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- UEC won its appeal of the Lakes Timber Sale EIS on the Manti-La Sal. The decision would have logged 820 acres of high elevation spruce/fir forests and constructed 3.25 miles of new roads. The vast majority of the logging and roading would have been in unroaded extensions of Inventoried Roadless Areas. UEC won its appeal because the decision was in violation of Forest Plan requirements to maintain a minimum level of big game hiding cover.
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- In response to UEC’s appeal the Ashley National Forest withdrew its decision to approve logging (clear cut, shelterwood, thinning) on over 2,000 acres of lodgepole and aspen cutting units via Categorical Exclusion. The decision was withdrawn because UEC’s appeal showed that it violated Forest Plan and NFMA restrictions for maximum clear cut size limits.
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- In response to UEC’s appeal the Manti-La Sal National Forest withdrew its decision to approve the Willow Basin HFI Categorical Exclusion project. Local residents, including the Mayor of the town of Castle Valley, signed onto UEC’s appeal. Involving various logging, mechanical and prescribed fire treatments, the project would have caused unacceptable impacts to water quality in streams such as Castle Creek that are already listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act.
- UEC staff and members have long had concerns with the Ashley National Forest’s Little Elk Summit Ponderosa restoration project. Initially, the proposal included some logging in an Inventoried Roadless area that is inside UEC’s Wilderness proposal. There were additional concerns with a lack of clear diameter limits on additional Ponderosa thinning outside of our Wilderness proposal. In response to our coordinated comments the final decision in September 2006 included 8” diameter limits on Ponderosa thinning outside of the roadless areas, and prescribed fire-only inside the roadless areas. UEC did not appeal this decision because it is genuine Ponderosa pine restoration that preserves the wilderness qualities of our proposed extension to the High Uintas Wilderness area.
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- University researchers proposed five small (i.e. 4-18 acre units and 1-35 acre unit) experimental research plots in this Great Basin site to study the effectiveness of different range treatments in reversing the destructive spread of exotic cheat grass. UEC had no problem with the proposed University research but did object to the additional 500 acres of mechanical treatments that the Forest Service piggybacked on the proposal. The University research was to be in a developed area, but the 500 acre additional treatment was to be in an Inventoried Roadless Area and UEC proposed Wilderness, and was also located in a Forest Plan management area that prohibits all mechanical treatments. In comments and meetings UEC objected to the 500 acres of experimental mechanical treatments, noting that it would be in error to jump the gun and proceed when their impacts were unknown and under University study. In response to UEC’s comments the final decision approved the University research and not the 500 acres of mechanical treatment in UEC proposed Wilderness. UEC comments improved the final decision without a need to file an appeal.
- UEC reached a resolution agreement over a seismic exploration project in the La Sal Mountains on the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The appeal was filed after delaying the project administratively for a year and after succeeding in adding riparian buffers and ensuring the decision did not include new road construction. The resolution agreement incorporates local landowners’ concerns such as a commitment that any future drilling exploration will be informed by a study of effects to aquifers and water off-site. The agreement also adds Goshawk restrictions and a commitment to do NEPA scoping for future drilling even if it is exempt from NEPA per the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
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- The Dixie National Forest and UEC signed an appeal resolution agreement for the “Sunset Cliffs North Fuels Reduction Project.” The terms of the resolution agreement were incorporated into an amended decision, and include changes such as: (1) prescribed fire only – and elimination of originally approved logging/mechanical treatments inside the Red Canyon South ‘Inventoried Roadless Area’, (2) agreement that no activities would occur that could impair the quality or characteristics of the roadless area, and (3) elimination of the initial approval to repeat the same logging/mechanical/fire treatments every 3-10 years in the future.
- In response to UEC’s appeal of the “Yellowstone Canyon Fuels Treatment” project, the Ashley National Forest and UEC signed a resolution agreement that significantly improved the project. The modified decision has a focus on more natural methods of restoring Ponderosa pine forest and sage steppe, that include: (1) prescribed fire only instead of logging in 3,000 acres of Ponderosa pine forest (much of which is roadless and inside UEC’s wilderness proposal for Forest Service lands), (2) prescribed fire only instead of mechanical tractor treatment across 1,000 acres of sage steppe, (3) significantly lighter Ponderosa thinning and an 18” diameter limit in the Wildland Urban Interface area adjacent to developed private lands, and (4) snag protection instead of originally-approved logging of essentially all snags.
- In response to UEC’s objection to the ‘Upper Santa Clara River Vegetation Restoration Project,’ which was filed under the “Healthy Forests Restoration Act” (HFRA), the Dixie National Forest incorporated the terms of UEC’s resolution offer into the final decision. This resulted in a significant reduction in the volume, size, and number of Ponderosa pine to be thinned in the backcountry forest surrounding the town of Pine Valley. This is the second HFRA objection UEC has filed where the Forest Service has agreed to the terms of UEC’s resolution offer into the final decision resulting in significantly lighter thinning and protection of the big trees and old growth structure, while restoring backcountry forests with reintroduction of fire, and protecting ‘communities at risk’ at the same time.
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- The Fishlake National Forest issued a final and long-awaited decision for an Environmental Assessment that studied expanded geothermal leasing in the foothills of the Tushar Mountains and the Pavant Range, outside of Cove Fort in south-western Utah. UEC has been involved in this project for years, repeatedly urging the Fishlake NF to protect all the qualifying roadless areas nearby, as well as to protect critical big game winter range. The final decision included good mitigation measures that will actually protect wildlife, and just as importantly, includes mandatory “No Surface Occupancy” stipulations for all roadless areas leased for geothermal use. This is a significant improvement that will allow UEC to expand the boundary for our Tushar Mountains proposed wilderness area that would have been impacted.
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- UEC is working with Trout Unlimited to rally support with fishermen and hunters to stop or curb new oil and gas leasing that could result from a new Forest-wide Environmental Impact Statement that addresses this issue on the Uinta National Forest. UEC is also continuing its outreach on this issue with the Bryant’s Fork cabin owners association in the Strawberry Reservoir area of this National Forest.
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- UEC won its challenge in Utah Federal District Court, to the Ashley National Forest’s Forest Plan amendment that dropped 10 of its 12 Management Indicator Species (MIS). The Court agreed that 2 species was not representative of the variety of habitat types across the forest and compelled the Ashley National Forest to keep its 12 original MIS.
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- Manti-La Sal N.F. withdrew a decision to approve the renewal of 31 livestock grazing permits on the Wasatch Plateau. This was done in response to a joint appeal coordinated by UEC member Mary O’Brien that was submitted by UEC, Western Watersheds Project, and other grassroots groups. The Forest Service has agreed to add an analysis of the proposed grazing renewal impacts to boreal toad; the spread of exotic plant species; address the number of cattle that would be added; analyze impacts to springs and aspen; and improve the monitoring data.
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