Bitterroot National Forest

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Lower West Fork Project

The West Fork Ranger District is proposing vegetation management treatments to reduce crown fire hazard, treat fuels, and improve forest health in the Lower West Fork area. Our proposed action is designed to reduce the potential impacts of a wildfire by increasing the likelihood that future wildland fires would burn on the forest floor as opposed to the tree crowns. This would make conditions safer for firefighters and better protect private property in the area.

A variety of mechanical, commercial and non-commercial methods would be employed. Thinning treatments will increase crown spacing favoring ponderosa pine and the largest, healthiest trees. This will reduce risk to stand-destroying wildfire and improve forest health by making stands more resilient to insects and disease. The proposed commercial treatments include thinning from below; removal of individual dead, dying and diseased trees; and creating small openings where regenerating hardwoods or creating disruptions in selected forest crowns to reduce crown fire. Forest thinning (commercial) activities may be followed by slashing / thinning of small, non-commercial understory trees; hand piling; and prescribed fire. Additional proposed vegetation treatments include non-commercial thinning and slashing of small diameter trees, prescribed burning, hand piling and hand pile burning. No new major permanent road construction is planned in the Lower West Fork project. However, existing road re-alignment or maintenance may occur and some temporary roads may be necessary to harvest some units.

Watershed and fisheries projects include existing road re-alignment, existing road decommissioning, existing road storage, culvert removal and culvert replacement for fish passage, and spot graveling. Road decommissioning and storage have the additional benefit to improve wildlife habitat effectiveness, especially for Rocky Mountain elk, through reduction of overall road densities.

The project is located between 7 and 15 miles southwest of Conner, generally between Trapper Creek – Job Corps and the Nez Perce Fork road junction. The analysis area encompasses nearly 38,400 acres on the West Fork Ranger District, Bitterroot National Forest, Montana.

ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW PROCESS (NEPA)

Proposed Action Scoping - Early Spring 2007

Proposed Action - Scoping Letter (.pdf, 2,602kb)

News Release

Legal Notice for Commenting - Published Ravalli Republic 03/08/07 (.pdf, 81kb)

"Only those who submit timely comments will retain appeal eligibility. Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names and addresses of those who comment, will be considered part of the public record and will be available for public inspection." (36 CFR 215)

 

Proposed Action Scoping, December 2007

Frazier Public Involvement - Forest Consensus Council (.pdf, 230kb)

Proposed Action - Scoping Letter dated December 13, 2007 (.pdf, 2,602kb)

All maps are developed in color, but also designed to retain detail and information distinction when printed in black and white. The poster size map is pretty large, so we designed the smaller 8.5 x 11 maps at the same scale. All four maps can be printed and arranged (overlapped) to form one large map. Please use the vicinity map as an arrangement guide.

Lower West Fork Vicinity Scoping Map - 8.5 x 11 (.pdf, 913kb)

Lower West Fork Scoping Map 1 - 8.5 x 11 (.pdf, 1,871kb)

Lower West Fork Scoping Map 2 - 8.5 x 11 (.pdf, 2,058kb)

Lower West Fork Scoping Map 3 - 8.5 x 11 (.pdf, 1,427kb)

Lower West Fork Scoping Map 4 - 8.5 x 11 (.pdf, 2,069kb)

 

Draft Environmental Impact Statement - June 2008

Draft Environmental Impact Statement Comment Period - Summer 2008

Final Environmental Impact Statement - December 2008

LOWER WEST FORK ACTION CONCEPTS

Lower West Fork proposed projects are generally actions that have been previously implemented in either: the project vicinity, elsewhere on the Bitterroot National Forest, or elsewhere regionally.

Images of previous action results are intended to help the viewer develop a vision of the relative environmental effects of the proposed action(s). For smaller projects implemented in a short time-frame, a relative magnitude of environmental effect can be visually displayed. Images for portions of larger projects can provide a representative glimpse in time and/or space regarding the sample effects or desired end results. Other visual aids are provided to develop a vision of a proposed approach, where real images are not yet available.

These images are intended to provide additional clarity of types of actions, demonstrate our experience with actions and to generate discussion regarding our overall proposal.

Examples of action concepts proposed in Lower West Fork include Forest Thinning, Prescribed Fire, Patch Cut - Thin, Watershed Improvements, and Fish Habitat Improvements. For further clarification and to view examples of each of these action concepts, click here.

USDA Forest Service - Bitterroot National Forest
Last Modified: Friday, 09 May 2008 at 11:52:35 EDT