UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
Roseburg District Office
777 NW Garden Valley Blvd
Roseburg, OR 97471
In Reply Refer to:
1792 (OR100)
Roseburg District Secretarial Demonstration Pilot Project
DOI-BLM-OR-R050-2011-0006-EA
Dear Interested Parties:
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Roseburg District Office, South River Field Office, has
begun an environmental assessment (EA) for the Roseburg District Secretarial Demonstration Pilot
Project.
The Secretary of the Interior directed the BLM Districts of southwest Oregon to develop
Demonstration Pilot Projects intended to demonstrate the application of principles of restoration
forestry developed by Drs. Jerry F. Franklin and K. Norman Johnson. Part of the intent of these
projects was to help inform long-term planning on BLM O&C lands.
Franklin and Johnson define “restoration” broadly to encompass activities that are designed to restore
forests and landscapes to conditions that are both more resistant and resilient to disturbances and
that provide the diversity needed to restore and maintain native biodiversity and essential ecosystem
functions. Restoration of ecosystems at the stand and landscape scale are a primary focus, rather
than singular goals, such as fuel and wildfire abatement, timber production, or wildlife habitat.
The Secretary of the Interior and the Oregon Congressional Delegation have expressed a strong
desire to break existing administrative and legal gridlock in order to move forward with ecosystem
restoration and with economic recovery in southwest Oregon. As such, the Secretarial
Demonstration Pilot Projects would serve to illustrate the various principles and tools of restoration to
aid in gauging whether or not broader social support for active management can be achieved.
The project would involve the variable retention regeneration harvest of approximately 250 to 350
acres in an interior moist forest, with potential density management in a portion of 109 acres of
associated Riparian Reserves and Riparian Management Areas, for the purposes of ecosystem and
economic restoration. Management and program direction from the 1995 Roseburg District Record of
Decision and Resource Management Plan will provide the principle sideboards for the project
analysis.
Potential units are located in Sections 31, 32 and 33, T. 28 S., R. 2 W.; Sections 17, 23 and 25, T. 28
S., R. 3 W.; and Section 4, T. 29 S., R. 2 W., Willamette Meridian. These lands are principally
located in the upper elevations of the Myrtle Creek watershed, but also include areas within the Little
River and Middle South Umpqua River/Dumont Creek watersheds.
A scoping notice and map of the project area are attached for your information.
Further background information and maps relating to the Secretarial Demonstration Pilot Project are
available at:
http://www.blm.gov/or/districts/roseburg/forestrypilot/
BLM will accept scoping comments until July 15, 2011. Email your written comments to
[email protected], or mail them to the address in the letterhead above, attention: Paul Ausbeck.
Please include your first and last name when submitting comments by email.
Comments should identify values, land uses, or resources which could potentially be affected by the
proposed action. These comments will help BLM to develop appropriate alternatives, focus our
analysis on salient issues and concerns, and provide the necessary information for me to make an
informed decision.
Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying
information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your
personal identifying information – may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us
in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot
guarantee that we will be able to do so.
Sincerely,
/s/ Steven D. Lydick
Steven D. Lydick
Field Manager
South River Field Office
Scoping/Information Package
Roseburg Secretarial Demonstration Pilot Project
Environmental Assessment DOI-BLM-R050-2011-0006-EA
Roseburg District, South River Field Office
The Secretary of the Interior directed the BLM Districts of southwest Oregon to develop Pilot
Demonstration Projects intended to demonstrate the application of principles of restoration
forestry developed by Drs. Jerry F. Franklin and K. Norman Johnson (Applying Restoration
Principles on the BLM O&C Forests in Southwest Oregon 2010)). Part of the intent of these
projects was to help inform long-term planning on BLM O&C lands.
The purpose of this report is to inform interested and affected parties of the proposal and to
solicit comments to assist with the NEPA review of the proposal. Analysis of the proposal is
ongoing and will be documented in an Environmental Assessment (EA). Comments received in
response to this solicitation will be used to identify potential environmental issues related to the
proposed action and to identify alternatives to the proposed action that meet the purpose of, and
need for the project.
Purpose and Need for Action
The proposed Roseburg District action is variable retention regeneration harvest in a Moist
Interior Forest setting, applying the principles of ecosystem restoration developed by Drs. Norm
Johnson and Jerry Franklin, and management objectives, management direction and land use
allocations set forth in the 1995 Roseburg District Record of Decision and Resource
Management Plan (ROD/RMP). The project would also be consistent with the forthcoming
Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan.
Proposed Action
In general, units would be designed to retain approximately 30 percent of the pre-harvest stand,
and the retention would be relatively well distributed throughout the stand. Retention objectives
would be achieved through a combination of aggregated blocks and dispersed trees and clumps
of trees. Aggregated retention would be measured as a percentage of total unit area, while
dispersed retention would be measured by basal area (ft2), as a percentage of average stand basal
area per acre. Approximately two-thirds of the retention would be aggregated, with the
remainder dispersed through the harvested area. Survey & Manage provisions as set forth in the
2001 Record of Decision and Standards and Guidelines for Amendments to the Survey and
Manage, Protection Buffer, and other Mitigation Measures Standards and Guidelines will be
applied.
Density management would be applied in Riparian Reserves, in stands less than 80 years of age,
where it is determined that treatments would accelerate or enhance achievement of objectives of
the Aquatic Conservation Strategy.
Proposed Project Location
Proposed units are located in Sections 31, 32 and 33, T. 28 S., R. 2 W.; Sections 17, 23 and 25,
T. 28 S., R. 3 W., and Section 4, T. 29 S., R. 2 W., Willamette Meridian.
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reliability, or completeness of these data for individual or aggregate use
with other data. Original data were compiled from various sources and may
be updated without notification.
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