United States Department of the Interior BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT

Prineville District Office 3050 N.E. 3rd Street

Prineville, Oregon 97754

IN REPLY REFER TO:

DOl-BLM -OR-P040-20 14-0017-EA

JUN 4 2015

BLM Proposing Management Actions to Remove Road from Mallory Creek Stream and Valley Bottom

Objectives of the project:

The purpose of this project is to restore Mallory Creek through the project area to a condition more suitable to steelhead spawning and rearing while also helping to improve water quality conditions. Mallory Creek drains approximately 20,000 acres into the North Fork of the John Day between the towns of Monument and Dale. The mouth of the stream is located at in Section 7 of Township 7S, Range 29E. This stream provides important cold water fish habitat including spawning for Mid-Columbia Summer Steelhead. The present location of this road requires two river fords on the lower portion of the creek on lands managed by the Prineville District of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In one place, the road has captured the majority of the flow for a couple hundred feet, requiring one to drive up the stream channel itself while traveling the road.

Proposed actions include:

The goal of this project is to rehabilitate Mallory Creek by relocating the road currently located in the stream channel to a more appropriate location or by removing it altogether. Actions common to all alternatives would be the rehabilitation of the upper Yz mile of the closed road so that it will cease to be a sediment source to Mallory Creek. This would likely encompass ripping andre-contouring the road prism along with native hardwood planting within the disturbed areas. In addition, the ford on the North Fork road would be improved, likely with a large culvert designed for aquatic organism passage.

Two possible alternative routes for the road have been identified and will be analyzed within the EA. The first option (Maps: Alternative 2) is to have the road ascend the plateau to the east of Mallory Creek, traverse along the top, then drop down along a ridgeline and re-cross Mallory Creek to connect back with the old road. A user created road is already present along the top of the plateau and would be utilized for the majority of the reroute if that alternative is selected. New construction would be required to ascend the plateau from the North Fork road and to drop back down to Mallory Creek to reconnect with the old road. A second crossing would be required in order to reconnect the new road with the old road upstream of the closed road. This crossing would also likely involve a large culvert designed for aquatic organism passage. In addition, the lower 11<1 mile of the closed road would be rehabilitated in much of the same manner as the upper section. Some in-channel work would be necessary to return the lower section of the creek to its natural channel.

A second route alternative would utilize a currently existing road located halfway up the Mallory Creek road that heads to the west of the project area (Maps: Alternative 3). This road would then be extended up to and along a ridgeline before reconnecting to the existing road about a mile northwest of the project area. Under this proposal, the lower half of the current Mallory Creek road would remain open and in use in order to utilize the proposed road network. The upper Yz mile would continue to be closed and rehabilitated. One final option would simply close and rehabilitate the both the upper and lower sections of the closed road and not reconstruct a replacement road (Maps: Alternative 4).

What are the next steps in the process? After the four week scoping period ends on June 29th, 2015, the BLM will review the comments from the public and incorporate them with the issues that the BLM' s internal interdisciplinary team has identified. Next, the BLM will prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) to describe the issues and analyze the effects of the proposed actions and any alternative methods that are identified for rehabilitating Mallory Creek. Finally, the EA will be released to the public for review, after which the BLM will issue a decision. The anticipated start time for implementation of this project is the summer of2016.

What documents are guiding the BLM's actions for this project? There are several different documents guiding the BLMs actions with regards to this project. These include the John Day Resource Management Plan, the Implementation of Interim Strategies for Managing Anadromous fish-producing Watersheds in Eastern Oregon and Washington, Idaho, and portions of California (PACFISH), The John Day Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), and the Aquatic Restoration Biological Opinion.

What are some questions to consider for comments on this project? Comments that identify potential issues (effects/concerns with an action or combination of actions), alternative ways of meeting the project objective, and literature that should be considered in the Environmental Assessment will help the BLM consider the appropriate issues and alternatives. Comments that simply state opinion regarding an action without providing specific concerns or rationale do not give the BLM sufficient information to use these comments to make changes in the proposed actions or include additional analysis where necessary. Please be specific as possible regarding your comments on the EA.

• Do you know of any effects or concerns with the proposed action that the BLM should consider as it prepares the Environmental Assessment (specific to the proposed action or the project in general)?

• Is there information the BLM needs to know to make an informed decision? • Are there specific actions that the BLM should or should not consider- if so why?

How can the public comment on the Project? If you have comments you would like the BLM to consider, send them to the BLM address below (mail, email, or fax) by July 6, 2015.

+MAIL: Mike McKay, BLM, 3050 NE Third Street, Prineville, OR 97754

+ EMAIL: mmckay@blm.gov FAX: Attention: Mike McKay at (541) 416-6798

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checklist with your address label from this letter to the BLM address above.

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Return comments by July 6, 2015 to: Prineville BLM- Mike McKay, 3050 NE Third Street, Prineville, OR 97754 FAX: (541) 416-6798 E-mail: mmckay@blm.gov Questions: (541) 416-6774

Important Privacy Notice: Before including your address , phone number, e-mail address, or other personal

identifying information in your comment, be advised that your entire comment -including your personal identifying information -may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold from public review your personal identifying information, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

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Comments

Mallory Creek Road Rehabilitation -Alternative 2

0 0.25 05 1.5---=====---===============-------•Miles

Legend

Channel Reconstruction

Culvert Installation

Road Closures

Road Decommisioning

New Construction

Existing Roads

Streams

Protect for Wilder Char.

U S Forest Service

Private

;. I

Mallory Creek Road Rehabilitation -Alternative 3

legend Culvert Installation

i_~-J Protect for Wilder. Char.

U.S Forest Service

Private

0 0.25 0.5 1.5 :-;., ........ ,. .... ., ...__ .,L..IW..__..............---====---==============-------Miles ...- .... ,.,._ol"""'"'"""·-~ .......~.._...... _...

Mallory Creek Road Rehabilitation -Alternative 4

Legend

Channel Reconstruction

Culvert Installation

Road Closures

Road Decommisioning

Existing Roads

Protect for Wilder. Char.

U.S. Forest Service

Private

OREGON

o.....c=o=.25~....o•.5==============..............-1.5Mlles