MONTANA STATE LIBRARY 



3 0864 1001 9543 



FINDING 



PROPOSED RICHARD'S PEAK TIMBER SALE 



DNRC - PLAINS UNIT 



February 6, 2003 



An interdiscipLLnary team (ID Team) has completed the Enviroimiental Assessment (EA) for the 

 proposed Richard's Peak Timber Sale on 840 acres of state owned lands in Sections 4 and 16, 

 T24N, R27W. 



After a thorough review of the EA, project file, public correspondence. Department policies, 

 standards, guidelines, and the State Forest Land Management Plan (SFLMP), I have made the 

 following decisions concerning this project. 



1. ALTERNATIVE SELECTED 



Two alternatives are presented and were fuUy analyzed in the EA: 



• The No-Action Alternative: includes existing activities such as dispersed recreation, 

 intermittent road maintenance, weed control, and fire suppression. Timber harvest 

 and road construction would not occur at this time. 



• The Action Alternative: entails harvesting approximately 2.5 million board feet 

 (MMBF) of timber from 408 acres, constructing 2.2 miles of road and maintaining 12 

 miles. Seedtree/shelterwood cuts would occur on 172 acres, commercial thinning on 

 139 acres, and seedtree removal on 97 acres. Prescribed burning would be used for 

 site preparation on 176 acres; approximately 100 acres would be hand planted with 

 western larch and rust -resistant western white pine after logging. 



I have selected the Action Alternative for implementation with tlie understanding that 

 resource mitigation measures identified in the Environmental Assessment will be applied to 

 meet the intended protection. 



The Action Alternative has been selected for the following reasons: 



• The Action Alternative meets the Purpose of Action and the specific project 

 objectives listed on pages 1 and 2 of the EA. 



• The No - Action Alternative foregoes a reasonable opporturuty for generating 

 revenue for the trusts, while the analyses of identified issues did not reveal 

 iT\formation to persuade the Department to choose the No-Action Alternative prior to 

 this decision. 



• The proposed timber sale project contributes to harvest levels mandated by State 

 Statute {Montana Codes Annotated 77-5-222). 



• DNRC is required to administer these lands to produce the largest measure of 

 reasonable and legitimate long-term return for beneficiaries (Montana Codes 

 Annotated 77-1-202). DNRC meets this obligation by managing intensively for 

 healthy and biologically diverse forests. 



