Decision Notice Released for the Upper Greenbrier North Project

August 15, 2012, The Forest Service has finalized its plans for the Upper Greenbrier North Project project (UGN) and has released a Decision Notice (DN) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). The UGN is located in the upper part of the Greenbrier River watershed, in Pocahontas and Randolph Counties, West Virginia. It is a result of over six years of internal planning and a collaborative process in coordination with the Central Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative. The UGN project is designed to implement various actions, ranging from timber harvest to watershed restoration, and to help accomplish desired conditions, goals, and objectives in the Monongahela National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan. Activities will take place on approximately 8,340 acres, all of which are located on NFS lands. A large project area was chosen to allow better consideration and analysis of cumulative impacts and landscape ecology factors such as spruce-hardwood ecosystem connectivity, age class distribution, and watershed improvement needs and opportunities. This project is also designed to help achieve the following site-specific project objectives: Restore and/or protect the red spruce–northern hardwood ecosystem Improve the health and vigor of forested stands, with an emphasis toward desirable tree species, especially mast-producing trees in MP 6.1, or red spruce in MP 4.1 Help restore a fire-adapted oak-hickory ecosystem Regenerate selected areas to not only provide a timber resource to the economy, but to create early successional habitat and perpetuate a diversity of mast-producing species Treat infestations of nonnative invasive species Restore aquatic and riparian habitat Reduce current recreation site impacts and improve recreation opportunities View the document:Upper Greenbrier North Decision Notice