Black Hills National Forest, Mystic Ranger District, South Dakota, Prairie Project Area Proposal and Analysis

Résumé

This notice revises an earlier Notice of Intent to prepare an environmental impact statement on a proposal to implement multiple resource management actions within the Prairie Project Area as directed by the Black Hills National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan and National level initiatives and policy such as the National Fire Plan and the Healthy Forest Initiative. The Prairie Project Area covers about 29,000 acres of National Forest System land and about 6,300 acres of interspersed private land within the lower rapid Creek watershed directly west of Rapid City, South Dakota. Proposed actions include: Promoting natural fuel breaks (via vegetation treatment) to reduce potential for large-scale intense wildfire; Reducing fuels that currently exist and fuel created by vegetation treatment within the wildland-urban interface; Improving wildlife habitat to protect critical big game winter range and habitat for a variety of plant and animal species; Supporting the preceding actions using commercial and non-commercial Vegetation treatments on an estimated 11,900 acres to reduce the density of pine trees; Providing a mix of motorized and non- motorized use opportunities.