Appendix 4.4 Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests Land and Resource Management Plan

Specific direction for vegetation and ecosystem management in the Land and Resource Management Plan include the following excerpts.

Appendix 4.4.1 Forestwide Management

Management Emphasis, Goals and Objectives: Biodiversity, Ecosystem Health and Sustainability

Goals:

Manage the Forests and Grassland to assure productive, healthy ecosystems, blending social, physical, economic, and biological needs and values.

Implement projects identified through integrated assessments at a landscape scale (assessment areas of 10,000 to 100,000 acres) to enhance forest health and to create sustainable combinations of land use and resource management.

In ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests, manage existing old-growth and mature forests to retain and encourage old-growth qualities.

Provide a range of successional stages of community types across the Forests and Grassland landscapes that:

• maintains ecosystem integrity
• maintains or improves habitats for management indicator species
• protects adjacent property values
• reduces wildfire hazards
• minimizes wildfire suppression costs

Operational Goals, Standards and Guidelines (Operational standards and guidelines are management requirements that apply forestwide.)

Biological Resources

• Biodiversity
• Maintain, and restore where necessary, the compositional, structural and functional elements which will perpetuate diversity. (Goal)
• Composition
• Maintain aspen, even at the expense of spruce-fir or other late successional stands. (Guideline)

Special Habitats

• Protect communities of special concern such as: talus slopes, caves, springs, seeps, wetlands, aquatic habitats, riparian habitats, shortgrass prairies, late-successional forests and alpine tundra (including ecotone and sufficient buffer areas). (Guideline)

Structure

• When managing vegetation, maintain edge contrasts and edge-to-interior ratios which mimic edge conditions that would result from natural disturbance regimes (fire, insect and disease infestations). (Guideline)

Endangered, threatened and sensitive species

• Restore, protect and enhance habitats for endangered, threatened and proposed flora and fauna species listed in accordance with the Endangered Species Act and sensitive species appearing on the regional sensitive species list to contribute to their stabilization and full recovery. (Goal)
• Prepare biological evaluations for each project authorized, funded, or conducted on National Forest System lands to determine possible effects of the proposed activity on endangered, threatened, or sensitive species. (Goal)

Conservation of genotypes

• Use genetically local (at the sub-section level), native plant species for revegetation efforts where technically and economically feasible. Seed mixtures should be weed free. To prevent soil erosion, use non-native annuals or sterile perennial species while native perennials are becoming established. (Standard)

Undesirable Species

• Manage undesirable vegetation, including noxious weeds, using an integrated pest management approach. (Goal)
• Control undesirable non-native and noxious plants throughout the Forests, with priority given to new species (new to Colorado or the Forests), and to wilderness areas. (Standard)
• Use only certified “noxious weed-free” hay or straw for feed or revegetation projects anywhere on the Forests. (Standard)
• For all proposed projects and activities, determine the risk of noxious weed introduction or spread, and implement appropriate mitigation measures. (Standard)
• Develop a noxious-weed and pest-management program that addresses awareness, prevention, inventory, planning, treatment, monitoring, reporting and management objectives. (Goal)
• Priorities for controlling noxious weeds are:
  • new invaders
  • new areas
  • spreading of existing infestations
  • existing infestations

Appendix 4.4.2 Geographic Area Direction

Geographic area direction is the most detailed level of the Forest Plan direction, and identifies which forestwide and management area directions will generally receive most emphasis within the geographic area. Geographic area direction focuses implementation of potential projects on the most important items and helps to specify priorities among competing uses, activities, and resources. The Magnolia Planning Area includes portions of three geographic areas: Lump Gulch, Sugarloaf, and Thorodin. Vegetative and ecosystem management direction for all three geographic areas is similar and is summarized as follows:

protecting native flora and fauna

enhancing forest health and reducing forest fuels and fire hazard through active vegetation management in cooperation with private landowners and state and county agencies

More specific management direction includes:

Restore, maintain or enhance mountain grassland and aspen communities on an opportunity basis.

Manage ponderosa pine to emulate conditions representative of a nonlethal understory fire regime. Emphasize old-growth recruitment and retention.

Manage wildland fire using direct and perimeter control strategies.

Some restoration of natural processes through human-induced activities is anticipated, particularly in fire-dependent ecosystems. The kinds of treatments that could be considered include prescribed fire or mechanical treatments of vegetation through thinnings, and in some cases, commercial timber sales. Specific goals for these treatments include improving wildlife habitats, restoring forest health, assisting in the recruitment of old-growth ponderosa pine, restoring or maintaining aspen, reducing fuel loading, and maintaining or restoring ecological integrity. In ponderosa pine communities, these activities will occur primarily on south-facing slopes. Timber harvest may be used to accomplish these goals and is probable on suitable and available lands.

Appendix 4.4.3 Management Area Direction

Most of the Planning Area falls within Management Unit 3.5, Forested Flora and Fauna Habitats. The desired condition for the physical/biological components of the unit are:

Provide quality, all-season habitat for wildlife species. Increase or maintain plant communities and structural stages which provide quality foraging areas, cover, and areas of solitude in patterns across the landscape. Provide for a variety of forest and nonforest plant communities and successional stages through a combination of human manipulation and natural processes. Retain all existing lodgepole pine and spruce-fir old-growth, except for natural losses that are not human caused, and provide like amounts in the future. Provide for rapid development of future lodgepole pine and spruce-fir old-growth conditions. Manage and protect healthy forested and nonforested riparian areas to retain their value as quality habitats for terrestrial and aquatic wildlife.

Insect and disease losses are generally accepted unless they threaten communities which are providing important habitat components. A variety of fire sizes and shapes result from wildland and prescribed fires. Plant communities with a shrub component are protected from fires and livestock grazing during times when damage to the shrub components occurs.

Schedule and implement management activities including prescribed burning, livestock grazing, timber harvesting, thinning, and travel access management to gain the greatest benefit to wildlife habitat possible.

Disturbances may be fairly evident and the scale may vary from small to large. Design vegetation changes to resemble natural patterns.