Sabine National Forest (Texas) Tasks GeomorphIS to Prepare Timber Thinning CE

The USDA Forest Service has issued a LMIR BPA task order to a GeomorphIS team (including DockIt Consulting, Cattails Environmental, Algonquin Consulting, and Mason, Bruce & Girard) to prepare a Categorical Exclusion (CE) and Decision Memo (DM) for the Brookland Thinning Project on the Sabine National Forest, Angelina-Sabine Ranger District, National Forests and Grasslands in Texas (NFGT). In addition to the CE and DM, the team will prepare a biological assessment for red cockaded woodpecker (RCW) and other sensitive wildlife and plant species; conduct a common stand exam; conduct hydrology analysis; and perform a cultural resources inventory. The objective of the habitat management is to move the vegetation from the current condition to the desired conditions for RCW habitat and evaluate some of the older stands to create future RCW habitat as identified in the Forest Plan and RCW Recovery Plan; reduce stand densities that will moderate the risk of southern pine beetle outbreak in overstocked stands and fuel loadings to decrease wildfire effects in all treated stands.