Wallowa-Whitman National Forest

Planning and Environmental Analysis

Blue Mountain Land Exchange

Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests

News Release

10-12-2006 - Blue Mountain Land Exchange Analysis Issued; No Exchange to Occur.
PORTLAND , OR – The USDA Forest Service announced Thursday that a Final Environmental Impact Statement has been issued for the proposed Blue Mountain Land Exchange in northeastern Oregon. However, no Record of Decision will be issued because...

Final Environmental Impact Statement

We have split the Environmental Impact Statement for the Blue Mountain Land Exchange into chapters to facilitate opening the document on the web. For those with faster network connections we have included the entire document without spliting it into separate sections.

Link to entire document (5,373 KB)

Cover Page, Letter and Abstract - (544kb)

Summary - (653kb)

Table of Contents - (120kb)

Chapter 1 - Purpose of and Need for Action - (167kb)

Chapter 2 - Alternative, Including the Proposed Action Introduction - (353kb)

Chapter 3 - Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences - (1.65MB)

Chapter 4 - List of Preparers and Commentors - (122kb)

Literature Citations - (170kb)

Index - (110kb)

Acronyms - (114kb)

Glossary - (181kb)

Appendix A - Legal Descriptions - (134kb)

Appendix B - Map Index - (122kb)

• Map 1 - (111kb)
• Map 2 - (104kb)
• Map 3 - (101kb)
• Map 4 - (128kb)
• Map 5 - (95kb)
• Map 6 - (112kb)
• Map 7 - (84kb)
• Map 8 - (109kb)
• Map 10 - (107kb)
• Map 11 - (104kb)
• Map 12 - (87kb)
• Map 13 - (77kb)
• Map 14 - (68kb)
• Map 15 - (92kb)
• Map 17 - (70kb)
• Map 18 - (88kb)
• Map 19 - (110kb)
• Map 20 - (110kb)
• Map 21 - (101kb)
• Map 22 - (103kb)
• Map 23 - (89kb)
• Map 24 - (81kb)
• Map 25 - (102kb)
• Map 26 - (84kb)

Appendix C - Land Exchange Process - (113kb)

Appendix D - Dropped Parcels - (139kb)

Appendix E - Response to Comments - (257kb)

Appendix F - Multi-Species Biological Assessment - (502kb)

Record of Decision

List of maps for the Land Exchange - Preferred Alternative

• Letter to reviewers (June 2, 2005) (89 KB)

• Summary and Table of Content (1321 KB)

• Chapter 1 - Purpose and Need (204 KB)

• Chapter 2 - Alternatives (360 KB)

• Chapter 3 - Affected Environment (1,900 KB)

• Chapter 4 - List of Preparers and Literature Citations (198 KB)

• Index - Acronyms - Glossary (238 KB)

• Appendices - Legal Descriptions and Maps (1805 KB)

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Proposal

• List of maps for the Land Exchange
• Scoping Letter, 5/28/2003
• Comment Form -- How to get involved.

Wallowa Whitman, Umatilla and Malheur National Forests - Briefing Paper

The Proposal:

The USDA Forest Service is beginning to consider an exchange of lands by which non-federal inholdings (private lands located within National Forest boundaries) would become National Forest System lands.

The proposal will consider the exchange of approximately 20,600 acres of federal lands in the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests for approximately 37,000 acres of non-federal lands. The exchange will be completed on the basis of equal values, not equal acres, as determined by real estate appraisals.

The proposed exchange responds to a Forest Service objective of consolidating federal land ownership patterns in the three National Forests.  The exchange would consolidate federal land ownership by acquiring suitable and desirable inholdings and disposing of isolated lands or lands near the boundary of the three National Forests.

The exchange proposal addresses goals and objectives of the numerous involved private landowners. Clearwater Land Exchange – Oregon, a third party contractor, has been working for several years to draft a proposal that meets both the Forest Service and private land management objectives. All private landowners are willing partners in the transaction.

 The Forest Service entered into a partnership with Clearwater Land Exchange, as evidenced by the Agreement to Initiate, (amended 5/02).  We are behind the timeline outlined in that agreement, due to several factors out of the Forests’ control (fires of 2002, fire borrowing, funding issues, and lack of resources).

The Forest Service will be preparing an environmental impact statement on the final land exchange proposal to disclose effects on natural, cultural, and social resources.  The notice of intent was published August 2, 2002.

At this time, the team leader is the only funded person assigned to the project for the Forest Service.

Preliminary Management Concerns:

• Effects/Impacts to Threatened and Endangered species:  
  Bull trout, Bull trout habitat, Chinook salmon, Steelhead, Lynx
• Changes in acreages of Forest Plan designated special lands or habitat:  
  i.e. big game winter range, designated old growth
• Loss of acres supporting large trees or other types of cover
• Socioeconomic changes resulting from acres of exchange:  
  i.e. changes in access, altered land use patterns
• Water quality and Riparian habitat
• Economic Impact to communities/counties where reductions to tax base are occurring
• Effect of treaty resources

Affected Forest Service Units:

Malheur National Forest:   Blue Mountain and Prairie City Ranger Districts

Umatilla National Forest:   Heppner, North Fork John Day, Pomeroy, and Walla Walla Ranger Districts

Wallowa-Whitman National Forest:   Eagle Cap, La Grande, Pine, Unity, and Wallowa Valley Ranger Districts; and the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area

Watersheds identified in the exchange are Imnaha River, Big Sheep Creek, Joseph Creek, Lostine River, Wallowa River, Middle Grande Ronde River, Upper Grande Ronde River, Willow Creek, Umatilla River, North Fork John Day River, Middlefork John Day River, Upper John Day River, Lower John Day River, and the Snake River. 

Affected Acres by County:

A legal description of the lands to be considered can be accessed at: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/w-w/planning/bmle

Land Exchange Considerations:

Consolidation of federal land ownership allows the Forest Service to enhance its management of public lands by:

• Facilitating public access to present federal land
• Protecting habitat for several threatened, endangered and sensitive species
• Improving wetlands, floodplains, and riparian areas
• Preserving segments of the Imnaha, Lostine, Eagle Creek, and North Fork John Day Wild and Scenic Rivers
• Converting ownership of current private parcels of land within the Eagle Cap, Hells Canyon and Wenaha-Tucannon Wildernesses and the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area to federal ownership
• Decreasing the complexity of maintaining property boundaries
• Reducing the number of access permits to private inholdings
• Improving efficiency of resource management through consolidated ownerships
• Enhance future resource management and conservation to better meet the Forest Plan objectives.

Through this proposal, important habitat for threatened, endangered and sensitive species including lynx, bull trout, Chinook salmon, and steelhead would become National Forest System lands.   

All the parcels in the exchange are within the geographic area of ceded lands and/or area of interest of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, Confederated Tribes of the Nez Perce, or the Burns Paiute Tribes. Government to government consultation has been initiated with each of these tribal entities and will continue concurrent with the development of the land exchange project. Consultation with other local, County, State, and Federal governments will also be completed during the planning process.

Lands will be exchanged on a value for value basis, based on current fair market value appraisals.  If lands proposed for exchange are not equal in value, either party may make them equal by cash payment not to exceed 25% of the federal land value.

Comments:

To better assist us in the scoping process, please make your comments as specific as possible.  For example, if you are concerned about noxious weeds, your comment might read: “I am concerned about the increasing amount of knapweed found up Bear Creek on the southwest slope of Round Canyon.”  These specific comments will help us to better define issues concerning the proposed land exchange.  Comments can be received by Fax, Mail or electronically. 

USDA Forest Service - Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
Last Modified: Monday, 06 November 2006 at 11:17:21 EST