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2. ,rl""" 0<)) O}${ \:Pv;"" U.S.D.A. FDREST SERVICE ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT TIMBER MANAGEMENT PLAN REVISION FOR THE SAN JUAN NATIONAL FOREST INTRODUCTION The purpose of this Statement is to provide, a means of reviewing environmental considerations related to a proposed revision, of the timber management plan on the San Juan National Fore$~. The details of doing the jab along with supporting data are contained in the proposed plan itself. It is available for review at the office of the Forest Supervisor in Durango.and in the Regional Forester's office in Denver. The San Juan National Forest, located in Southwestern Colorado, embraces 1,850,000 acres of land administered by the Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture. The San Juan, like other National Forests, is managed under the multiple use concept, to provide a harmonious pattern of land uses while protecting the land and meeting the needs of society. Forest uses include recreation activities such as camping, fishing, hunting and photography; grass production to hold the soil and provide summer feed for domestic and wild animals; wilderness experiences; trees for lUnDer and other wood products, ,for aesthetfc values and for holding moisture and stab!lizing soil; water for fish, wildlife, beauty and industrial, domestic, ranching and farm- ing needs at the lower elevations; and, wildlife habitat. supporting deer, elk, mountain sheep and goats, bear, falcons" turkey, and other upland game, ducks, a variety of predators, and a wide variety of other non-game mammals and birds. Oil and gas exploration and extraction are also important uses of the Forest. ' Broad direction for managing the timber resources on National Forest lands is provided through timber management plans developed for each of the National Forests and revised at about ten-year i nterva 15 . The last complete revision of the San Juan National Forest Timber Nanagement Plan was made in 1962. The key feature of that plan was that it called far c1earcuttingJ! of large areas in most of the conifer timber'types.lI The plan was later amended to discontinue the large c1earcuts in favor of partial cutting practices. The proposed plan reviewed in this Statement is similar to the existing plan (1962 as amended) in that it also calls for the use of partial cuttin~ practices rather than clearcutting over most of the forest lands on which timber is to be managed. Dver the past ten years, the average actual yield has been about 70 million board feet of sawtimber per year. This level of silviculture (and yield) was achieved with funds appropriated by Congress for roads into undeveloped timber stands. About eight million board feet of sawtimber has been harvested annually from nearby private land and Bureau of Land Management an4 Bureau of Indian . Affairs administered lands. Area mill capacities have been developed to process this volume of wood. In answer to Congressional inquiries in 1971, concerned with a declining timber supply on the San Juan National Forest, the need for a $5,000,000 annual road construction appropriation was described in considerable detail. However, during the past four years, there has been nO increase in road funding at the Regional or Forest level. y C1earcutting: The removal of the entire stand in one cut. The removal of the entire standing crop. 1I Conifer Timber Types: A group of conebearing needle-leaved trees, softwood trees, mostly evergreens, such as pi:ne, ,spruce. fir, etc. ~ Partial Cutting: Tree removal, other than c1earcutting, taking only a part of the stand Ti.e.. harvesting only a percentage or specifiC number but never all of the trees large enough to harvest).