Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota and Wyoming, Black Hills Resilient Landscapes Project

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The Forest Service is proposing forest resilience management actions on portions of approximately 1,098,000 acres of National Forest System lands managed by the Black Hills National Forest. The project area consists of lands within the treatment areas designated on the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota and Wyoming under the authority of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA, 16 U.S.C. 6591). The Black Hills Resilient Landscapes Project will be carried out in accordance with HFRA title VI, section 602(d)-- Insect and Disease Infestation. Since 1997, the Black Hills National Forest has experienced epidemic levels of mountain pine beetle infestation. The epidemic now appears to be slowing in most parts of the forest, but the infestation has left behind a changed landscape. Action is needed to address accumulations of fuels, undesirable distribution of forest structures, and other conditions that may decrease the forest's resilience to disturbance. The purpose of the project is to move landscape-level vegetation conditions in the project area toward objectives of the Black Hills National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan, as amended, in order to increase ecosystem