Comments sought on Mount Adams area projects

[kepPNW]

Comments sought on Mount Adams area projects
Published: July 29, 2014, 6:01 AM

TROUT LAKE — Comments are being sought through Aug. 8 on several proposed small actions in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest including a road closure reinforcement in the Lone Butte Wildlife Area and restoration of wheel tracks in the Sawtooth huckleberry fields.

Motorists are driving around the closure gate on road No. 3000481 in the Lone Butte area north of Carson. Boulders would be placed next to the gates to eliminate driving off-road around the gates.

In the Sawtooth huckleberry fields, boulder placement, installation of bollards and decompaction of wheel tracks is proposed to allow trampled vegetation to recover. Only a portion of the wheel tracks can be removed due to funding limits.

The Forest Service also is proposing to plant conifer tree seedlings in areas of the Cascade Creek fire where live tree cover has been eliminated and natural tree regeneration is not expected for decades.

Ponderosa pine and western larch in portions of the Gotchen Creek Late-Successional Reserve have been greatly reduced by fire and logging. The species are important for the landscape due to their drought and fire tolerance.

Also proposed is to restore and maintain stands of golden chinquapin in the Little White Salmon River watershed near the Oklahoma road.

Maps of the projects are online at http://www.fs.usda.gov/projects/gifford ... t/projects. More information may be requested form Erin Black at 509-395-3411 or [email protected].

Comments may be mailed, faxed or delivered to Mose Jones-Yellin, Mount Adams District Ranger, 2455 Highway 141, Trout Lake, 98650, or fax number 509-3424. Electronic comments may be submitted to [email protected]. Emailed comments need to be within the email message or as an attachment in .pdf, .doc or .rtf formats.

http://www.columbian.com/news/2014/jul/ ... -projects/