Spruce Beetle Epidemic & Aspen Decline Management Response EIS

1. Spruce Beetle Epidemic & Aspen Decline Management Response EIS Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests

6. Project Goals From the Western Bark Beetle Strategy: • Human Safety—help ensure that people and community infrastructure are protected from risk of falling trees and wildfire. • Forest Recovery—salvage dead and dying trees, pay for fuels treatment, and reforestation. • Forest Resiliency—increase diversity in age classes and species composition and create multi-storied stands.

8. Project Objectives • Remove hazard trees along roads, trails, power lines, campgrounds and within ski areas and other permitted areas. Treat hazardous fuels in the interface. • Focus on suitable timberlands to salvage harvest timber, treat fuels, and reforest acres. • In healthier spruce-fir stands, utilize individual tree and group selection prescriptions to increase stand vigor and promote regeneration. • Regenerate aspen stands before they die.

11. Alternative Formulation Assumptions • Respond to key issues raised in scoping. • GMUG capacity to treat using commercial harvest is a maximum of 6,000 acres per year (60,000 total acres over life of project.) • Maximum capacity for non-commercial treatments (mechanical and Rx fire) is also 6000 acres per year. • The primary difference between alternatives is the opportunity areas to consider for treatment.

12. Alternative Formulation Assumptions (cont.) 5. Hazard tree removal in corridors and infrastructure areas is common to all action alternatives. 6. The mix of proposed treatments vary by alternative. 7. Design features, prescription matrix, project checklist, and monitoring plan are common to all action alternatives. 8. Miles of new road construction is tied to quantity of acres treated. 9. All mechanical treatments will be focused on tentatively suitable timberlands. 10. Slopes over 40% would only have hand and/or fire treatments.

13. Hazard Tree Removal Corridors • 3300 miles of road opportunity area. • 117 miles of transmission line opportunity area. • 242,000 acres of opportunity area within 300 feet of road.

15. Alternative 2 • Applies both salvage and resiliency treatments • Spruce treatments in 24 focal LAUs • 510,000 acres potential mechanical treatments • 296,000 tentatively suitable acres (180,000 spruce, 116,000 aspen) • 66,000 acres opportunity for fire or non-mechanical

19. Alternative 3 • Proposes additional focus on treatments in wildland –urban -- interface • Primarily salvage treatments in spruce • 262,000 acres potential mechanical treatments • 144,00 tentatively suitable acres (73,000 spruce; 71,000 aspen) • 34,000 acres opportunity for fire or non-mechanical

23. Alternative 4 • Applies salvage treatments only in spruce • Spruce treatments across Forest (not just focus LAUs) • 373,000 acres potential spruce mechanical treatment opportunity area, 226,000 aspen. • 211,000 tentatively suitable acres spruce, 116,000 aspen. • 66,000 acres opportunity for fire or non-mechanical

26. Spatial Representations of SBEADMR WUI Hazard Tree Removal Corridor ALT 2 Veg Types ALT 4 Veg Types Putting the Alternatives Together ALT 3 ALT 4 ALT 2 Alternative 4 Hazard Tree Removal Areas + ALT 4 Veg Types, ALT 4 contains all of ALT 2 Veg (star-shape) + Unique ALT 4 acres (circles unique areas are areas inside Lynx habitat) Alternative 2 Hazard Tree Removal Areas + ALT 2 Veg types, not all Hazard Tree Removal areas have Aspen, Spruce, A/S mix Alternative 3 Hazard Tree Removal Areas + WUI, contains ALT 2 Veg Type acres where WUI and Hazard Tree Removal Areas overlap = area not part of ALT 3