Big Summit area, which - while it may have general common ground potential in some areas for limited OHV use - also has areas of ecologically sensitive habitat, including habitat for Sandhill cranes and other wildlife. Communication has started with agency officials about preventing illegal user-created trails in this area, as OHV groups did in McKay, and the need to ensure that agency resource specialists properly address environmental concerns in areas considered for designation, including the proper development of trails to avoid irreparable ecological harms. 
7. Harvey Gap - appeal negotiations resulted in changing this small timber sale of wind-thrown old trees, with settlement requiring the retention of additional trees including those located in a seasonal riparian drainage, on steep slopes, and in good wildlife habitat areas. Volunteer help is needed surveying the project area, assessing impacts and agency adherence to conservation agreements.
8. Snowshoe Fuels - Communication with the Ochoco resulted in the incorporation of conservation objectives in the design of this fuels-reduction thinning project. The agency has proposed this fuels reduction project with no commercial logging component, a 12" diameter cutting limit, and wide riparian buffers - helping to set an ecologically-based precedent for future fuels reduction projects. Volunteer help is needed participating in this public decision process and documenting project impacts and effectiveness.
9. East Maury Fuel and Vegetation Management Project - Comments were submitted in June 2008 on the East Maury Fuels and Vegetation management Project DEIS in a joint action with the League of Wilderness Defenders-Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project. The East Maury Project as proposed would have resulted in significant adverse impacts to the area's forests, ecological integrity, waterways, wildlife, aquatic species, and native plants and soils. Read the East Maury Fuels and Vegetation Management Project DEIS Comments, June 2008 and East Maury Fuels and Vegetation Management Project Additional DEIS Comments, June 2008, for the full understanding of the serious impact this project will have on forest health if it had been implemented as described. In August this project was appealed (East Maury Fuels and Vegetation Management Project Appeal), August 2008, since the Comments were not adequately resolved in the issued project. However, as a result of our legal victory in the Five Buttes case, we were able to work with the Forest Service to resolve our objections to this project – changing the project to better incorporate credible scientific ecological restoration and fire risk reduction recommendations. The project was changed to retain all old characteristic trees of all species (except Lodgepole pine where this exists), thin only in appropriate plant association group forests - Ponderosa pine and dry Douglas fir frequent low severity fire systems – dropping mixed conifer high elevation, cool moist, & north slope forests from inappropriate thinning, with additional protections retaining forest structure, including 16” diameter limits for Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir, and riparian protections, etc. In September, our appeal was withdrawn (East Maury Appeal Withdrawal, September 2008).
10. Maury Mountains Grazing - Our appeal of livestock grazing in this area resulted in an agreement by the agency for better monitoring and compliance enforcement, and maintaining exclosures to protect waterways and young aspen stands. Appeal issues, and a consequent field trip resulted in permittee ranchers' agreement to better protect waterways and forest vegetation from livestock. Monitoring review following 2007's summer season found significantly improved conditions throughout the Maury Mountains forest allotments. Volunteers are needed to continue monitoring during and after the 2008 grazing season.
11. Burn and Crystal Spring Grazing Allotments - More good news! We have negotiated a two-part settlement of our appeal of the Burns & Crystal Springs Allotment management Plan in the Lookout Mountain Ranger District of the Ochoco NF. The settlement helps bring additional changes to grazing plans to better protect forest vegetation, waterways, wildlife habitat, and aquatic species, and to better help the Ochoco National Forest accomplish their restoration and forest resiliency objectives in the area. Details of the settlement agreement are in the Burn and Crystal Springs Appeal Withdrawal document. For details of what was appealed, see Burn and Crystal Springs Allotment EA Appeal, October 2008.

Paulina Ranger District

1. Upper Beaver FS Field Trip
   photo by Larry Pennington Upper Beaver Creek Vegetation Management Project - This 39,000 acre project includes logging across 2,900 acres, approximately 17,700 acres of various types of burning, 8,300 acres of "pre-commercial thinning," and about two miles of "temporary" (new) road construction. The agency proposes to allow logging in 360 acres of Riparian Habitat Conservation Areas (RCHAs). The project area borders Black Canyon Wilderness on the north, and Rager Ranger Station on the south at the Ochoco boundary. Much of the area consists of pine and mixed conifer forests in riparian drainages (some of which are steep) between open rocky/grass uplands. Species of concern include goshawks, eagles, redband trout, pileated and white-headed woodpeckers, and others. A field trip with agency staff and conservation volunteers was conducted on October 6, 2009. The agency staff made significant changes to a previous similar project, and expressed willingness to incorporate ecological concerns in the developing Beaver Creek project also. Forest Service documentation for this project, including the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, can be found at Upper Beaver Creek Vegetation Management Project. Volunteers are needed to help hike and document forest and watershed conditions in this area, assess conservation concerns, and participate in the public comment process. (10-07-09)
2. Black Canyon Wilderness Trail and Invasive Plant Prevention - The agency plans to relocate a wilderness hiking trails off adjacent private lands, and plans better trail access connecting Cottonwood Creek roadless area and Black Canyon Wilderness. Volunteer help is needed assisting in trail work and invasive plant removal from wilderness area trails and sites.
3. Willow Pine - Similar with Spears above, volunteer help is needed in survey monitoring of this fuels reduction logging project also. Last year, field trips and meetings resulted in changing this large-scale thinning project. The agency agreed to use variable 16" to 18" diameter cutting limits, drop old forest, goshawk, step slope, and riparian proximity areas, retain a percentage of un-thinned areas in all units, and not build any new roads. These changes resulted in a much smaller thinning project that has potential to accomplish restoration objectives. Ongoing monitoring and assessment of both Spears (above) and Willow Pine, as these are implemented, are an essential part of our 2008 volunteer efforts.