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Prospect Mountain Prescribed Fire

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LEGAL DESCRIPTION: Township:  Township:  13N 14N Range:  Range:  80W 81W Sections:  Sections:  various various LATITUDE: 41*7’14.31”N LONGITUDE: 106*28’9.9”W PRIMARY UNIT ACRES: 791 COUNTY: Carbon HIGH ELEVATION: 8,500 ft. DRAINAGE: Upper North Platte River LOW ELEVATION: 7,500 ft. AVG. ASPECT: Northeast, Southeast EA NUMBER / NAME: Prospect Mtn. Rx Burn WY-030-08-EA-069 AVG. SLOPE: 41% (ag. maximum slope)  <<  Click on the map to view and/or print the full-size map.

Project Summary:  Treatment of this unit would complete a prescribed burn project which was authorized and initiated several years ago. During the spring of 2008, approximately 55% of the target units were successfully treated in a mosaic pattern. Successive attempts to complete the project were constrained by changing weather conditions and narrow seasonal treatment windows. The Prospect Mountain prescribed burn is located along the southwestern face of the Snowy Range, southeast of Encampment/Riverside, Wyoming. It is a broadcast-scale treatment intended to cover the headwaters drainage of Prospect Creek. It is scheduled to take place during the spring burn season (roughly April through early May.) The treatment unit would encompass around three sections of public land within the project perimeter, almost the entire Prospect Creek drainage above the North Platte River, and includes the drainages north of Deerhorn Point that directly flow into the North Platte River. Although this area (basically the north reaches of Northgate Canyon) is included in the burn, it lies in the Platte River Wilderness Area, and will not be actively ignited, although fire will be allowed to move into the area on its own. The Prospect Mountain BLM Wilderness Study Area (WSA) is completely covered by the proposed project, and encompasses approximately 52% of the primary project perimeter. The project would manipulate the vegetation by prescribed burning to achieve a more natural mixture of successional stages of upland shrub and aspen communities. Currently, shrub stands within the drainage are predominantly even-aged, in mature to decadent stages, or in late seral stages. Reintroducing natural disturbance into these stands would diversify both the age class and structure. Vegetation that is targeted for treatment includes mixed mountain big sagebrush/grassland types, mixed big sagebrush/bitterbrush types, mesic shrub stands, and scattered junipers. Timber types (except for scattered juniper) within the treatment perimeter are not targeted for treatment. Live, healthy aspen stands or portions of stands will most likely not sustain fire, limiting the probability of their treatment. Similarly, most of the dark timber occurring within the perimeter lies on north facing slopes which presumably will shelter residual snow banks during a spring treatment, precluding significant fire from entering the stands. Riparian vegetation located throughout the treatment perimeter along perennial, ephemeral, and/or intermittent water courses would not be targeted for treatment, although they would not be specifically protected from fire. Ignition of the fuels would be accomplished via several methods, possibly including the utilization of a helicopter-mounted heli-torch, and hand ignition with drip torches for the remainder. General goals of the project include the diversification of sagebrush and mountain shrub stands in terms of age and structural class distribution, the renewal of the herbaceous, forb, and shrub component of these stands, reduction of fuel loads overall and insertion of landscape-scale vegetation fuel breaks, and the improvement of watershed conditions within the project area. Shrub stands within the project perimeter are proposed to be treated by prescribed fire with the objective of removing more than 30% of the shrubs within designated treatment polygons, preferably burning half of the shrub stands within each treatment polygon in a mosaic pattern. Specifically, the resource objectives of the burn are to: Treat (top-kill or blacken) greater than 30% of the dense, even-aged (and structured) sagebrush and mixed sagebrush/mountain shrub communities within the primary project perimeter(s) in a mosaic pattern. The acceptable range of treatment would be from 30 to 70% of shrubs within any one polygon treated, with an optimum treatment level of 50% within any one polygon. Increase ground cover by 20% or more (from current levels) in three years on treated sites. Based on evaluation of the vegetation types found in the treatment area, the burn objective consists of: Treating (burning and removing) sagebrush/grass and mixed sagebrush/mountain shrub/grassland vegetation over approximately 754 acres of mixed public (BLM and USFS) lands within the treatment perimeter(s). The acceptable range of deviation from the objective would be a minimum of 225 acres and a maximum of 530 acres burned, targeted in a mosaic pattern. Following the treatments conducted during the previous years, approximately 340 acres of mixed sagebrush and mountain shrubs remain to be treated for the project to be completed. Questions: Please Contact Chris Otto with the Rawlins BLM Field Office at 307-328-4250.