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Question: 



What is your view of the level of restoration being proposed for the ICBEMP to 

 restore forest ecosystem health? 



Response: 



In my opinion, none of the alternatives propose restoration activity levels that wiil 

 achieve ecosystem health in a reasonable period of time. One of the measures of 

 ecosystem health available from the project is the amount of forest lands classified 

 as having various levels of integrity. One can then view restoration as the 

 conversion of low and moderate integrity lands to high integrity. Project data 

 indicate only 15 million of the 40 million acres of federal forests are rated as high 

 integrity. The primary silvicultural treatments available to make that conversion 

 include pre-commercial thinning, commercial thinning and harvest, and prescribed 

 fire. Because of current high fiiel loads in most forests, thinning will be required 

 before prescribed fire can be safely applied. Thus, acres treated by each are largely 

 the same, not additive. It is also important to consider that degradation of existing 

 high integrity forests will continue with current fire policies. 



In order to assess the rate of restoration for each alternative, we have looked at the 

 number of acres expected to be treated (except for prescribed fire) every ten years, 

 the amount of land with low and medium integrity, the total acres of forests, and 

 the estimated ongoing rate of degradation. The figure below shows the results of 

 our analysis. 



Effects of the Altemativet on Forest Ecological Integrity: 

 Eastside and UCRB Projects Combined 



1986 2006 2016 2026 2036 2046 2066 2066 2076 2086 2096 



Ytar 



Formula : 

 Integrtty Area - 

 Prior decade 

 area* decadai 

 active 

 restoration area 

 •decadal 

 degradation 

 factor 



