1. Comment forms
2. Project detail

The Boise National Forest’s Emmett Ranger District will take comment through May 14 on the Sage Hen Integrated Restoration Project.

Work is proposed on 67,800 acres, and around the Sage Hen Reservoir, north of Horseshoe Bend, Idaho.

Surface fuel loads and low- to middle-elevation “ladder” fuels have increased, and species composition has been altered, due to multiple missed fire cycles, a purpose statement said. Risk of habitat loss increased while biodiversity decreased, and an uncharacteristic fire would threaten public health and firefighter safety.

BNF said in a news release that proposed actions include reducing hazardous fuels through prescribed burning, mechanical and other treatments; harvesting timber through non-commercial thinning and reforestation; replacing culverts to improve passage of aquatic organisms; managing or decommissioning roads; and improving campground and trailhead infrastructure.

The project aims to improve resilience to disturbances by restoring and managing vegetation, improve watershed and habitat conditions, and benefit recreational opportunities and economies, BNF said.

Tussock moths in the past several years damaged Douglas firs in part of the project area. Proposed timber sales aim to reduce forest density and create space to plant various species that are more adaptive, BNF spokesperson Venetia Gempler said.

Randy Fox of the Idaho Conservation League and multi-stakeholder Boise Forest Coalition said the project is important given the site’s condition and its increased use for recreation as the population grows.

The watershed includes some critical habitat for bull trout, a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Fox said work should be designed so recreation, for example, does not add sediment to streams and degrade habitat.

“We support forest restoration activities that are wisely implemented, and we are working through the Boise Forest Coalition to help ensure all activities associated with the project are designed in such a way to help meet those goals,” he said.

The Sage Hen site is part of the state’s shared-stewardship initiative to promote landscape-scale improvements to forest health through interagency cooperation.

USDA Forest Service plans to analyze the project under an Environmental Assessment.

Comments are accepted mostly electronically due to COVID-19 concerns.