Reference Areas Project: The Best the Three Forests Can Be (Back to main page)
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Aspen reference: Often, isolated aspen stands lack the young aspen taller than 6' that are present in this multi-age aspen stand. This allotment had not been grazed for seven years (until 2 weeks after this June 18, 2007 photo; above Left Fork Huntington Creek, Manti-La Sal NF) |
The Trust's multi-year Reference Areas Project is identifying and examining the healthiest habitats ("habitat gold standards") on each southern Utah National Forest. These reference areas help the Forest Service and users understand potential conditions that would be possible under conservation-based management as compared to conditions in many similar habitats under current management (i.e., roads, ORV routes, oil and gas, coal mining, livestock grazing, clearcutting).
Our Reference Areas Project has three legs:
- Identifying, mapping and describing potential reference areas (2007-2008)
- Conversing with the Forest Service, at every opportunity, about the need for each Forest to have and use reference areas (ongoing)
- Making comparisons between reference areas and comparable impacted habitats (2008-ongoing)
The managers of the three Forests currently observe conditions and predict consequences of forest projects by looking at other heavily impacted areas (e.g., grazed, logged, and mined sites, and motorized recreational areas). This amounts to six million acres of "impact experiments" with no controls. As a result of not looking at the healthiest examples of their various native habitats, the three Forests:
- do not know and are not compelled to acknowledge losses to each Forest’s biodiversity, wildlife habitat and ecosystem functioning caused by livestock grazing, mining, ORVs, and clearcutting
- underestimate their own potential to restore damaged hydrological systems and depleted fisheries, reverse native species population declines, or maintain core wildlife habitat and connectivity with adjacent public and private lands.
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Riparian area reference: Beaver Creek flows through Cottonwood Allotment (Fishlake NF), which has not been grazed in more than 30 years. Note multi-age trees, stream shading, banks well-vegetated. |
Trust staff, interns, and volunteers are all helping with the Reference Areas Project. We are encouraging the Forest Service to refer to these reference areas when judging the conditions of most areas on the Forests, and when predicting the environmental consequences of proposed projects. Starting in 2008, we plan to gather information from the reference areas we have identified, but ultimately we need the three national forests to afford the reference areas sufficient protection as "gold standards."
During 2007 we searched for the "best of the best" of four habitat types:
- Riparian areas
- Beaver habitat
- Aspen communities
- Sagebrush communities
This year (2008), we are adding areas to the reference areas list we began in 2007, and are searching for the "best of the best" for three additional habitat types:
- Springs
- Meadows
- Ponderosa pine communities
The Reference Areas Project is moving the Forest Service toward a more professional, ecological vision for these Colorado Plateau forests, in the heart of south and central Utah.
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Sagebrush community reference: It is rare to find sagebrush like this, with intact grasses and herbaceous, broad-leaved plants (forbs). This allotment had not been grazed for seven years (until 2 weeks after this June 18, 2007 photo; above Left Fork Huntington Creek, Manti-La Sal NF) |
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Beaver reference: If beaver are allowed to return to Tasha Creek (Fishlake NF), portions of the willow-studded creek may serve as a reference for beaver habitat |
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