McKinley Scott Fuel Reduction Project

The project goals are to 1) improve forest health and resilience to severe wildfire, drought, disease, and pests, 2.) reduce wildfire risk for nearby communities and infrastructure, 3) facilitate fire suppression operations, 4) increase long-term carbon capture and storage to ensure treated and adjacent forested areas remain net sinks of carbon and continue to provide an abundance of ecosystem and societal benefits. The amended project consists of reducing roadside vegetation by pile burning in the Scott Bar Mountains. This amendment to the project is developed to address potential environmental impacts from conducting burning of the piles for the roadside hand thinning and slash piling on private timberlands currently owned by Acer Klamath Forests, LLC (AKF) and managed by FWS Forestry Services California, LLC (FWS). The timberlands covered by this document were formerly owned by Fruit Growers Supply Co. The project area is same as for the original and amendment #1 area of Scott Bar Mountain in the Meamber Creek drainage and above the Indian, Rattlesnake, and Patterson Creek drainages and is approximately 7 miles north of Fort Jones, CA in central Siskiyou County. This supplemental project will further reduce hazardous fuels in roadside stands within 100’ either side of Indian Creek and Meamber Creek Roads by burning the piles created by the hand piling of slash. The stand types to be treated include pine plantations, mixed-age natural mixed conifer stands, and non-commercial forest lands, mainly brush and hardwoods. Treatment activities will include burning of the slash piles under appropriate prescriptions that take into account both fire danger . The project intends to 1.) improve forest health and resilience to severe wildfire, drought, disease, and pests, 2.) reduce wildfire risk for nearby communities and infrastructure, 3) facilitate fire suppression operations, 4) increase long-term carbon capture and storage to ensure treated and adjacent forested areas remain net sinks of carbon and continue to provide an abundance of ecosystem and societal benefits. McKinley Scott Fuel Reduction Project Amendment 2 treatments include approximately 607 acres of pile burning of thinning slash within 100’ on either side of the designated road segments. The treatment prescriptions will reduce hazardous fuel loads and horizontal and vertical fuel connectivity within the project footprint and facilitate future maintenance of these treatments. Understory surface will be treated with the objective to limit surface fire with flame lengths of four feet or less in order to facilitate direct suppression operations and reduce the risk of crown fire initiation. This will be done by reducing surface fuels to less than five tons per acre in the treatment areas by burning the previously constructed piles. The amended project area is dominated by mixed conifer forests with areas of hardwoods and rock outcroppings. Elevations along Meamber Creek Road range from approximately 2,855’ to 4,660’ with gentle to moderate slopes (generally 5 – 45% with some areas up to 60%). Elevations along Indian Creek Road range from approximately 3,655’ to 5,315’ with gentle to moderate slopes (generally 5 – 45%). The project area will be fully stocked upon completion of the project.