because activities at 1 scale can 

 have influences at another scale. 



• Swan River State Forest management 

 block - Current age class, 

 covertypes, and old-growth amounts 

 and attributes were analyzed on 

 the scale of the entire Swan River 

 State Forest, based on the Swan 

 River State Forest SLI database , 

 file. 



• Project area - Within the project 

 area, the stands proposed for 

 harvesting are analyzed for each 

 alternative. 



Both the Swan River State Forest 

 management block and the project - 

 level analysis area will be used 

 throughout the analyses . 



The SLI database is updated on an 

 annual basis to include information 

 corrections discovered in the field 

 on a stand-level basis or to cover 

 scheduled changes where harvesting 

 activities have taken place. This 

 update process provides DNRC 

 foresters with the best available 

 data for the required analysis on 

 proposed management activities. The 

 Goat Squeezer Timber Sale Project 

 EIS analysis considered ongoing and 

 future timber sales that have not 

 yet received a postharvest 

 inventory; the Big Slowdown Salvage 

 project considers and builds its 

 effects analysis on that analysis. 



THE PROJECT AREA 



The area of concentrated blowdown 

 occurred mostly east of Highway 83 

 over a 1,500-acre area in the 

 northern portion of Swan River State 

 Forest (see FIGURE A - PROJECT AREA 

 MAP) . The project area is mostly 

 flat, with some short pitches up to 

 20 percent, and is located at 

 elevations that range between 3,200 

 and 3,400 feet. The primary access 

 to the project area is vi'a several 

 short segments of secondary road 

 from Highway 83. Adjacent lands 

 include private, Plum Creek Timber 

 Company, and US Forest Service 

 (USFS) ownership. 



EXISTING VEGETATION 



Site conditions vary depending on 

 their geographic, physiographic, and 

 climatic factors. These conditions 

 include features such as : 



- soil types, 



- aspect, 



- position on the landscape (this 

 project is located on the valley 

 floor) 



- growing seasons, and 



- moisture availability. 



These variables were combined to 

 develop the habitat-type 

 classifications used to describe 

 successional development and timber 

 productivity, among other things 

 {Pfister et al, 1977) . 



CXJRRENT HABITAT TYPES AND FOREST 

 PRODUCTIVITY WITHIN THE PROJECT AREA 



The most common habitat types 

 throughout the project area are 

 grand fir and subalpine fir, with 

 small amounts of cedar and spruce 

 habitat types. These sites are 

 predominantly occupied with Douglas- 

 fir, western larch, lodgepole pine, 

 ponderosa pine, grand fir, and 

 Engelmann spruce, with scattered 

 representations of western red cedar 

 and subalpine fir. Forest 

 productivity is rated moderate to 

 high on these sites. 



FIRE AND FIRE HISTORY 



The stand structures in Swan River 

 State Forest have been affected by 

 fire suppression since the 1930s. 

 This unmeasured effect is caused by 

 suppressing lightning- caused fires 

 that, prior to modern intervention, 

 would have been influenced only by 

 weather and climatic factors. The 

 unsuppressed fires may have resulted 

 in stand- replacing events when wind, 

 drought, and high temperatures 

 combined to form high- intensity 

 burning conditions, which still 

 occur during summer drought periods 

 in western Montana. 



Page C-2 



Vegetation Analysis 



