In 2002, a multi-faceted strategy was developed by the Survey and Manage (S&M) organization to help integrate S&M requirements with the agencies’ need to implement the objectives and requirements of the National Fire Plan (NFP). In July 2002, the first group of Management Recommendation (MR) amendments to address fuels reduction activities associated with “communities at risk,” in high fire frequency areas, was transmitted to the field. Those MR amendments covered the management of known sites for 24 vascular plant, lichen, bryophyte, and fungi species.

Attachment 1 to this memo contains amended MRs for an additional 14 mollusk and amphibian species, and the Oregon red tree vole. These MR amendments are designed to better facilitate fuels reduction activities around at-risk communities as suggested by the 2001 S&M Record of Decision (ROD) on page 12, and by the Standards and Guidelines (S&Gs) on page 20, for high fire frequency areas. In addition to considering the use of prescribed fire within S&M known sites, other fuels reduction activities are also addressed in these amendments. As noted in Attachment 1 these amendments are to be used only within areas with short (<50 year) fire return intervals near at-risk communities.

The at-risk communities to which these MR amendments apply were identified in the August 2001 Federal Register. The Federal Register provided the names of the communities at risk, but did not provide boundaries associated with those communities. General maps showing where these MRs apply are shown in Attachment 4 (previously transmitted with the first group of species in July 2002), with more specific parameters of where these apply provided in Attachment 1. Since the development of these maps, the state of California has updated its determinations of at-risk communities’ boundaries based on new census data and other information. The Federal agencies in California should coordinate with the State to obtain the

2

Some of the attached MR amendments recommend that “any treatment” to reduce fuels within the critical first 300 feet surrounding developments and structures, associated with a community, can occur with no mitigation for the SM site needed.  For these species, in these situations, pre-disturbance surveys are not required.  For other treatments the line officer, with unit specialists’ recommendations, should determine whether a proposed fuel reducing activity should be considered “habitat-disturbing” and hence whether pre-disturbance surveys are required or not.  Specifically, “…the line officer should consider the probability of the species being present on the project site, as well as the probability that the project would cause a significant negative effect on the species habitat or persistence of the species at the site” (page 22 of 2001 S&M ROD S&Gs).  These MR amendments are a useful tool in helping to make this determination. 

Use either the MR amendments, or the original MRs, to manage known sites within these areas.  Decisions on site management should be based on best professional judgment and should be documented.  For those situations where the management of known sites in compliance with the original MRs, or these MR amendments, precludes the effective implementation of fuel reduction projects, the field unit should contact the S&M Program Manager or Agency S&M Representative for assistance.  Options may include a site management exemption process, or the 4-step process, to determine non-High Priority sites. 

We appreciate the assistance of field personnel who helped in the development of these MR amendments.  In addition to helping develop these documents, field units identified which species were likely to occur in NFP treatment areas in numbers significant enough to be an issue.  Over the past year you and your staff reviewed, and provided key comments, to the draft amendments’ comments that were incorporated to make the amendments better products.  Where field comments could not be addressed through MR edits, we addressed them in a Question and Answer document, Attachment 2.  (The Attachment 2 transmitted with the first group of species in July 2002 also contains questions and answers that may be applicable to these species as well.) 

Please address questions to the appropriate S&M agency representative:  FS R5:  Paula Crumpton, pcrumpton@fs.fed.us, 530-242-2242 ; BLM OR/WA/No. CA: Rob Huff, Rob_Huff@or.blm.gov, 503-808-6479; and FS R6: Carol Hughes, cshughes@fs.fed.us , 503-808-2661; or to the Interagency S&M Program Manager, Terry Brumley, tbrumley@fs.fed.us, 503-808-2968.