Contract awarded! Grant received!

From Joanne...

===============

I am very pleased to let you all know that the Tahoe National Forest was able to award our first contract implementing the decisions made for the Sagehen Project.  This is a wonderful and exciting step.  Everyone who participated has helped us get to this point.   We are also very pleased to announce that on March 12, 2014, the National Forest Foundation was awarded a $349,140 grant by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy that will allow implementation of the next phase of this project, as well.

I need to say that I am very proud of everyone who helped us get here.  This was truly a meeting of the minds. We started with a variety of ideas and through a great deal of good, hard work, came to an amazing place.  Everyone brought their passion but then took time to hear and understand everyone else.  I know there are still some different viewpoints, but this project is so much better today for the energy and effort that everyone put into the understanding that has developed. Thank you!

I need to say as proud as I am of everyone who participated, that I am particularly proud of the core team who put in so many hours and worked so hard to be sure we captured all the ideas and found ways to fit them together, who read and re-read the science until it could be incorporated into the design, who helped us craft a great project and then helped us explain it in the NEPA document.

I know that the implementation is our next opportunity and challenge but I welcome it and hope you do as well.  We have learned so much getting to this point, but I know that learning will continue.  Jeff Brown has told me so many times to get on with the implementation so the next group of scientists can watch us work, see the results and help us learn more.  Well, here we go….

Please accept my gratitude for your support.

Joanne

Joanne B Roubique
District Ranger
Truckee Ranger District
10811 Stockrest Springs
Truckee, Ca 96161
530-587-3558 x 232
jroubique@fs.fed.us

Recent press

Here's a recent article about the Sagehen Forest Project:

• Experimental Forests Could Lessen Toll of Wildfires, Live Science

Sagehen Project Decision Notice signed!

Dear Sagehen Project Collaborators and Interested Parties,


The Sagehen Project Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact was signed by Alexander Friend (Director, Pacific Southwest Research Station) and Tom Quinn (Tahoe National Forest Supervisor) on May 6, 2013.

The Sagehen Project Environmental Assessment (EA) and supporting documents are available online at the Tahoe National Forest’s website.

The legal notice of the decision is expected to be published in Grass Valley’s The Union newspaper as soon as tomorrow. The date of the legal notice in The Union will establish the timeframe for the 45-day appeal filing period under 36 CFR 215.

Laurie Perrot
Environmental Coordinator
Tahoe National Forest
631 Coyote Street
Nevada City, CA 95959
lperrot@fs.fed.us
(530) 478-6244

• Decision Letter
• Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact
• Responses to Public Comments Received

30-day public comment period for the Sagehen Project preliminary Environmental Assessment ends soon!

The 30-day public comment period for the Sagehen Project preliminary Environmental Assessment (EA) began on March 5, 2013 and will close soon.  Interested parties who have not yet done so should read this excellent result of over a year-and-a-half of collaborative process and submit your comments.

The EA is now available online at the Tahoe National Forest website.

Associated science in the basin

As part of the Sagehen 50-year art project, we thought it would be a good idea to consolidate in one post a list of all the science projects relating to the Sagehen Forest Project.

In addition to science done to determine the best treatment options, there is a lot going on in the basin to assess pre- and post-treatment conditions going forward into the manipulation phase of the larger project.

The idea of these studies is to actually monitor and evaluate the effects of the forest restructuring on wildlife, water quality, vegetation and people. 

• VEGETATION AND FUELS: the SPLAT project and Vaillant thesis gathered a massive dataset, including fuels and vegetation surveys, LiDAR imaging of the basin with and without vegetation, fire model runs, fire history, etc.
• BIRDS: Researcher Marty Raphael is revisiting bird survey plots begun in the 1960's within the Donner Burn study transects. The Forest Service monitors bird presence in the basin. Goshawk and Spotted Owl surveys occur annually. The Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) project runs annual banding stations at sites within the Sagehen basin. Vladimir Pravosudov's multi-decade chickadee memory research continues.
• SMALL MAMMALS: Calhoun line trapping transects begun in the 1950's are being revisited by PSW researcher Pat Manley.
• FISH SURVEYS: annual fish monitoring continues in various Sagehen Creek stretches.
• AMERICAN MARTEN: monitoring of this indicator species was recently revisited in anticipation of the treatments.
• HYDROLOGY: the USGS regularly samples Sagehen Creek stream water chemistry and remotely monitors flow through their Hydrologic Benchmark Network. Numerous modeling efforts continue. Terry Hogue is evaluating stream water yield. The Forest Service does annual stream condition surveys. Researcher Jim Kirchner is evaluating weather, groundwater and sap flow patterns.
• METEOROLOGY: National Atmospheric Deposition Program precipitation sampling is ongoing. Weather data is continuously collected at 12 towers within the basin.

Did I forget anything?

SFP Meetings.

Jeff expounds.

Barney shares his vision.

Tuesday was back to back meetings in the lower Sagehen Forest Project demo plot.

First was a meet-and-greet with our PSW liaison Rick Bottoms, Truckee District Ranger Joanne Roubique, and the new Deputy Regional Forester, Barney Gyant. It was great to meet and get a chance to catch Barney up on Sagehen plans and projects. We're definitely on the same page and we look forward to working with him in the future!

Next on the agenda was a tour of the lower Sagehen Forest project demo plot with Joanne and her Vegetation Management Officer, Scott Conway; the National Forest Foundation's California Program Director, Vance Russell; and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit's Deputy Forest Supervisor Jeff Marsolais and Vegetation Management Officer, Rita Mustatia.

The meetings overlap!

Discussion of the treatment strategy and the process.

Scott, Joanne and Jeff discussed the treatment design and the collaborative process behind the Sagehen Forest Project. Jeff and Rita talked about the challenges in the Lake Tahoe basin, some of their plans for fire mitigation and forest health, and how the SFP might fit into those plans.

We're very excited about the wider scope possibilities of the SFP!

More photos.

Graphic artwork

Scientific Illustrator Stephanie Rozzo recently produced graphic art demonstrating concepts behind the Sagehen Forest Project. Let us know if you would like copies of this poster or its components for project outreach.

General Technical Report - 237

The Pacific Southwest Research Station has released a new publication: GTR-237.

This new publication addresses "widespread interest in applying new forest practices based on concepts presented in U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report PSW-GTR-220, "An Ecosystem Management Strategy for Sierran Mixed-Conifer Forests".

GTR-220 provides much of the foundation of the Sagehen Forest Project.

NFF Meeting

Jeff and I, along with numerous Tahoe National Forest staff, attended a meeting held in Truckee by the National Forest Foundation in early February.

The NFF "Treasured Landscapes, Unforgettable Experiences" campaign is "working to restore our damaged forests and restore Americans connection to these public lands."

Conservation campaign work will take place on keystone sites, which NFF has carefully selected based on conservation need and values. A section of the Truckee River watershed beginning at Lake Tahoe has just been added to the list of keystone sites.

The Foundation formed a Local Coordinating Council to advise them on how to proceed with the conservation work.

Local Coordinating Council Members 

• Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit – Jeff Marsolais 
• Sagehen / UC Berkeley – Jeff Brown
• Science community – Malcom North
• Sierra Business Council – TBD
• Sierra Nevada Conservancy – TBD, Kim Carr or Bob Kingman
• Tahoe RCD – Kim Gorman
• Tahoe Conservancy – Patrick Wright
• Tahoe National Forest – Joanne Roubique and Eli Ilano
• Trout Unlimited, Feather River Chapter – Bill Copren / Cindy Noble (alternate)
• Truckee Donner Land Trust – Perry Norris
• Truckee River Watershed Council – Lisa Wallace

It appears that the Sagehen Forest Project will feature prominently, with the Sagehen basin treatment model to be replicated at a number of additional locations within the keystone site, including parcels of both public and private land.

Download meeting notes (PDF-225K).

Happy Holidays!

Public scoping for the Sagehen Forest Project begins

This from Kris Boatner:

Please see the enclosed cover letter, Proposed Action and Purpose of and Need for Action document, and map.

*******************************************
Kris Boatner
District Wildlife Biologist/Natural Resources Officer
District NEPA Coordinator
Truckee Ranger District, Tahoe National Forest
10811 Stockrest Springs Road
Truckee, California 96161
(530) 587-3558, ex. 255, (530) 587-6914 FAX
kboatner@fs.fed.us
*******************************************

The "Proposed Action..." document is an excellent read and tells the complete story of this project and the history of the Sagehen forest.

Demo plot PhotoPoints

We set up a number of designated PhotoPoints within the two demonstration plots to capture starting conditions, as well as changes over time moving forward.

I've uploaded a zip file (88M) with all the demo plot PhotoPoint pre- and post-treatment photos, as well as GIS layers showing locations and plot outlines. Here is a sample pre- and post-treatment photo pair for 10 Point 1b:

August 9, 2011 Meeting Handouts

Here are some documents from the 8-9-11 meeting:

• Meeting Handout (.XLSX - 15K)
• Units Map (PDF - 276K)