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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSourdough Forest Management Plan.pdf Commission Memorandum REPORT TO: Honorable Mayor and City Commission FROM: Brian Heaston, Project Engineer Debbie Arkell, Director of Public Service Chuck Winn, Assistant City Manager SUBJECT: Sourdough Forest Management Plan MEETING DATE: April 5, 2010 – Action Item RECOMMENDATIONS: Direct the City Public Works Department to work with the U.S. Forest Service – Gallatin National Forest (USFS-GNF) Bozeman Ranger District staff to implement City of Bozeman Forest Management Plan recommendations collaboratively, and in concert with, the USFS-GNF Bozeman Municipal Watershed Project with the understanding that said effort is likely to occur at a financial cost to the City over a 5-year period. BACKGROUND: The City of Bozeman owns approximately six (6) sections of land, more or less, in the Sourdough Creek watershed. These landholdings are located in mountainous, timbered lands of the northern Gallatin Range and are interspersed in general patchwork fashion within the U.S. Forest Service – Gallatin National Forest. This portion of the GNF is under management of the Bozeman Ranger District. The GNF recently released, on 3/23/10, the Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision for the Bozeman Municipal Watershed (BMW) Project after many years of planning and study. The purpose of the BMW project is to protect the City’s Hyalite and Sourdough municipal watersheds by implementing mitigation measures to reduce the risk of a large, catastrophic wildfire which could severely impact the City’s ability to provide a dependable and adequate source of water to the community. To support and compliment the efforts of the GNF in its Bozeman Municipal Watershed (BMW) project, the City has completed a Forest Management Plan for its timbered lands in the Sourdough Creek watershed. The City’s Forest Management Plan (hereafter Plan), was completed by Peck Forestry, Inc of Bozeman. The Plan identifies the City’s timber resources in the Sourdough drainage and provides recommendations for treatments to reduce the risk of large wildfire upon the City’s landholdings. When performed in conjunction with the BMW, treatment implementation will be of a contiguous fashion and should increase effectiveness and strengthen the overall goal of reducing the severity of wildfire in the Sourdough drainage. The plan recommends traditional ground-based logging methods as well as helicopter harvesting. A majority of the treatments in the City’s lands are recommended as helicopter logging. Although this option is more expensive to undertake than conventional ground-based methods, it is less impactful to the environment and reduces visual impacts associated with cable drags, cat-track rutting, and construction of new logging roads. Furthermore, ground-based methods typically are more susceptible to soil erosion due to the heavier ground impact, which creates potential water quality concerns from higher 159 concentrations of suspended solids entering Sourdough Creek and the Sourdough Intake to the water treatment plant. As seen on the attached exhibit titled “Alternative #6 Planning Map Draft” prepared by the GNF, the BMW project area is situated in the lower mountainous reaches of the Sourdough watershed. This becomes more apparent when compared to the exhibit titled “Sourdough Creek Drainage” prepared by Peck Forestry, also attached showing the hydrologic extents of the Sourdough drainage. Although Peck Forestry has provided management recommendations for the entirety of the City’s landholdings in the Sourdough drainage, only those areas coinciding with the BMW project will see contiguous effects when completed in concert with the BMW implementation. It’s important to recognize that at current timber prices implementation of recommended plan harvesting treatments will occur at a cost to the City and will not generate revenue. Should the timber market commodities index upward, there is potential for revenue generation. However, it is difficult to predict when this will occur as it is a function of market forces. The table located on Page 6 of the attached “City of Bozeman Forest Management Plan” provides a rough tabulation of the costs to complete recommended treatments. Treatments occurring in Sections 7, 17, 18, and 27 of T3S, R6E are roughly situated within the BMW project boundary. Costs to implement recommended treatments upon these lands total ~$308,000. This number may fluctuate up, or down, depending on market commodities at the time of timber sale. The take away: it is most likely that implementation will occur at a cost to the City. At this time, a schedule for implementation of the BMW project is unknown and is dependent upon appeals that are received by the GNF, and disposition of same, during the 45 day appeal period on the BMW Record of Decision (ROD). This period ends 45 days from the 3/23/10 ROD release date, or 5/7/10. However, once implementation does proceed, it is currently estimated to take approximately five (5) years to fully implement all BMW project recommendations. The City has a great opportunity to continue its collaborative and cooperative relationship with the GNF and implement our Plan recommendations concurrently with the BMW. A Memorandum of Understanding must be worked out establishing roles and responsibilities of the City and the GNF in undertaking such an action. In doing so, work in the area will occur in a coordinated fashion that will help reduce the temporal impacts to the highly endeared and heavily travelled watersheds that are Sourdough and Hyalite. FISCAL EFFECTS: While it is currently unknown what the exact fiscal effects of project implementation will be, it is fair to assume that if Plan implementation occurs concurrently with the BMW project that it will represent a cost to the City. This cost is estimated in the Plan to be ~$308,000 for landholdings located within the BMW project boundary. Overall total landholding implementation cost is ~$752,000. The exact fiscal extent will not be known until a timber sale is completed with a contractor selected to perform the work. The Water Enterprise Fund will fund costs for the project. ALTERNATIVES: 1) Direct the City Public Works Department to implement City of Bozeman Forest Management Plan recommendations at a time when timber commodities represent a revenue generating venture for the City with the understanding that it is presently unknown when this will occur. 2) As recommended by the Commission. 160 Respectfully submitted, Approved by: Brian Heaston Chuck Winn Project Engineer Assistant City Manager Attachments: (1) COB Forest Management Plan (1) BMW Alternative #6 Planning Map (1) Sourdough Creek Drainage Map Report compiled on March 31, 2010 cc: Project File 161 162 164 166 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 186 187 188 190 191 192 194 195 196 198 199 200 202 203 204 206 207 208 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217