future. In the absence of fire the stands would continue to move toward a climax condition 

 where Alpine fir becomes the codominate on dominate species. In stands where there is a 

 substantial amount of Douglas fir or ponderosa pine, understory trees would continue to compete 

 with larger, older trees in the absence of harvesting. Large trees would die and provide snag 

 habitat in the short-term. However, fewer medium-sized trees would grow to the large-sizes 

 preferred for old growth than if stands were thinned. In addition, without openings in the stands, 

 fewer ponderosa pine and Douglas fir could become established, eventually interrupting the 

 supply of large-sized trees. Without harvest, the risk of a stand-replacing fire would be greater 

 than if thinning occurred. This would, logically, be followed by a long-term decrease in large 

 sized live and dead trees. Eventually, this would result in less recruitment of large pieces of 

 coarse woody debris. The increased risk of a stand-replacement fire would be a long-term 

 negative effect to retention and recruitment of old growth habitats and components. 



Alternatives B & C 



Direct and Indirect Effect 



Approximately 123 acres of Lodgepole pine old growth would be harvested under these 

 altemadves. Several thousand acres of lodgepole old growth would remain un-harvested in 

 portions of the Upper Willow Creek Drainage mainly on USPS ground. Therefore, there would 

 be negative direct effects where harvest occurred. This would be somewhat mitigated by the 

 large amount of unaltered habitat in the drainage. Given that context, there would be low 

 cumulative negative effects throughout the drainage with stand-replacement harvest in the 

 lodgepole stands in the project area. 



If an action alternative is implemented those stands which are harvested to emulate the 

 occurrence of a stand replacing fire would have very few snags retained. The northern portion 

 would be snag deficient from habitat available on DNRC ownership. From a wildlife 

 perspecdve, lack of snags in lodgepole stands is partly tempered because lodgepole pine snags 

 are generally used less than expected based on availability. The exception would be use by 

 black-backed woodpeckers. 



Planned mixed severity harvests would thin stands, with the largest Douglas fir and ponderosa 

 pine being retained post-harvest. Therefore, the best quality old growth components would be 

 retained and conditions for their continued growth would be improved. This would benefit old 

 growth components and old growth stands. Effects would be proportional to the number of trees 

 removed. Based on past harvest, this amount is generally 5% (or less) of all large trees on site. 

 Large coarse woody debris would decrease if machinery broke up these pieces. Negative effects 

 would be partly mitigated by return skidding slash, although pieces would be substantially 

 smaller post-harvest. Snags may be removed if considered to be unsafe to work around. 

 Therefore, harvest would have short-term negative effects and long-term benefits to the large tree 

 component by thinning from below. Harvest would have short and long term negative effects to 

 large snags and pieces of coarse woody debris, if they are broken up or removed from the site or 

 recruitment is interrupted. Negative effects would be somewhat mitigated by retaining Douglas 

 fir or ponderosa pine snags, retaining large live trees to be potentially recruited to snags, and 



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