Air Quality

Objectives

Continue efforts to meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards, Prevention of Significant Deterioration, and the Oregon Visibility Protection Plan and Smoke Management Plan goals.

Maintain and enhance air quality and visibility in a manner consistent with the Clean Air Act and the State Implementation Plan.

Use prescribed fire to reduce the potential for wildfire emissions through the use of prescribed fire and other fuel management techniques.

Consider alternate emission reduction techniques whenever they are compatible with land allocation objectives and other management actions/direction. See the Air Quality Analysis section of the FSEIS for alternative treatments that may be considered during fuels management project design.

Land Use Allocations

None.

Management Actions/Direction

By the year 2000, reduce particulate matter emissions and impacts from prescribed burning by 50 percent from the baseline period (1976-1979). This will be accomplished by planning, conducting, monitoring, and if necessary, adjusting prescribed fire activities in accordance with the Oregon State Implementation Plan and the Oregon Smoke Management Plan.

Minimize broadcast burning in favor of lower intensity underburning. Use emission reduction mitigation measures and smoke dispersal techniques to the greatest practical extent.

Wildfire hazard reduction, site preparation, and the use of prescribed fire for species habitat mitigation will be implemented in a manner consistent with ecosystem management objectives.

Where appropriate, use dust abatement measures during construction activities and on roads during BLM wood product removal or other BLM commodity hauling activity. Encourage dust abatement measures when haulers use BLM roads under permits and rights-of-way agreements.

Prepare conformity determinations required by the Clean Air Act as part of implementing planning.

Perform an emissions tradeoff analysis to determine and quantify the effects of prescribed burning and other types of fuel management on reduction of wildfire emissions. This analysis should be performed at the same geographic scale as conformity determinations.

For designated nonattainment areas where smoke from woodstoves has shown to be a major source of particulate matter directly affecting both health and visibility, mitigation can include the following:

close permitted firewood cutting use on or before September 30 of each year to assure that firewood is not collected when it is wet, and some curing time is available prior to burning;
coordinate the issuance of educational information with wood cutting permits that target proper gathering practices and ways to minimize adverse effects on air quality from inefficient burning wood; and
cooperate with local air quality control agencies and other Federal land management agencies to assure uniform and accurate dissemination of public information and educational material on proper firewood use and enforcement of permit requirements across agency boundaries.

See Special Forest Product's section for additional information on firewood availability.