Small Town News

Progress on the Lost Creek / Boulder Creek Restoration Project

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The Payette Forest Coalition (PFC) met on March 20 at Ernie's Steak House in the MeadowCreek subdivision. This was the second PFC meeting primarily concerning the Lost Creek / Boulder Creek Restoration Project (LCBC).

The PFC is studying aspects of the proposed restoration project, which encompasses all of the Lost Creek watershed and part of the West Fork of the Weiser River watershed, plus extends north to include the Boulder Creek drainage.

New Meadows District Ranger Kim Pierson reviewed a proposed timeline for the LCBC project. To meet the timeline as proposed, the PFC recommendations will need to be submitted by the end of September 2012. The Steering Team will review the proposal and provide the PFC with a recommendation at the next (April 26) meeting.

Paul Klasner presented background information on Vegetation. His presentation described management direction (3 scales forest plan, management areas, and management prescription categories). He gave a comparison of current vs. desired conditions of vegetation. To conduct the comparison, the forest landscape is characterized by several attributes, including tree size class, canopy density, and species composition.

The Forest Service Inter-Disciplinary Team needs preliminary goals and objectives from the Payette Forest Coalition by May 2012, including designation of priority treatment areas.

A Vegetation Subcommittee has been created, and much of the discussion centered on vegetation and what the subcommittee would need to work on. Vegetation treatments have the potential to contribute to fuels management, wildlife, and economic goals (and perhaps access and watershed health). The subcommittee will work on drafting objectives and priorities for vegetation restoration.

The subcommittee will work closely with the Inter-Disciplinary Team and draft recommendations for the PFC membership to review.

There was some discussion about changes to the project area boundaries, and whether to include the Mud Creek watershed within the project boundary. The decision was to exclude Mud Creek and retain the boundaries as depicted on maps posted to date. Information will be gathered about conditions and past actions in Mud Creek, as well as other areas outside the project area, because there are factors in those adjacent areas that might influence decisions about what should be done inside the LCBC.

It was decided to include an agenda item in an upcoming meeting to review the FY 13 CFLRP business plan. (See March 01, 2012 meeting notes for the description of FY 12 business plan actions at spatialinterest.info/PayetteForward html.)

The group discussed the priority topics for the upcoming meeting, including Wildlife Conservation Strategy (WCS), Aquatic Conservation Strategy (ACS), Vegetation and Subcommittee progress on priorities.

The Steering Team will review the order of topics, and notify the PFC members of the appropriate reading material to review prior to the meeting. This action item needs to be completed as soon as possible to allow preparation time for Inter-Disciplinary Team presentations.

The Vegetation Subcommittee will meet on April 5th, 10:00am 2:00pm at the New Meadows Ranger District (upstairs small conference room).

The next Payette Forest Coalition meeting will be on April 26 at Ernie's Steakhouse. To catch up on past meetings, get background material and much more, go to: www.spatialinterest.info/ PayetteForward. html.



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