Rio Trampas Project Introduction The Carson National Forest, Camino Real Ranger District, is soliciting comments on a Collaborative Forest Restoration Program (CFRP) proposal for the Rio de las Trampas (Rio Trampas) Project. This proposal would develop projects in the Rio Trampas watershed on land managed by multiple land management agencies, including: Carson National Forest, Camino Real Ranger District; Bureau of Land Management, Taos Field Office (TAFO); and Picuris Pueblo. Development of these proposals would be funded through a Federal grant administered by the Forest Service and awarded to Forest Guild, and is therefore subject to the National Environmental Policy Act (36 CFR 220) scoping and documentation requirements.

The CFRP is a matching grant program authorized by Congress under Title VI, Community Forest Restoration of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (Pub. L. No. 106-393). Relevant to this effort, the act requires eligible projects to (1) reduce the threat of large, high intensity wildfires by restoring ecosystem functions, structures, and species composition, (2) re-establish fire regimes approximating those that shaped forest ecosystems prior to fire suppression, (3) preserve old and large trees, (4) comply with all Federal and State environmental laws, (5) include a diverse and balanced group of stakeholders in the design, implementation, and monitoring of the project, and (6) incorporate current scientific forest restoration information.

The project is located to the north and west of Trampas Peak in the Rio Trampas Watershed which is approximately 70,900 acres. Within that larger watershed, the project prioritizes the top 10,000 acres in need of management attention.

We plan to disclose the effects of this project in an Environmental Assessment. Because of the diverse nature of the proposal, the Environmental Assessment will likely support more than one decision.

Background The proposed project area is located within the Rio Embudo watershed approximately 15 miles south of Taos, New Mexico and includes lands located in Taos and Rio Arriba Counties (T21N, R11E, Sections 1, 11, and 12; T21N, R12E, Sections 6-8, 16-18, 20, 21, and 28; T22N, R10E, Sections 1-2; T22, R11E, Sections 1-3, 13-15, 20-29, 32, 33, 35, and 36; T22N, R12E, Sections 6, 7, 9-12, 19, 30, and 31; T23N, R10E, 19-21, and 28-29; T23N, R11E, Sections 8, 9, 20, 23, 26-29, and 34-36). It includes lands within the Sebastian Martin, Las Trampas, and Francisco Motes Vigil land grants and the Diamante Tract. A vicinity map is provided in Figure 1.

We have examined conditions in the project area and recognize the need to address forest and watershed health issues, improve wildlife habitat, and provide accessible traditional use forest products to residents of local communities. These conditions have been confirmed by the 2010 Statewide Forest Resource Assessment. We see the need to protect these watersheds by maintaining healthy vegetation characteristics that reduce the severity in which a wildfire would burn and to reduce the effects of insect and disease outbreaks. Without healthy vegetation, events such as wildfire, insects, and disease could increase the potential for soil to move down into streams, resulting in adverse effects to water quality in populated areas downstream.

We are proposing this project to address ecological needs and concerns about the availability of personal use wood products such as vigas, latillas, and fuelwood that were expressed in public meetings convened by the Forest Guild in 2011 and 2012. This project would be implemented according to the requirements of the Carson National Forest Plan, the 2012 Taos Resource Management Plan, and the Pueblo of Picuris Forest Management Plan (2010). The Carson Forest Plan and the Taos Resource Management Plan

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provide the overarching direction for forest management activities on the Carson National Forest and the Taos Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management, respectively. The Pueblo of Picuris Forest Management Plan provides the overarching direction for management activities on the Pueblo of Picuris.

Management Direction The Carson National Forest project area includes the following land management areas (MA) as designated in the Carson National Forest Plan. Most proposed treatments are located within MA 4 and MA 8: • MA 3 – Mixed conifer < 40% Slopes • MA 4 – Ponderosa pine < 40% Slopes • MA 6 – Aspen • MA 8 – Piñon-juniper • MA 14 – Riparian

Proposed treatments are consistent with the standards and guidelines for management areas within the project area, forest-wide standards and guidelines for the affected resources, and the Carson National Forest Plan’s direction to implement projects to sustain healthy and resilient landscapes and provide ecosystem services.

The TAFO project area also contains resource categories designated by the Taos Resource Management Plan. Most of the proposed treatments are located within the Lower Gorge/Copper Hill Planning Unit and the El Palacio/Sombrillo Planning Unit. The proposed treatments are consistent with the Taos Resource Management Plan’s goals for Forestry and Woodland Products to “maximize ecosystem’s resilience to the natural disturbance regimes…” (page 32).

The Picuris Pueblo project area also contains resource categories designated by the Picuris Pueblo Forest Management Plan (2010). Proposed treatments areas surround the community of Chamisal and straddle a small section of New Mexico highway 75 west of Peñasco in piñon-juniper woodland and ponderosa pine woodlands and forests. The proposed treatments are consistent with the Picuris Pueblo Forest Management Plan’s goals to protect tribal natural resources, stimulate tribal involvement in Picuris forest management, maintain areas of old growth timber, continue cooperation with the Carson National Forest, implement erosion control measures on any new forest management activity, protect forest resources from wildfire, create and maintain tree species age, size diversity, and utilize firewood gathering to reduce fire danger.

Watershed-wide management goals, as well as specific management area direction, represent the desired future condition that management actions are designed to achieve. The following list identifies the Carson National Forest Plan, Taos Resource Management Plan, and the Picuris Forest Management Plan goals that are specific to this project:

Management Direction Goals Sustainable Forests • Maintain genetic and ecological diversity, and soil productivity.1 • Consider an area’s position within the landscape in making all decisions. Develop diverse forest

types and stand conditions, similar to that which occurred under prehistoric conditions.1 • Restore forest and woodlands (structure, composition, and processes) on public lands to maximize

the ecosystem’s resilience to the natural disturbance regimes, using the best available information as a basis for decisions on how much restoration is feasible.2

• Manage forest and woodland resources to provide a sustained flow of products to benefit local

1 Carson Forest Plan as Amended, 1996. 2 Taos Resource Management Plan, 2012.

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populations and support economic opportunities in the local communities.2 • Manage riparian areas with an emphasis on protection and restoration, and focus treatments on

reestablishment of willows and cottonwoods, as well as other riparian vegetation, to stabilize stream banks and promote sinuosity (curves, bends, or turns) and width/depth ratios appropriate to size.2

• Restore fire frequency and intensity regimes to pre-European settlement levels by reducing fuel loads and reduce the need for wildfire suppression through restoration activities.2

Wildlife and Fish Habitat • Maintain habitat for viable populations of all wildlife and fish species found on the Forest and

improve habitat for selected species. This will be accomplished indirectly through intensive coordination of habitat manipulation with other resource activities, and directly through intensive habitat management.1

• Manage public lands to achieve healthy watersheds and landscapes, sustained biological communities, and an improved understanding of ecosystems and resources through integrated, multi-party, an interdisciplinary assessment.2

• Ensure optimum populations and a natural abundance and diversity of wildlife resources on public lands by restoring, maintaining, and enhancing habitat conditions.2

• Maintain or enhance fish and wildlife habitat. The Pueblo desires to improve native habitat within their uplands and timberlands, to support both threatened and endangered and traditionally important wildlife species (e.g., Abert’s squirrel, elk, mule deer, and wild turkey).3

Timber • Provide a non-declining sustained yield of timber consistent with land capabilities and other resource

values.1 • Improve site productivity through management.1 • Provide green and dead firewood and other forest products on a sustained yield basis.3 • Design timber resource activities with emphasis on benefits to wildlife, watershed, and recreation

while maintaining productive timber stands and providing wood products.1 • Maintain areas of Old Growth timber.3 • Increase growth, health and vigor of the Tribal forests through Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and

tribal management practices, and through economic opportunities: Create and maintain tree species, age, and size diversity. Dwarf Mistletoe, insect, and other disease problems should be suppressed/controlled but with

sensitivity to aesthetic (visual) quality. Apply sound silvicultural techniques to all stands that will receive treatments.3

Watershed • Best management practices are followed when doing all projects and activities.1 • Manage projects and activities to reduce water runoff and soil loss.2 • Erosion control measures will be implemented as needed on existing sites and on any new forest

management activity.3 • Rehabilitation projects will be implemented as necessary and feasible on sites where excessive

erosion is occurring.3 • Implement erosion control measures on roads, skid trails and landing sites.3 • Maintain water quality.3

3 Picuris Pueblo, 2010. 3

Sustainable Communities • Prevent loss of life or property from wildland fire.2 • Protect Tribal natural resources: - Restrict timber and fuelwood permits due to historic theft, trespass, environmental damage and

other infractions by permitees and the general public. - Restrict piñon nut harvest from woodlands to Tribal members. - Take measures to minimize timber trespass on the Picuris forest.3 • Stimulate Tribal involvement in Picuris forest management: - BIA will inform the Governor’s Office of forestry activities on Picuris forests. - Initiate timber stand improvement, thinning, and prescribed fire programs to generate Tribal

employment and income. - Stimulate Tribal awareness of forest resources, activities and opportunities on their forest.3

Other Laws and Regulations

Threatened, endangered, and proposed animal and plant species are managed under the authority of the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (P.L. 93-205) and the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (P.L. 94-588). The effects to federally-listed endangered, threatened, and proposed species will be analyzed. The Forest Service also requires an analysis of sensitive and management indicator species.

Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (16 U.S.C. 703-712) prohibits the take, capturing, killing, transporting, selling, or hunting migratory birds or any part of nests or eggs of migrant bird species unless permitted by regulations. Potential effects of the proposed action on migratory birds and their habitats will be documented.

A small portion of the Pecos Wilderness is located in the extreme southeastern portion of the watershed but not in the project area and there are no activities proposed in the Pecos Wilderness. There are no potential wilderness areas in the project area. The Taos Resource Management Plan has identified a 5 mile portion of the lower Rio Embudo as eligible and suitable for Wild and Scenic River designation in the project area. As a result of that identification, the TAFO established the Embudo Protection Zone to protect those Wild and Scenic River attributes. The TAFO is managing its lands in the Rio Trampas Watershed, under the 2012 Taos Resource Management Plan which is in accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, in visual resource management class II (low level of change) and the area of the Embudo Protection Zone as class III (moderate level of change to existing character).

The Rio Trampas and Rio Chamisal Creeks fully support designated uses under the Clean Water Act, but Embudo Creek from the Rio Grande to Canada de Ojo Sarco is listed in the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED) 303(d) water quality report for sedimentation / siltation, temperature, and turbidity. The Embudo Creek from Canada de Ojo Sarco to Picuris Pueblo is also listed in the NMED’s 303(d) list for nutrient/eutrophication biological indicators. South of Dixon is the Canada Aqua (Arroyo La Mina) that is an ephemeral stream listed by the NMED 303(d) water quality report for PCB (based on data submitted by the DOE).

The Forest Service will comply with the provisions of Appendix J of the “Standard Consultation Protocol for Large-Scale Fuels Reduction, Vegetation Treatment, and Habitat Improvement Projects” as agreed to by the Forest Service; the Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPOs); the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation; and 50 Indian tribes for whom properties within USDA Forest Service Region 3 might have traditional cultural or religious significance.

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Purpose of and Need for Action The need for action is determined by the extent and intensity of differences between the existing and desired conditions. Where there is little difference between these two conditions, the need for action is low; however, the need for action in this project area is compelling, given that conditions are strikingly different from what is desired to meet objectives.

Forest health departs from desired conditions within the project area in several respects:

• Lack of age-and size-class diversity. Without this diversity, there is reduced biodiversity, ecological function, resilience, and sustainability

• High tree densities in stands result in reduced tree vigor and increased susceptibility to insects and disease.

• Low levels of grasses, forbs, and shrubs on the forest floor to provide forage for wildlife. • Riparian forests support non-native tree species that are overtaking native cottonwood and New

Mexican olive species.

The project area also departs from desired conditions for wildlife habitat:

• There are an insufficient number of small openings for wildlife, resulting in wildlife competing for limited grazing resources.

• Low forest structural diversity.

Watershed conditions depart from desired conditions:

• Densely stocked piñon-juniper woodland, ponderosa pine, and mixed conifer stands, which increases the risk of uncharacteristic large-scale disturbances such as wildfire and insect-caused mortality.

• Conifers encroach on meadows that livestock and wildlife depend on for forage. • There is insufficient forage in upland areas for wildlife and livestock. • Low levels of grasses, forbs, and shrubs on the forest floor to protect soils. • Drainage is not functioning at switchbacks, on FR 639 near the San Leonardo Trail Head and the

junction of FR 207. These areas on the Carson National Forest are impassable when wet and contribute to undesirable watershed conditions.

• Motor vehicles have access to riparian areas leading to resource damage on the Carson National Forest.

The project area also departs from desired conditions for communities and human values:

• Human life and property are at risk from high intensity wildfire.

Based on the comparison between the desired conditions and existing conditions, we have identified the following objectives to address with the proposed action.

Ecological Needs -The proposed action would address the need to improve forest health and wildlife habitat, and restore watersheds. It would enhance watershed resistance and resiliency to wildfire, drought, insect, and climate change and it would create conditions that would foster and accelerate forest diversity. The proposed action would also improve forest conditions to the extent possible considering changing existing conditions to a more natural range of variability for the forest types. Finally, it would enhance wildlife forage capability for a wide range of species by creating conditions favorable to increasing native grasses, forbs, and shrub-type plants in upland areas, meadows, and riparian areas. This would be accomplished by:

• Reducing stand densities, thereby improving growing conditions to moderate tree stress and susceptibility to drought, wildfire, insects and other pathogens.

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• Creating greater diversity of tree age-and size-class distribution. • Allowing the introduction of prescribed burning back into the ecosystems to rejuvenate grasses,

forbs, shrubs, and aspen; and providing site preparation for better seed germination and clone production from those species.

• Encouraging regeneration of the aspen forest type, where appropriate. • Reducing conifer encroachment into aspen stands and meadows. • Reducing ladder fuels to decrease potential for crown fires. • Reducing continuous interconnected tree crowns, thereby decreasing the risk of running crown fires. • Creating small openings for those wildlife species that require a more open canopy.

Forest Products – Many people in the surrounding communities depend upon forest products to sustain their traditional and cultural way of life. The proposed action would increase personal use product availability to the public for such uses as vigas, latillas, and fuel wood and provide opportunities for commercial harvest of forest products responsive to local and regional needs to meet the Carson National Forest Plan, Taos Resource Management Plan, and the Picuris Pueblo Forest Management Plan goals.

Proposed Action The proposed action includes vegetation management actions that would apply regeneration cuts and intermediate treatments based on forest type existing conditions. The proposed action is summarized in Tables 1 and 2, and mapped in Figures 2, 3, and 4.

Table 1. Proposed Treatment Area Summary Table

Existing Conditions by Forest Type Acres Jurisdiction

Estimated Volume (CCF, hundred cubic feet) Cords

Riparian forest 21 BLM 27 34 Piñon-juniper woodland contributing to watershed degradation. 52 BLM na na Piñon-juniper woodland 995 Picuris Pueblo 1095 1368 Piñon-juniper woodland 1596 BLM 1756 2195 Piñon-juniper woodland 377 USFS 415 518 Piñon-juniper woodland, ponderosa pine ecotone 371 BLM 445 557 Piñon-juniper woodland, ponderosa pine ecotone 2502 USFS 3002 3753 Ponderosa pine forest, even aged 200 Picuris Pueblo 320 400 Ponderosa pine forest, uneven aged 100 Picuris Pueblo 140 175 Ponderosa pine forest, even aged 1087 USFS 1739 2174 Ponderosa pine forest, uneven aged 758 USFS 1061 1327 Ponderosa pine, mixed conifer ecotone 1141 USFS 2054 2567 Mixed conifer forest 345 USFS 690 863 Totals 9545

12744 15930

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Table 2. Proposed treatment area by jurisdiction.

Jurisdiction Acres Carson National Forest, Camino Real Ranger District 6210 Taos Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management 2040 Picuris Pueblo 1295 Total 9545 Vegetative Treatments Carson National Forest

• Group selection (GS) - This uneven-aged regeneration method creates small openings, each up to four acres in size. Openings would generally range from 1/10th to 1/4 of an acre in size. The creation of openings would occur on 10-20% of each site and be consistent with the Carson Forest Plan standards and guidelines for the northern goshawk. These treatments would improve structural diversity. Openings would introduce a new age-class and size-class of trees, creating a mosaic across the landscape. Openings would avoid patches with evidence of old-growth characteristics trees.

• Intermediate treatments – Intermediate treatments occur after regenerated stands become established and may include: stand improvement cuts, thinning from below, and pre-commercial thinning. Intermediate treatments remove trees to enhance growth, quality, vigor, and composition of stands. This reduces competition for moisture, sunlight, and nutrients for the remaining trees. This treatment would allow the residual trees to grow vigorously, increasing in height and diameter more rapidly, and utilize available site resources more efficiently. Some trees in the upper canopy layers may be removed where they are competing with other trees of higher retention priority of similar diameter. The remaining stands would have increased space between trees and tree crowns, and more space between the ground and tree crowns.

• Aspen Treatments – Within forest stands classified as aspen forest type, encroaching conifer trees would be removed to maintain the stand or utilize a regeneration treatment method involving patch cuts not to exceed 40 acres. In conifer stands with an aspen component, conifer removal and prescribed fire (broadcast burning) may be utilized to maintain the aspen or to encourage aspen regeneration.

These treatments may be accomplished through commercial timber sales, small commercial product sales, pre-commercial sales, non-commercial tree removal, and personal use permits. Commercial sales would primarily utilize conventional logging systems and equipment including hand sawyers, feller-bunchers, rubber-tired skidders or tractors, and landings. Personal use permits would authorize the removal of products such as fuelwood, latillas, and vigas by people from surrounding communities. Permit holders typically use chainsaws to fell trees and pick-up trucks with or without trailers to haul material from the site.

Harvest activities would be limited to slopes less than 40 percent gradient with very minor exceptions, including: (1) minor inclusions or short pitches mixed within areas of 40 percent gradient or less where operations can occur within acceptable environmental limits; and (2) areas adjacent to roads which can be harvested by hand for minor amounts of fuelwood, vigas, or other personal use products.

Activity fuels treatments would reduce fuels created by harvest activities. These treatments could include: (1) whole tree harvest which removes the entire tree, including the top and main branches; (2) prescribed burning (jackpot, pile, or broadcast burning) in which personnel burn concentrations of fuels that accumulate naturally or from harvest operations; and (3) mechanical treatments which chip or masticate accumulated fuels.

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Repeated prescribed fire may also be used to maintain vegetative treatments and reduced fuel levels. Appropriate techniques and timing will be used for each forest type. For example, in ponderosa pine maintenance burns would likely be implemented every 5 to 15 years depending on conditions.

Access needed to implement these actions would be identified and existing routes would be maintained or reconstructed to meet best management practice (BMP) requirements and provide safe and suitable log hauling conditions. Routes used to implement harvests and controlled burning will either be returned to their pre-treatment condition or to a condition consistent with the appropriate land management plan (Carson National Forest Plan, the Taos Field Office Resource Management Plan, or the Picuris Pueblo Forest Management Plan).

Bureau of Land Management Taos Field Office: • Reduce density of exotic vegetation in riparian areas – Remove non-native woody species in

riparian areas to restore native plant species composition and distribution. • Mechanically thin woodlands – Mechanically thin woodlands in accordance with the terrestrial

vegetation management described in the Farmington District Fire Management Plan (USDI-BLM 2010) and in the Copper Hill WUI Hazardous Fuels Reduction EA (#NM—020-03-022) to restore piñon-juniper woodlands and mixed conifer forests to Fire Regime Condition Class4 (FRCC) 1. Apply protections (see below) for watershed values, cultural sites, and preserve Wild and Scenic River Study Area values. Maintain early to mid-seral conditions in forests, woodlands, and rangelands in order to retain the herbaceous groundcover component necessary to reduce erosion and contribute to overall watershed health. Preserve old and large trees, while maintaining the structural diversity and resilience of the forest and woodland stands.

o Offer mechanical treatment residue for highest combination of products including fuelwood collection where available and appropriate.

o Implementation of watershed values protection may include identifying areas to intentionally leave slash for watershed protection. These would occur in accordance to best practices.

o Application of cultural site protection may include the use of a variety of techniques and best practices.

• Maintain low fuel loadings through the use of prescribed fire - Slash produced from thinning operations will be burned following mechanical treatment and broadcast burning will be conducted in subsequent years in both treated and untreated areas to maintain low fuel loadings and promote herbaceous groundcover growth at an average rate of 200 acres each per year. TAFO will collaborate as much as possible with adjacent landowners, including private, state, U.S. Forest Service, and the Picuris Pueblo to complete projects in hazardous fuels reduction, forest/range restoration, and wildlife habitat improvement.

Pueblo of Picuris: • Reduce hazardous fuels in the WUI – Reduce hazardous fuels in the Chamisal WUI, the southwest

corner of Picuris lands, and along road systems in accordance with the Forest Management Plan (2010). Employ hand thinning with pile burning or chipping/mastication to reduce hazardous fuel loadings.

• Reduce hazardous fuels to their natural range of variability – Reduction of fuel loadings and densities to the natural range of variability for the fire regime using mechanical and prescribed fire techniques.

o Mechanical approaches include the use of chainsaws, crushing, chipping, chopping, and site

4 Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) is an interagency, standardized tool for determining the degree of ecological departure from historical, or reference condition, vegetation, fuels, and disturbance regimes. Assessing FRCC can help guide management objectives and set priorities for treatments (www.frames.gov).

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preparation using heavy equipment. For Picuris Reservation, these strategies will be employed in both natural and activity fuels.

o Prescribed fire approaches includes burning (prescribed burning under forest canopy); broadcast burning (intentional burning within defined boundaries for reduction of fuel hazard, as a resource treatment, or both); and pile burning (treating individual piles resulting from mechanical fuels removal and concentration). A project burn plan is required for each treatment unit. Direction and guidance for developing a burn plan can be found in the 2013 Interagency Prescribed Fire Planning and Implementation Procedures Reference Guide and the 2008 Bureau of Indian Affairs, Fuels Management Program, Supplement to the Interagency Prescribed Fire Planning and Implementation Procedures Reference Guide.

o Activity fuel concentrations created by logging, thinning, fuel/fire break projects, and hazardous fuel reduction projects can be treated with prescribed fire. These prescribed fire projects will specify recommended treatment intervals, particularly for the Woodlands and Timber fuel groups. Areas where the natural role of fire should be reintroduced are represented by the Timber fuel group.

o The resulting fuelwood generated from hazardous fuel reduction, pre-commercial thinning, and ecological restoration treatments across Pueblo lands could be salvaged for Pueblo use. Fuelwood is the primary forest product available from Pueblo lands. Rocky Mountain and one-seed juniper, live or dead, has value as a source of post and pole material for rangeland fences and latillas for construction. Commercial timber species are present in sufficient amounts to offer the possibility of a periodic harvest or timber sale.5

The existing road and route system that would be used for access on this project will be field reviewed to identify necessary road maintenance and rehabilitation needs to meet best management practice (BMP) requirements and provide safe and suitable log hauling conditions. Existing routes used to implement harvests and controlled burning will either be returned to their pre-treatment condition or to a condition consistent with the appropriate land management plan (Carson National Forest Plan, the Taos Field Office Resource Management Plan, or the Picuris Pueblo Forest Management Plan).

Watershed Health Treatments

Carson National Forest:

• Add culverts and harden areas on and along FR 207 and FR 639 near the San Leonardo Trail Head. • Add barriers to limit stream access from motor vehicles along main stem of the Rio Trampas. • Manage the ground surface layer to maintain satisfactory soil conditions. This will be accomplished

through the use, as needed, of best management practices for soil protection and erosion control.

Taos Field Office: • In order to meet the Taos Resource Management Plans objective to “Manage all projects and

authorized activities to maintain or improve soil condition.” The use of erosion control measures will be employed as needed to mitigate project-level impacts so that soil conditions are maintained or improved and nonpoint sources of pollution such as sedimentation caused by erosion are addressed. Erosion control measures shall include such things are intentionally placed slash, directionally felled tree boles, and wooden and rock structures and placement designed by a specialist.

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Pueblo of Picuris: • Follow the direction of the Secretary of the Interior in 25 CFR 163 to retain the beneficial effects to

Indian forest land of regulating water run-off and minimizing soil erosion. Erosion control measures will be implemented as needed on existing site and on any new forest management activity. Implement erosion control measures on roads, skid trails and landing sites.

• Project implementation that bares soils will be mitigated by size, location, burn intensity and by spreading organic debris about in such a fashion to reduce soil erosion from wind and water on project sites. Slash may be dispersed on the site to reduce soil erosion. Erosion control measures shall include such things are intentionally placed slash, directionally felled tree boles, and wooden and rock structures and placement designed by a specialist.

• Mitigation to minimize sediment movement will be dependent on individual project specifications and would include: buffers around drainage ways, mulching, lop and scatter, contour felling small trees, and installing silt fences. These precautions would reduce the potential of sediment moving into the streams.

Design Features Incorporated into the Proposed Action Specific design features and mitigation measures will be incorporated into the project design to minimize environmental impacts. These design features will be included in an Environmental Assessment that will be sent out for a 30-day public comment prior to the decisions.

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Figure 1. Vicinity map of the Rio Trampas Project, Rio Arriba and Taos Counties, New Mexico, south of Taos.

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Figure 2. Map of Proposed Treatments in the Rio Trampas Project on Forest Service lands.

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Figure 3. Map of Proposed Treatments in the Rio Trampas Project on Picuris Pueblo lands.

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Figure 4. Map of Proposed Treatments in the Rio Trampas Project on Bureau of Land Management lands.

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