Department of Agriculture October 24, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Forest Service will prepare an environmental impact statement on a proposal to use multiple vegetation treatments focused on reducing the threat to ecosystem components including forest resources from an existing insect and disease epidemic (mountain pine beetle), creating a landscape condition more adapted to fire and that reduces potential for high severity wildfire near at-risk communities and in the wildland-urban interface. The proposal is being planned for the 31,772 acre Calumet Project Area that includes about 27,617 acres of National Forest System land and about 4,155 acres of interspersed private land. The project area lies approximately six miles southwest of Rapid City, SD. Sheridan Lake is also located within the project area. This project will be conducted as an authorized project under Section 102 of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (HFRA). Actions proposed for the Calumet Project Area include the following: Thin and harvest approximately 14,954 acres of pine stands using a variety of methods to treat MPB infested stands, reduce the overall density of pine trees and create a mosaic of structural stages across the landscape. Both commercial and non-commercial sized trees would be removed utilizing multiple contracts including stewardship, timber sale, and service contracts. Remove conifers from hardwood stands (e.g., aspen, oak, and birch) and restore meadows on approximately 3,497 acres to provide habitat diversity and wildfire protection by enhancing natural fuel breaks. Reduce the amount of fuels that currently exists. Treatments could include (but are not limited to) lopping, chipping, crushing, piling and burning; creating fuel breaks along roads and adjacent to private property, particularly those properties with houses and subdivisions. Roadway treatments would improve access (ingress/ egress) for the public, as well as emergency services in the event of a wildfire. Prescribed broadcast burning would also be allowed anywhere strategically practical within the project area, up to approximately 27,000 acres. The goals of prescribed fire are to reduce fuel loading and continuity to help protect private property and Forest resources, and to increase the quantity and quality of forage for big game and other wildlife resources. Annually, the Mystic Ranger District conducts approximately 2,000 to 4,000 acres of prescribed broadcast burning. These annual, accomplished acres are spread across the district and are split among multiple planning areas. Burning designated areas within the Calumet Project Area could take up to ten years to accomplish. Use of existing road templates, with less than five miles of new construction, would be required to carry out vegetation treatments.