This alternative responds to the underlying needs to restore Spotted Owl habitat and to increase knowledge of owl population and habitat recovery from fire. the response of Spotted Owls or native forest ecosystems to large-scale fire events is not yet understood, and there will inevitably be future fires in areas significant to Spotted Owl populations. Currently suitable Spotted Owl habitat shows extensive evidence of fire's influence in creating essential habitat structures, such as multi-storied canopies with abundant snags and downed logs. As an indicator species of the biological diversity and ecosystem health of fire-influenced landscapes, the Northern Spotted Owl has evolved through the millennia with fire disturbances and natural succession processes. Since these are the only known methods in which currently suitable owl habitat has been created, this alternative assumes that allowing natural ecosystem processes, including fire, to maintain a natural landscape mosaic comprised of a diversity of species, structural components, and age classes, is the best method for restoring and protecting habitat for the Northern Spotted Owl.

ALTERNATIVE DESCRIPTION

This alternative would allow natural ecosystem processes to continue restoring habitat suitable for Spotted Owls while initiating an array of management actions and projects needed to provide infrastructure for long-term research and monitoring. A prescribed natural fire program would be established to enable naturally occurring lightning fires of low-to-moderate intensity to more fully play their ecological roles in the landscape. The objectives for a prescribed natural fire program would be to restore natural ecological processes that maintain biological diversity, to research post-fire responses of owls and recovery of their habitat, and to reduce the risks and consequences of a future catastrophic wildfire within the Warner Burn portion of HCA 0-10. Future human-caused wildfires and natural ignitions that escape their prescriptions (as defined by Forest Service fire and fuels specialists) would be suppressed in accordance with the area's fire management action plan, using minimal impact suppression tactics whenever and wherever possible.

This alternative seeks information urgently needed in the system of Spotted Owl Habitat Conservation Areas. Central to this objective is the management of the entire Warner Creek Burn as a natural recovery research area. Concurrent with this management strategy, the Forest Service would propose the establishment of the "Westside Naturally Recurring Fire Ecology Research Natural Area" for the Warner Creek Burn. This Research Natural Area (RNA) would encompass a landscape-sized area representative of low-elevation westside Cascade forests.

The RNA would be established to meet several objectives of the Interagency Scientific Committee's conservation strategy for the recovery of the Northern Spotted Owl. It would serve as a control area for long-term research and monitoring of Spotted Owl populations inside the Warner Creek Burn for comparative studies with other burned and unburned areas, for measuring long-term environmental changes, and for comparison with manipulative research projects and experimental forestry techniques conducted in the general forest matrix outside of HCAs. Only non-destructive research projects would be allowed; the primary research focus would be studies of the relationship of Spotted Owls to fire ecology processes. The RNA would also be devoted to the study of dynamic ecosystem processes creating biological diversity. This would offer the opportunity to implement other research projects of interest to the scientific community as well.

This alternative seeks to further the development and effective utilization of a comprehensive Data-base of Actual Fire Effects (D.A.F.E.). This information is needed to assist in making timely decisions declaring fires as prescribed burns or wildfires, to assist in determining the monitoring needs, prescriptions, and appropriate responses to such fires, and to facilitate ongoing research. DAFE would begin with all data from the Warner Creek Fire and its Recovery Project, and be expanded as additional information was compiled from these and any other pertinent sources. DAFE would continue the cooperative effort amongst the Willamette National Forest and citizen-scientists that made development of this alternative possible, and would invite other Forests, agencies, and publics to participate in this evolving learning experience with continual practical applications. DAFE would also emphasize a recurrent theme of this alternative: National Forest management decisions should be firmly predicated on the broadest base of the best knowledge and should seek to generate such knowledge.

Construction of a primary and secondary trail system would provide access through the Warner Burn and the RNA. The Forest Service would reconstruct the portion of the Eugene-to-Crest Trail going through the Warner Burn and utilize it as the "Bunchgrass Ridge Fire Ecology Interpretive Trail" to provide for the education of the public on the Warner Creek fire event and natural recovery processes. This trail would be constructed and maintained according to recreation-use standards and guidelines, and could serve as a potential light-hand/minimal-impact fireline in the event of a future wildfire. Short paths leading to scenic overlooks alongside this trail would be constructed to provide landscape vistas of the Warner Burn and surrounding Forest Service lands. Interpretive displays would be constructed along the Highway 58 corridor and at the informational kiosk at the Oakridge District Ranger Station explaining the Forest Service's management of the Warner Burn as a living learning center devoted to natural recovery research.

A secondary trail systems to be utilized as the "Warner Fire Ecology Research and Monitoring Trail System" would be constructed near natural fire breaks and would be linked to the Bunchgrass Ridge Fire Ecology Interpretive Trail. The purpose of this trail system would be to help provide access and navigation routes for researchers and prescribed natural fire monitors. In the event of a wildfire, trails could be used by suppression handcrews. Trail construction would avoid sensitive plant communities and unsuitable soils. This rudimentary trail system of narrow footpaths would not be constructed according to recreation-use standards or signed for public use in order to avoid impacts from recreationists on research sites or sensitive plant habitats along these trails.

The stewardship of the Warner Burn would avoid inappropriate fire suppression actions, would not include logging or road-building, and would not include fuel management activities other than prescribed fires.

Planting would restricted to previously logged units and dozer lines, and would be done only with mixtures of native species characteristic of the adjacent unmanaged stands, using seed gathered from them.

Snags and downed logs would remain and decay in place to benefit Spotted Owls' nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat, slope stability, site productivity, and watershed stability. Under strict standards and guidelines, hazard trees along the Bunchgrass Ridge Trail may be felled for safety reasons, however, the biomass must remain on site as large downed logs.

This alternative allows for transportation system management, facilities development, and the closure of Forest Service roads. The Forest Service would permanently close roads 5877-337, 5883-375, and 5883-378, and would have gate closures at the points they enter the Warner Burn perimeter. The Forest Service would not construct any new roads, however road turnarounds and pullouts may be built on existing roads leading to trailheads. Road turnarounds and pullouts could also serve as helispots if desired, but no helispots would be constructed off current existing roads.

All proposed activities would have seasonal restriction during implementation if adjacent to Spotted Owl activity centers to avoid disturbance to nesting owls.

Alternative EF would complete the fire rehabilitation projects left unfinished from the Warner Creek fire. These projects include the rehabilitation of dozer lines and the removal of all fire suppression equipment, flagging, and litter still remaining in the Warner Burn. The gully stabilization dams constructed in Big Bunchgrass meadows would be mitigated by replacing the steel fenceposts with wooden stakes.

Alternative EF would facilitate ecosystem diversity through natural succession processes and prescribed natural fires. An Interdisciplinary Team of resource specialists would research the local fire history, existing vegetative conditions, and topographic features throughout the area. With this information, the IDT would devise a Desired Future Condition and a Fire Management Plan for HCA 0-10 that would use prescribed natural fires to restore ecosystem processes and a landscape mosaic that enhances biological diversity.

Since each fire event is unique, prescriptions would be subject to a site-specific burn plan to be developed within 48 hours of discovery, aided by information on similar fires from DAFE. Basic parameters for fire prescriptions are as follows: prescription fires would be natural lightning ignitions and of low-to-moderate intensity only. Fires would be prevented from burning a 25 acre area surrounding inhabited Spotted Owl nest sites and natal roosting areas (determined through protocol). Fires would be limited to consumption of material less than three inches diameter only, with the objective to reduce the amount of fine "flashy" and "ladder" fuels. Prescription fires would comply with existing EPA smoke management regulations. The maximum allowable perimeter of a prescribed fire would be determined by its specific prescription burn plan, and would be based on a fire's location, predicted rate and direction of spread, intensity level, and ability to stay within prescribed limits. The Desired Future Condition would be used to define the Limits of Acceptable Change due to prescribed burns.

 The project area would be divided into four zones, each identified by a feature that, if present in the specific fire site, would be given extra weight when developing prescription burn plans. These features would be (1) Ridgetop Meadow Ecology, (2) Steepness of Slope, (3) Special Wildlife Habitat Sites, and (4) Young Recovering Logged Units. For example, prescriptions in zone 3 would generally be expected to require very low intensity levels in order to facilitate quick suppression responses to maintain Spotted Owl nest tree protection zones. Similarly, prescriptions in zone 4 would be adjusted as landscape