Forest Management
The top priority of the Forest Service is to maintain and improve the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of current and future generations. Forest management focuses on managing vegetation, restoring ecosystems, reducing hazards, and maintaining forest health. The Fishlake National Forest is governed by a management plan in accordance with the National Forest Management Act (NFMA). This plan sets management, protection and use goals and guidelines. Monitoring conditions on our forest ensures projects are done in accordance with plan direction and determines effects that might require a change in management.
Fire & Fuels Management
Historically, fires occurred more frequently resulting in openings of grass and brush and less pinyon and juniper. Since wildfires have been actively suppressed for the past 50 to 75 years, the pinyon and junipers have expanded greatly, eliminating valuable grasses, forbs, and brush in some instances. In recent years, the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, have been working cooperatively to reduce the amount of pinyon and juniper to reestablish younger stands of grass and brush. These efforts are being accomplished through the use of prescribed fires, wildland use fires, and mechanized equipment.
Timber & Silviculture
There is a recognized need for management of the timber resources on the Fishlake National Forest. Approximately 50-60 percent of the 1.7 million acres on the Fishlake is forested with major tree species such as Engelmann spruce, ponderosa pine, blue spruce, pinyon pine, juniper, Douglas-fir, subalpine-fir, white fir and aspen. There are aspen stands on the forest that have been degraded or lost to conifer species, such as subalpine fir. A disturbance such as a fire or harvest is needed in these aspen stands to restore the aspen. Aspen trees are unique in they are capable of regenerating themselves following a disturbance such as fire or harvest, which causes root sprouting, creating new aspen trees.
