Gotchen Risk Reduction and Late-Successional Health Restoration, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Skamania and Yakima Counties, WA

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The Forest Service will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) to determine appropriate actions to reduce the risk of losing late-successional habitat to fire, and insect and disease- related mortality; and to maintain or restore late-successional vigor, function and resiliency within the Gotchen landscape. The analysis will determine the best combination and placement of a variety of actions including silvicultural, limited aerial application of Btk spray (an insecticide), prescribed fire, road closures, and road decommissioning. These actions are to accomplish the following needs in the Gotchen planning area: reduce the risk of high intensity fires; reduce the risk-level of spruce budworm activity in late successional habitat; reduce the risk of remnant tree mortality; restore late-successional vigor, function, and resiliency; thinning live trees from overstocked stands less than 80 years old; salvage dead trees in stands greater than 10 acres in the Late Successional Reserve (LSR); regenerate dead and dying stands within the Matrix. The Gotchen landscape is comprised of the lands designated as the LSR and to its immediate south, Matrix. Both are interspersed with Ripari