Final Environmental Impact Statement

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Vestal Final Environmental Impact Statement Chapter 3 and substantial cliffs or rock faces that provide typical nesting substrates. Eagles could forage in the forest meadows, or in nearby grasslands and large burned forest areas. Pine encroachment, commercial and non-commercial thinning, and prescribed burning treatments proposed for the Vestal project may have a positive effect on foraging habitat because it may open up the project area. Additionally, MPB activity is expected to kill large amounts of pine, opening up the area, potentially providing more foraging or nesting opportunities. Fire and Fuels Affected Environment The ponderosa pine cover type dominates the landscape and as a result of fire exclusion, ponderosa pine has encroached on the non-forested communities, contributing to the reduction in size of the hardwood cover type, creating dense, closed canopy ponderosa pine stands. Surface fuels include duff, small woody debris, dead down logs and long needle litter. Isolated areas of storm damage, and slash from past management activities exist within the project area. In light of the recent and projected insect activity within the project area, changes in fuels profiles are expected. Insect damage would alter several stand characteristics including canopy fuels, down woody fuels, duff, ladder fuels, herbaceous fuels, and microclimate, in turn altering the fire hazard and potential fire behavior. The project area is located entirely in Custer County, South Dakota, with the City of Custer being the center for the project area. According to the 2010 census, the City of Custer has a population of just over 2,000. In recent years, several large fires have affected Custer County and private property and developed lands adjacent to national forest having burned over 100,000 acres in Custer County since 1997. The Vestal project area has not been impacted by large fire, but the area remains continually vulnerable. The City of Custer has been identified as an At-Risk Community (ARC) as defined from the Federal Register (66FR 43384, 7/15/2001). Fire to the ARC and the Wildland Urban Interface are a greater concern for an area such as Custer with a high portion of private lands and large portion of that private being forested. Custer Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) The Custer County CWPP identified the City of Custer ARC as an urban interface environment with a high density of structures and infrastructure. In many areas the structures lack defensible fire protection space. No formally identified Municipal Watersheds are located in the project area; however the community of Custer obtains its water from ground water within the project area. This water source is at high risk of fire impacts. Also there is a high potential for economic loss, and likelihood for loss of housing and businesses in the event of a wildfire. The Custer County CWPP identifies a three mile radius from the city limits of the City of Custer as a Community at Risk boundary, which is the intended Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) area. Approximately 62% (15,845 acres) of the Vestal project area is within the 3 mile WUI. 108
Vestal Final Environmental Impact Statement Chapter 3 Condition Class and Fire Regime Historically, fires were more frequent and less severe. Fire suppression activities have trended the forest outside historic ranges. Currently, there are three general types of fire regimes in the Black Hills; Frequent low-severity, Infrequent high severity, and Mixed severity (USDA Forest Service 2005a). Fire regimes characterize the role fire plays in an ecosystem. The Fire Regime Condition Class rating can be used to describe the degree of departure from the historic fire regime (Hann et al. 2003). The coarse scale national data characterizes the Black Hills as primarily fire regime Condition Class 3, which denotes a high degree of departure from the historic fire regime. There is a high relative risk of significantly altering or losing key components of the ponderosa pine forest system. (USDA Forest Service 2005a) These conditions significantly increase the probability of a surface fire transitioning to a crown fire with increased burn severity and tree mortality. Evidence of past fires shows the potential for large, high intensity surface fires, and, given the right conditions, stand-replacing fires. Recent examples of past large fires include the Jasper, Elk Mountain II, Battle Creek, Rico and Alabaugh. Fire Risk Risks are defined as those uses or human activities which have the potential to result in a wildfire ignition. Fire history occurrence of both large and point fires were analyzed using the project perimeter. The fire history data includes fires occurring from 1950 to present. Of the fires identified, 128 are known lightning-caused, 18 equipment-caused, 15 campfire-caused, 3 smoking-caused, 38 debris burning-caused, 3 railroad-caused, 5 arson-caused, 14 children-caused and 67 miscellaneous. Both fire history occurrence data as well as large fire history, those fires exceeding 20 acres, in and around the project area are depicted. In addition, the percent of the project area impacted was analyzed. (Figure 8, Table 39) Table 39. Fire History Occurrence and the Size of the Fires from 1950 to Present Fire Size Class Fire Size (acres) Number of Fires A 0 – ¼ 232 B ¼ to 9 50 C 10-99 3 D-G 100+ 0 109
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Final Environmental Impact Statement

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