continue to be lost to firewood cutters and 

 from natural disturbances. The following 

 mitigations would be implen\ented to help 

 retain as many large valuable snags as possible 

 in the old-growth stands being entered. 



• No large snags would be designated for 

 harvest. 



• Large snags and live broken-topped culls 

 that would make valuable wildlife habitat 

 in the future would be marked for reten- 

 tion. 



• Clumps of other trees adjacent to large 

 snags or culls would be marked for reten- 

 tion to protect the snags /culls during 



io V harvesting activities. 



• Logging contractors would be required, 

 when possible, to plan skidding activities 

 to protect snags. 



• Additional road closures would protect 

 some wildlife trees from being harvested 

 by firewood cutters. 



Decadence 



When using stand vigor as a surrogate for 

 decadence, it is likely that decadence in the 

 old-growth stands being entered would 

 slightly decrease and vigor would increase. 

 Over time, this would be a positive effect in 

 relation to holding these stands in their current 

 age class; however, retaining some old-growth 

 stands with a high amount of decadence is 

 desirable on a landscape level. Since most 

 stands being entered with this proposed 

 project are in the good-to-average vigor class, 

 the opportunity for retaining them with a large 

 amount of decadence does not exist. Since the 

 amount of decadence in the stands being 

 entered would change only slightly from 

 existing conditions, the change in old-growth 

 stands over the entire Stillwater Forest would 

 be slight and no shortage of old growth with a 

 particular degree of decadence would be 

 caused. 



SENSITIVE PLANTS 



NO-ACTION ALTERNATIVE 



If the No- Action Alternative were chosen, no 

 new negative effects to sensitive plants would 

 be expected in the short term. Several roads 

 that currently provide motorized access near 

 sensitive plant populations may not be closed 

 and the higher risks of sensitive plants being 

 picked by recreationists and increased noxious 

 weed infestation would exist to these popula- 

 tions. 



ACTION ALTERATIVES A AND B 



The 9 populations of sensitive plants located in 

 the project area are in or near wetlands or 

 riparian areas, with the exception of spurred 

 gentian, which is more widespread. Most 

 harvesting or road-building activities are not 

 proposed to go through or directly adjacent to 

 these areas. Most of these plants would be 

 probably not be directly affected from equip- 

 ment. The chance of negative effects to most 

 of these plant populations indirectly from 

 increased overland flow or water-table levels 

 in the areas where they exist is very remote, as 

 large vegetative filter strips would be retained 

 between these populations and the proposed 

 harvests. The one exception to this is a popu- 

 lation of spurred gentian in the northwest 

 quarter of Section 17. Some individual plants 

 in this population would be destroyed from 

 the proposed road construction. Given this 

 plant appears to increase with disturbance, it 

 is unlikely that widespread negative effects to 

 the population would occur; there may actu- 

 ally be an increase in plants over time. 



Both action alternatives propose closing the 

 road along the north and east sides of Little 

 Beaver Lake and northeast comer of Beaver 

 Lake to motorized traffic. This should provide 

 some degree of protection to the 3 populations 

 of sensitive plants located in that area. If any 

 herbicide tieatment to control noxious weeds 

 is proposed in the future, it would not be 

 applied in or near these populations. 



IV-6 



Stillwater State Forest • Beaver Lake Timber Sale Project 



