News

This news just in from district ranger Chris Fischer on the Last Chance Environmental Assessment:

"We received one appeal on the Last Chance Project EA. The appeal is from Chad Hanson of the John Muir Project. The appeal points are in the attached document. The 45-day appeal review period began on September 18. As this project was a Forest Supervisor decision, the Regional Forester would be the appeal review deciding officer. During the appeal review period, the Regional Office assembles an appeal review team to review the EA and ensure all NEPA processes have been followed. This review team then recommends a decision to the Regional Forester to affirm or reverse the decision. On behalf of the Forest Supervisor, I also attempted to work informally with the appellant, in this case Chad Hanson, to see if we could resolve his appeal issues prior to the Regional Forester issuing an appeal decision.

Both appeal issues #2 and #3 are related and are problematic. There are discrepancies between Table 10 and the Silviculture report, which are referenced in these appeal points. Even though the numbers are not reflective of the prescriptions on the ground, and are no more than process errors, this will be interpreted as a violation of NEPA. After a brief call with Chad Hanson to resolve his appeal issues, it became apparent that I would not be able to reach a resolution on his appeal points in a timely fashion. So, on October 2, 2009, the Forest Supervisor decided to withdraw the decision and have the ID Team correct the discrepancies.

I am anticipating minimal changes to the EA, and we will re-issue a decision in early December. We are not planning another 30-day comment period. A new decision will start a new appeal period and I expect another appeal will occur. We will still be on track to implement the project next year.

Please contact myself or Kalie Crews with any questions or concerns."

Chris Fischer
District Ranger
American River Ranger District, Tahoe NF

The SNAMP water team will be investigating impacts of strategic fuel treatments in SNAMP study areas on both water quantity and quality in headwater catchments of treatment and control firesheds. Their goal is to better understand the water storage in and movement through the catchments: how the water begins as snow or rain, interacts with the landscape, and eventually exits the system as stream discharge. To learn more about the water team and their research, please check out the Fall '09 Water Newsletter.

The "Sugar Pine Adaptive Management Project" Draft EIS has just been posted to the SNF website. It can be found at this link:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sierra/projects/sugar-pine/index.shtml#deis

The PPT is researching the Forest Service public participation processes and working to increase stakeholder involvement in SNAMP through regular public meetings and reporting, public outreach, and an interactive website. The PPT coordinates and facilitates all SNAMP meetings, field trips, and events. In addition, the PPT seeks to facilitate an open dialogue amongst scientists and interested members of the public. Our goal is to maintain an open and transparent process throughout the research and implementation stages of SNAMP. To learn more about the public participation team please check out the Spring '09 PPT newsletter!

SNAMP now has a page on facebook to help get the word out about the project. Our facebook site has information about the project, upcoming public events, newsletters, and some of our favorite photos. If you are a member of facebook and want to join, just search for "Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management" and when you get to the page click on the "Become a Fan" link to the right.

Geospatial data, or data linked to a place on the surface of the earth, is increasingly a part of our everyday lives and an important resource for environmental research. Geospatial data play a large role in the SNAMP project. We are mapping the forest before and after SPLAT treatments, and measuring forest habitat characteristics across our treatment and control sites. This newsletter discusses one of our datasets, called LIDAR, a new tool that shows great promise for mapping forests. To learn more about LIDAR please check out the Fall '08 Spatial newsletter!

The California Spotted Owl is an uncommon resident in the Mixed Conifer belt of the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, and a State and Federal Species of Special Concern. California spotted owls nest in mature trees and hunt from the vantage point of large trees. High intensity fire that leaves few trees alive has a negative impact on owl habitat, but forest fuel reduction treatments remove canopy cover and vertical structure of the trees. This research will assess the impacts of forest fuel treatments on owl territory, occupancy rates and reproductive output. To learn more about this project, please check out the Fall '08 Owl newsletter!

The Pacific Fisher is a State and Federal Species of Special Concern. The SNAMP fisher study is designed to determine whether the fisher population in the southern study area is stable or decreasing, which vital rate is most important in population change, and which environmental factors are correlated with these changes. Since Dec '07 we have captured and fitted over 20 different fisher with radio-collars. By the end of the study we anticipate having information on the age, home range and habitat use of around 40 individual fisher. To learn more about this project, please check out the Fall '08 Fisher newsletter!

Judge M. C. England has found in favor of the Forest Service and HFQLG Pilot on 11 out of 12 points in the challenge of the 2004 Sierra Nevada Framework and the Basin Project on the Plumas National Forest.
The Decision Document and some content from the document are posted on the discussion site.

Our Summer 2008 Update to partners has been posted. This document includes information on:

• Funding update;
• Fires near SNAMP sites; and
• Research progress from each team.

For both documents, go to the Documents page.

The Discussion page has a new feature! You can now add a comment that is tied to a place on the map: a point, a line or a polygon. These posts will still be associated with a topic, but they will also show up on the map. On the Discussion Page, go to the "Map" tab and add your comment. Give it a try!

New SNAMP Staff
Kim Ingram has joined the Public Participation team and is working directly with SNAMP in the northern site. She is based in Auburn, and her role is to work at the community level, developing local opportunities for public participation and fostering communication. She will help keep the public informed in regards to the scientific study and landscape level work being done in the forest for this adaptive management study. She will assist the project by remaining transparent to the public, keeping them abreast of what is going on and seeking their input as we proceed.

Who to Contact: For more information about SNAMP, you can contact

• (in the south) Anne Lombardo at amlombardo@ucdavis.edu and
• (in the north) Kim Ingram at kcingram@ucdavis.edu.

The locations of grids in which fisher cameras are located, with fisher presence and absence noted per grid. These are from Rick Sweitzer of the Fisher Science team.

• 
  Fisher map, July 24 2008.

This meeting, on July 25 2008, will include presentations on the current spotted owl research on the Tahoe National Forest and an opportunity to interact with the University of California/University of Minnesota Owl Science Team. Desired outcomes of the meeting are to increase knowledge about methods of spotted owl research and how this research will inform future management decisions. Members of the public are encouraged to attend. See the Meetings page for more information.

We are also hosting a Owl Field Day on July 29th, where you can learn more about these creatures. Space is limited for that event, so if you are interested, see the notice on the Meetings page.

Here are a couple of relevant snaps of fire perimeters and our sites:

• FIres in the northern site vicinity as of 7-14-08. The Peavine fire was burning in our southerly control area; the Government Springs/Westfall fire is due north of our sites and burning in the owl buffer area.


• Fisher and fire status as of June 8 2008 from Rick Sweitzer. This map shows our fisher areas, and various nearby fires.

• NOAA fire detection: fires with smoke plumes plotted


• U Maryland Fire Information: get latest perimeter shapefiles from MODIS


• USFS Current Fires: named large incidents

Here's the latest view from NASA of CA and the fires.

Here is the latest fire update (as of 7-8-08):

• In the north: The Peavine Fire was contained this weekend. It totaled 522 acres. The Westfall and Government fires are still outside the study area but just north of the Owl buffer zone. See site for more information on the Westville and Government fires.



• In the south: There have not been any fires in the core study area, but many (Oliver, Westfall, Silvernob, and Star fires) in the fisher study area. From Rick, “All fires in this area have been controlled/extinguished and are no longer a problem for continuing the research activities. We have taken photographs from the air of the Westfall, Silver Knob and Oliver Complex fire areas.” Photos of the southern site fires are posted on the photos page, under southern site.

We've made some changes to the site design and layout. There will be some transitions until we get all files migrated; in the meantime, if you have any questions, you can email me at mkelly@nature.berkeley.edu.

- Northern site: all fires in the American River Complex are contained except Peavine, Government, and Westville. Peavine fire is 320 acres, 0% containment, 3 crews, 3 engines, 1 dozer (75 people). A fire weather watch is in effect from Saturday morning through late Sunday night for dry lightning. They are hoping the inversion layer stays in place. Storms are expected to become wetter by Sunday morning. See yubanet.com for more info on weather.

- Southern site: all fires are contained except the Star fire, which is 8 miles SE of Wawona in the south fork of the Merced River drainage and the Oliver fire which is 2200 acres, 20% containment. They expect full containment by July 5. 1200 people on this fire, managed by Calfire.

See a map of the current fires (fires are derived from the MODIS satellite 6-26-08).

We have posted a number of documents for you:

• Revised Science Team Workplans:
  
  • Fisher workplan, Owl workplan and field protocol, FFEH workplan and revised Water protocol in the Documents section of the site, under proposals and workplans;
  
  
• New maps showing the updated field areas, and a guide to all the study site names are posted in the Documents > Maps section; and
  
• Our 2008 Q1 report to the MOU Partners is posted under the Documents section.

We've also added notices on our SNAMP science team meetings and other meetings on the Meetings page.