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Home My WebLink AboutE-mail from T Shaw - Lassen County Sweeney, Kathleen From: Sweeney, Kathleen Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2015 10:56 AM To: BASS Cc, Hahn, Paul; Crump, Mike; Kim, Sang Subject: FW: Lassen County Board of Supervisors letter to USFS Attachments: 150728 Ltr to USFS Moore - Local Priorities.pdf Board members— Nease see the attached correspondence from Lassen County. Kathleen Sweeney Assistant Clerk of the Board Butte County Administration 25 County Center Drive, Suite 200 Oroville, CA 95965 5301-5387643 "COUNTY OF BUTTE E-MAIL]DISCLAIMER This e-mail and any attachment thereto may contain private,confidential, and privileged m,ateriall for the sole use of the intended recipient.Any review,copying,or distribution of this e-mail(or any attachments thereto),by other than the County of Butte or the intended recipient is strictly prohibited. If you are NOT the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately and permanently delete the original and any copies of this e-mail and any attachments thereto." From:Tony Shaw [mailto:TShaw@co.l:ass,en.caus] Sent:Thursday,July 30, 2015 8:24 AM To:clerkoftheboard@co.shasta.ca.us; Sweeney, Kathleen; pcbs@countyofpluma:s.com Cc: kkeene@counties.org; Cyndi Hillery,- sheaton@rcrcnet-org Subject: Lassen County Board of Supervisors letter to USFS Recent correspondence from the Lassen County Board of Supervisors to the USFS for information to yours. Tony Shaw Deputy County Administrative Officer County of Lassen Office: (530)251-8333 Direct: (530) 251-2736 TSham-&o.lassen.ca.us E County of Lassen BOARD OF SUPERVISORS i ROBERT F.PYLE C $ District 1 0Ra JIM CHAPMAN District 2 JEFF HEMPIi1LL County Administration Office 221 S. Roop Street,Suite 4 District 3 Susanville,CA 96130 AARON ALBAUGH Phone: 530-251-8333 Districr4 ....... - - ._....__..._ ........ Fax:530-2S1-2663 _.._,,.... . TOM HAMMOND District 5 July 28, 2015 C 0 P y Mr, Dave Hays Mr. Randy Moore Lassen National Forest Supervisor Pacific Southwest Regional Forester 2550 Riverside Drive 1323 Club Drive Susanville, CA 56130 Vallejo, CA 94592 SUBJECT: Local Project Level Priorities for FY 2015 and FY 2016 Dear Mr. Moore: The purpose of this letter is to convey the local project level priorities of the Lassen County Board of Supervisors for public lands managed by the United State Forest Service, Lassen National Forest for the federal government fiscal years of 2015 and 2015. We respectfully request the full support of the Pacific Southwest Region and the Lassen National Forest to focus U.S. Forest Service resources toward accomplishing the County's three-highest separate and equal priority local projects in the Lassen National Forest as follows: Lassen County Local Project Level Priorities Fuels Reduction Treatments - Diamond Mountain Initiative as Tier 1_Proiect The Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) group and local CalFire have assigned a high priority ranking to perform fuel reduction treatments to the greater Diamond Mountain area. There is a September 1, 2015, Sierra Nevada Conservancy application deadline for a grant to - assist the USFS with moving the USFS NEPA process forward. It is our understanding from the Lassen County Fire Safe Council if the LNF does not 'immediately place this ro'ect into Tier 1 status in Fiscal Year 2015 the community may lose an opportunity to obtain_J5 00__0 from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy for fire reduction treatments in 2016-2017. Maximizing National Forest Annual Timber Sale Program Please allocate U.S. Forest Service resources and communicate clear expectations to the region for increasing the volume of forest products sold for timber and biomass energy from the LNF Annual Timber Sale Program. Furnishing a continuous supply of USFS timber sale and special forest products, including biomass from the LNF is of highest importance to the local community and economy. The Board of Supervisors urges the Regional Forester to prioritize 1 resources and to set a volume-target to have a meaningful annual increase in the annual volume of forest products sold from Federal lands in and adjacent to Lassen County. From 1993 to 2014, the volume of wood products sold off the LNF has not sustained the local economy, averaging 51 MMBF or roughly one-third of the County of Lassen's targeted amount of 171 MMBF. Approximately 30MMBF was harvesting in 2014. During this decline in timber volume sold, the last [umber mill in Lassen County closed in 2007 and $7.4 million in payroll - was lost. Three of four biomass/forest fuels to energy facilities have closed. Thousands of acres. of public...timber.land—haye.__fburned.__I#__[s...essential__to._the__.ecQnomic.wellbeing of the _ community and reduced wildfire threat to the area that the LNF not continue to operate its timber safe program and NEPA decision-making processes, as it has for over the past twenty years. We ask that the USFS intensify and give the socio-economic analysis serious consideration during the NEPA process to support the Annual Timber Sale Program. In addition to supporting jobs and energy production, timber sale receipts provide revenue for local school districts and for repairing local roads. In 2000, Congress enacted the federal Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Deamination Act (SRS) to replace revenue from dwindling timber receipts. With expiration of the SRS and future reauthorization and payments in doubt, the LNF can offset this loss by increasing timber harvesting from the National Forest to generate timber sale receipts to replace SRS funding to schools and roads. • Enhance Travel_Management and Recreation The Board of Supervisors has made multiple direct requests, since at least 2009, to the USFS Pacific Southwest Region and Lassen National Forest to ask the U.S. Forest Service to continue to allow motorized mixed use on Lassen National Forest roads. The closure andlor limited access to public lands are contrary to County policy statements in the Lassen County General Plan and the Lassen County Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, The Board of Supervisors has also expressed our support of the U.S. Forest Service maximizing the allowance for over-snow-vehicles usage on public lands, the creation of a non-motorized single- track trail project (Fredonyer Trail), and implementation of the Share the Dream Trail. Our requests have underscored the importance of enhancing such recreation opportunities and economic development in this area. Economic development by the way of tourism dollars as a result of allowing greater access to public lands by residents, visitors, and outdoor user groups such as sportsmen, campers, backpackers, hikers, equestrians, mountain bikers, snowmobilers, and off-highway vehicle (OHV) enthusiasts, including 4-wheel drive vehicles. The Board of Supervisors is seeking your support to allocate federal resources to complete our Travel Management and Recreation requests before the beginning of the Federal fiscal year 2017. In closing, we also want to reinforce our and your support for immediate and expeditious post fire salvage and restoration actions by the U.S. Forest Service. The control of infestations of pests and invasive species in fire-ravaged areas, by expediting the harvest of fire salvage timber and restoration of watersheds and grazing lands is very important to forest health and our local economy. The Board of Supervisors is aware of and appreciates the FY 2015 U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region directive to LNF staff to accelerate the pace of restoration of federal lands, attached. However, we have a concern that such a directive is supplanting the U.S. Forest Service's responsibilities and assignments to manage the forest health in non-burned public lands for timber harvesting, fuels reductions, and public recreation. We appreciate the fact that the LNF is performing fire salvage and restoration work, however, we are apposed to the USFS redirecting LNF staff away from their regular-proiect assignments 2 of Timber Harvesting, Fuels Reduction, Travel Management and Recreation to perform salv@_qe and restorat Ph*mao consider maximizing the use of private Vector resources or resources from other public agencies to increase capacity for accomplishing fire salvage and restoration efforts. � Thank you for your bd| consideration of our request. We vvoukJ appreciate receiving your response as soon as possjble, especially a response regarding the Diamond Mountain Initiative. - ----- '-- -'----'--4We-hope that this letter-has cleark�articulated the`County's highest priorities and expectations`-'`—'----' for the management of U.S. Forest Service lands in Lassen County. We look forward to receiving your response and knowing if the U.S. Forest Service's highest pModt|es vWi|| be the |noa| project level priorities, as requested in this letter, of the Pacific Southwest Regional Office and the Lassen National Forest. Sinuana|y. Robert Pyle Chm\mnmn cc: The Honorable Dianne Feinstein The Honorable Barbara Boxer |� The Honorable Doug La&8o|fa (CA. 1,t) ' ` The Honorable Tom McClintock (CA, ^m�) The Honorable Tom Tidwell, Chief U.S. Forest Service California State Association of Counties Rural County Representatives of California P|unnmoOuumtvBoordof8Up�n/i�orn i ' � Shasta County Board ofSupervisors `. Butte County Board oySupervisors � , � 1 3 ' � I. 1 " USDA United States Forest Pacific Regional Office,R5 Department of Service Southwest 1323 Club Drive Agriculture Region Vallejo,CA 44592 (707)562-8737 Voice 7 70 5G�-9240 Text DD - —-— File Code: 1930 Date: A- 'f'5,2014 Route To: Subject: FY 2015 Priorities,Program Direction,Operating Budget,and Performance Expectations `1'o: Forest Supervisors and Directors REPLY DUE DECEMBER 1,2014 This letter transmits the region's priorities and program direction as well as your operating budget and performance expectations for FY 2015. Providing this information in advance of the fiscal year allows for strategic and timely implementation of our 2015 program of work starting on October 1, 2014. As a region, we have emphasized two priorities. Ecological Restoration and Healthy Workforce and Work Environment. As outlined in my letter of March 28,2014, we will continue to focus our resources on the below items to accelerate the pace of restoration on lands we manage. . 1. Fire salvage and restoration efforts; 2. Increasing restoration efforts with Fire Cost Recovery Settlement funds; 3. Forest Plan Revision; 4. Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration projects;and 5. Other priority restoration work.that can be' accomplished safely and v✓ith available financial resources to include large landscape scale efforts and the two FS/NRCS Chiefs' Joint Landscape Restoration Partnership projects. Similar to last year,I'm asking,you and your leadership team to review and provide an assessment of your forest's performance and budget package. All documents are located at http://fsweb.r5.fs.fed,us/unitl2dba/bud et/. The intent of the reply is to communicate issues which affect performance expectations only. Specifically,your response should address where you have concerns in meeting such performance expectations and for where you have additional capacity. I ask that you respond by December 1, 2014, and limit the response to your most important items. As you finalize your 2015 program of work and make this assessment of the expectations and resources assigned,please ensure all funds planned for contracts, grants,and agreements are on track to be obligated no later than June 1,2015, As discussed at our recent Regional Leadership Team meeting, we are expediting timelines for these packages to ensure we are successful with this goal. These new timelines start as early as January 2015 and are defined in the Program Direction document. ups America's Worsting Forests-Caring every Day in Every Way PrinlacforiRecycled Paper Forest Supervisors and Directors 2 The safety of our employees comes first. The design and implementation of your program must be within the resources provided; l expect you to communicate to program areas that they work within these parameters. Your efforts to be strategic,to focus on our priorities and the well-being .of our-ernplayees,-and to develop an integrated'forest program ofworl,will allow us to realize .......efficiencies and ensure we meet-performance expectations: Thank you for your hard work and dedication to our agency's mission. This region is leading the Forest Service in many areas and l am proud of our many accomplishments over this last fiscal year. Please direct any questions to Sheri Elliott, Director, Program Development, Budget and Accountability or Gustavo Macias, Senior Budget Analyst. Is/Randy Moore RANDY MOORE Regional Forester cc: pol r5 budget contacts