Draft SNFPA Management Review and Recommendations

Review of the Fire Strategy and Effectiveness of Fuels Treatment

Key Findings

1. Fuels reduction treatments at the landscape scale must:
   • Effectively modify fire behavior
   • Be strategically placed
   • Be cost efficient
   Each of these conditions is compromised by the standards and guidelines in the ROD.
2. The standards and guidelines restrict mechanical treatment to removal of material 6” in diameter of less over substantially more acres than was originally planned or intended. This results in ineffective treatments.
3. Concentrations of PACs constrain the placement of treatments and reduce the effectiveness of the fire and fuels strategy.
4. The S&Gs force the use of more expensive treatments which, coupled with fixed budgets, reduces program accomplishments.
5. There are significant technical problems with many of the fuels treatment S&Gs. Many rules are redundant, overlapping and ambiguous.
6. Field professionals across the Sierra Nevada have expressed concerns over their inability to create effective and cost-efficient fuels treatments. Moreover, the S&Gs sometimes force them to do things that are contrary to common sense.
7. Site-specific fuels treatment S&Gs cannot be modified to meet local conditions without costly and time-consuming research studies.
8. The opportunity exists to improve the effectiveness of fuels treatments with little change in owl nesting habitat in the short-run, and an increase in owl nesting habitat in the long run.
9. The role of timber harvest in sustaining long-term forest health; and its economic value as an output from suitable lands is eliminated by the SNFPA, which limits timber harvest to a by-product of fuels treatments.
10. Assumptions about the viability of the California Spotted Owl weighed heavily in the management direction set forth in the SNFPA. New information changes some of these assumptions.
11. New analysis of existing owl demographic data suggests that owl populations may not be declining as dramatically as assumed in the FEIS.
12. Alternative analytical techniques for assessing California spotted owl habitat, used at the landscape scale, inferred that the current habitat status across the Sierras is better than reported in the FEIS.
13. New information suggests that private timberlands could contribute to habitat needs of the owl. The FEIS assumed no contribution from private lands.
14. New information exists on the mosaic of canopy cover densities important to owl reproduction.

USDA Forest Service · Pacific Southwest Region