[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 247 (Wednesday, December 24, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77445-77447]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-30158]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


King Fire Restoration Project, Eldorado National Forest, Placer 
and El Dorado Counties, California

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.

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SUMMARY: The Eldorado National Forest proposes to restore portions of 
the King Fire of 2014. The proposed action includes hazard tree 
removal, fuel reduction, salvage logging, reforestation, road 
improvements, watershed improvements, and research.

DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received 
by January 23, 2015. The draft environmental impact statement is 
expected March 2015 and the final environmental impact statement is 
expected June 2015.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to 100 Forni Road, Placerville, CA 
95667, Attention: King Fire Restoration Project. Comments may also be 
sent via email to [email protected], or via 
facsimile to 530-621-5297.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patricia Ferrell, Team Leader, 
Eldorado National Forest, 100 Forni Road, Placerville, CA 95667, phone 
530-642-5146 or email to [email protected]. A scoping package, maps 
and other information are online at: http://www.fs.fed.us/nepa/nepa_project_exp.php?project=45952.
    Individuals who use telecommunication devices for the deaf (TDD) 
may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 
between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

General Background

    The King Fire started September 13, 2104 and burned approximately 
97,000 acres on the Eldorado National Forest and on private 
timberlands. The project area for this analysis is the approximately 
63,000 acre portion of the King Fire on Eldorado National Forest lands 
within the Georgetown, Pacific, and Placerville Ranger Districts 
administrative boundary. The project area includes all or portions of 
30 watersheds. The large high severity portions of this fire resulted 
in adverse effects to forest resources such as soil, riparian areas, 
and wildlife habitat, and killed thousands of trees that contribute to 
hazardous conditions for people and extremely high fuel loading over 
time.

Purpose and Need for Action

    The underlying need(s) for this proposal include: Reduce the risk 
from falling dead, dying, and defective trees to the safety of forest 
visitors and workers, and of damaging private property, structures, and 
cultural resources; reduce accumulation of fuel over the long term in 
strategic fire management areas for the purpose of improving the 
ability to manage and control future fires; maintain the ecological 
integrity of post fire habitat while restoring diverse conifer forests 
and laying the foundation for resiliency

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into the future; expeditiously recover timber killed by the fire 
commensurate with available markets, for the purpose of generating 
funds to offset the cost of restoration activities and contribute to 
societal needs for wood products; take advantage of research 
opportunities to increase knowledge regarding the effects of large 
fires on the environment, how to reduce the risk of future fires, and 
how to restore resilient forests after fires; reduce existing and 
potential sources of soil movement and sedimentation to streams, and 
reduce large woody fuel accumulation in sensitive areas where a future 
fire is likely to have detrimental effects on soil, water, and cultural 
resources.

Proposed Action

    In developing the proposed action, consideration was given to areas 
that burned with high severity outside the natural range of variation; 
exclusion of hardwood/shrub/grassland areas that would continue to 
persist without treatment; maximizing the probability of California 
spotted owl persistence within and adjacent to the King Fire, 
maintaining habitat suitable for fire obligate wildlife including the 
black-backed woodpecker, promoting a mosaic of post-fire vegetation 
important for species associated with early seral habitats, and 
minimizing impacts to the threatened Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog 
and California red-legged frog; conifer seed dispersal and the need to 
plant trees in areas unlikely to naturally regenerate; identification 
of wildland urban interface defense zones where the focus is on 
protecting life and property; strategic fuel management zones to 
contain wildfire and facilitate prescribed fire; and generally 
eliminate steep slopes from the proposed action where treatments would 
be prohibitively expensive, and where treatment was not needed to meet 
other objectives of the project.
    Areas identified for treatment are: approximately 1,200 acres in 
the wildland urban interface (WUI) defense zone where increasing fuel 
loads pose a hazard to community fire protection; approximately 7,300 
acres within the fire management zone which are strategic areas 
identified to establish a safe and effective place for future fire 
suppression; approximately 5,600 acres in the forest resiliency area 
where reestablishment of conifer forests are desired, ecologically 
sustainable, and can be managed to have a high probability of surviving 
subsequent wildfire; other specific areas where treatment would occur 
for research and watershed improvement; and roads needing hazard tree 
removal (approximately 429 miles), repair, closure, and/or 
decommissioning.
    Within Strategic Fuels Management Zones, WUI Defense Zones, and 
Forest Resiliency Areas, remove dead conifer trees using in excess of 
soil cover needs and wildlife snag retention levels needs. In the 
Forest Resiliency Areas, snags will generally be retained in two to 
five acre patches covering 15 to 20 percent of a treatment area and 
incorporating the largest snags available. No standing snags will be 
retained in WUI Defense Zones, and four large snags per acre up to 
12sq. ft./acre basal area in a grouped configuration will be retained 
in Strategic Fire Management Zones. Trees to be removed have brown 
foliage or no foliage remaining as viewed from the ground. Mortality 
monitoring for tree removal may be conducted up to 4 years following 
the fire.
    Within Hazard Areas, remove hazard trees along Forest Service 
system roads open to the public and roads needed for access to 
treatment areas, along private residential property, adjacent to 
structures, and in specific cultural resource sites identified by the 
archeologist. Hazard trees to be removed are dead and dying trees that 
have potential to reach the road or property and live trees that are 
sufficiently damaged or defective to pose a risk of falling within the 
next 5 years.
    Methods include mechanical or other ground based logging on 
approximately 11,800 acres, skyline or helicopter logging on 
approximately 700 acres, hand treatments on approximately 700 acres, 
and mastication or machine piling on approximately 100 acres.
    In areas identified above, the maximum desired surface fuel loading 
is 6-10 tons per acre of material <3 diameter. In areas 
described above where additional treatment is needed to reduce fuel 
loading to the desired level or provide additional soil cover, tops, 
limbs, and unmerchantable boles of harvested trees, and small dead 
trees that are not removed using the logging methods described, would 
be treated by one or more of the following methods: cutting and 
scattering to within 18 inches of the ground, cutting and left in 
place, hand piling, mastication or chipping with a track mounted 
masticator or chipper; and/or cutting trees and piling using tractors 
or rubber tired machinery with brush rakes or grapples. Piles would be 
burned.
    Within portions of watersheds determined to be at high risk of soil 
erosion and sedimentation which could negatively impact watershed 
resources, treatments include: Increasing groundcover using onsite or 
imported material (e.g. mastication, lop and scatter, mulching), 
obliteration of existing disturbances, and removal of excess woody 
material.
    Planting of seedlings would occur on approximately 14,000 acres of 
conifer forest types where a forested community is the desired 
condition, but where natural regeneration of a desired species 
composition and density are not expected to occur within the next 
several decades, and where stands can reasonably be effectively and 
efficiently managed into the future. Planting strategies would be 
designed to maintain ecological integrity while balancing future 
climate projections, economics, long-term management feasibility, and 
desired conditions. Except in the limited circumstances where site 
preparation to treat residual fuels is not needed, salvage logging 
would be completed before planting takes place. At the time of 
planting, the planted seedlings would be released from competing 
vegetation by hand scraping a radius of 2 to 5 feet around the 
seedlings depending on competing vegetation and follow-up treatment 
planned. Follow-up manual and herbicide release of seedlings from 
competing vegetation would occur where competing vegetation is expected 
to reduce seedling survival or growth below an acceptable level. 
Proposed research projects are to study the effect of varying salvage 
and re-planting intensities on the fuel complex and native/non-native 
species abundance over time; study forest resilience after high-
severity wildfire: the effect of snag density and distribution on the 
retention of forest ecosystem functions; and additional projects to be 
determined.

Responsible Official

    Forest Supervisor, Eldorado National Forest.

Nature of Decision To Be Made

    The decision to be made is whether to adopt and implement the 
proposed action, an alternative to the proposed action, or take no 
action to restore the King Fire area.

Scoping Process

    This notice of intent initiates the scoping process, which guides 
the development of the environmental impact statement. A scoping open 
house will be held January 13, 2015 in Placerville, CA. Comments 
specific to the location, methods, and actions proposed are the most 
helpful.
    It is important that reviewers provide their comments at such times 
and in such manner that they are useful to the agency's preparation of 
the

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environmental impact statement. Therefore, comments should be provided 
prior to the close of the comment period and should clearly articulate 
the reviewer's concerns and contentions.
    Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names 
and addresses of those who comment, will be part of the public record 
for this proposed action. Comments submitted anonymously will be 
accepted and considered, however.

    Dated: December 18, 2014.
Laurence Crabtree,
Forest Supervisor.
[FR Doc. 2014-30158 Filed 12-23-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-11-P