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Note: Not all projects may appear on map. See list below for complete list of projects with more information or documentation.
SOPA Reports
The Schedule of Proposed Actions (SOPA) contains a list of proposed
actions for Malheur National Forest that will soon begin or are currently undergoing environmental
analysis and documentation. It provides information so that you can become
aware of and indicate your interest in specific proposals. We encourage your
early and ongoing involvement in any proposals of interest to you.
This project is located adjacent to Forest Road 16, which is listed in the Grant County Community Fire Protection Plan as an "evacuation route". The project is intended to reduce the risk of loss to an evacuation route and private property.
Continuation of prescribe burn research project started in 1997 in selected Micro, Trout and Driveway units. The research is being conducted on 12 units for a total of 622 acres.
Remove dead, dying and unsound hazard trees within the 41 road corridor from the forest boundary in the south to the junction of the 45 road in the north near Allison Guard Station.
Removal of the existing diversion pipe and installation of pre-fabricated steel headgate and pipe that will provide positive irrigation control, reduce channel disturbance, and meet current fish passage requirements for ESA listed fish.
Noncommercial thinning of conifers up to 9 inches with chainsaws. Priority will be stands on slopes greater than 35 percent and stands along forest boundary.
Authorization of RCC Atlantic, Inc. 20-year special use permit for existing ancillary improvements at the Aldrich Mountain Electronic Communications Site.
Re-establishment of the viewing area from the Antelope Lookout in order to improve both wildfire detection capabilities, and the defensible space around the 36-acre administrative site.
Vegetation fuels reduction on about 110 acres around the Austin House and Oregon Department of Transportation maintenance facility at the junction of US Highway 26 and US Highway 7.
Requesting continued use and operation of an existing domestic spring development facility that provides domestic water supply to the residences of Austin, Or.
Proposal to burn approximately 215 acres of private land in conjunction with a FS prescribed fire under the Wyden Amendment authority. Purpose is to reduce fuels and possible future suppression costs on land adjacent to NFS lands.
Thin approximately 47 acres of juniper trees from riparian zones along Bear Creek. Some of the juniper may be placed into the stream channel to protect and rebuild vulnerable stream banks.
Issuance of a special use permit for a 10-year period to authorize the continued use and maintenance of a domestic spring development and water transmission pipeline.
The purpose of the project is to promote reforestation and restoration of appropriate conifer, hardwood and shrub species. The need was necessitated by the 2021 Big Meadow Fire, 2021 Black Butte Fire, and the 2022 Crockets Knob Fire.
The Big Mosquito Project includes a suite of activities to restore forest resiliency, including silviculture and fuels treatments, riparian restoration, range water developments, recreation site development, and associated road activities.
Erect fencing to enhance management of rangeland and riparian resources. The fencing would be located on allotments: Camp Creek, Jack Creek, Murderers Creek, Mt. Vernon, Indain Ridge, Dixie, Lower Middle Fork, and Upper Middle Fork.
Creation of a seasonal snowpark to provide a safe recreation location for users. Access to a warming hut and washroom to enjoy winter recreational activities. Construction of a groomer shed for OSAA Groomer operations and maintenance.
Develop 20 springs on the following allotments: Upper Middle Fork, Murderers Creek, Sugarloaf, Keeny Meadows, Scotty Creek, Flagtail, Indian Ridge, and McClellan
The purpose of the proposed action is to reduce potential public safety hazards associated with abandoned mine features, restore impaired riparian and aquatic habitat, and improve water quality.
Request for new permit term for an existing private access road that accesses private inholding. The most recent 10-year permit was authorized in 2006.
A multi-year project to thin approximately 150 acres of juniper trees from riparian zones along Calamity Creek. Some of the juniper will be placed into the stream channel.
Felling of trees into stream channels at rate of 80-100/mile between 12 and 20 inches diameter, and trees 4-12 inches diameter until a density of 438 trees/mile is reached to restore LWD heterogeneity.
The Camp Lick Project includes a suite of activities to restore forest resiliency, including silviculture and fuels treatments, riparian restoration, range improvements, recreation site development, and associated road activities.
Extend Devine Summit Interpretive trail and Idlewild Loop Trail to begin trailheads at the new entrance to the campground. Replace wayfinding signs in campground.
This project will revegetate approximately 19,924 acres of stand replacement patches within the Canyon Creek Complex Fire that burned in 2015 on the Blue Mountain and Prairie City Ranger Districts.
The objectives of this project are to recover the economic value of dead trees and to provide for societal needs for wood products, while maintaining the ecological integrity of post-fire habitats for woodpecker species.
This project is proposed to protect lives and property within the adjacent rural/urban community interface. It is a project that was idenfied in the Grant County Community Fire Protection Plan.
Continued use and maintenance of buried and overhead telephone cable and necessary appurtenances located on the Blue Mountain Ranger District of the Malheur National Forest.
Vegetation management, wildlife habitat improvement, and watershed restoration activities including timber harvest and fuels treatments and associated road activities.
Close the Upper Lemon Cabin abandoned mine adit and remove the deteriorated Granite Boulder Cr. Bridge in order to protect public health and safety. The adit would be closed either by plugging the adit with earth or installation of a bat gate.
Maintain County Road 18 as a safety corridor and escape route should a wildfire close US Highways 26 and 395 between the towns of Mount Vernon and Long Creek and Prairie City and Austin. Area identified in the Grant Co Community Fire Protection Plan
Planting 41 acres of severely burned (greater than 90 percent mortality) general forest (Management Area 1 and 2) within the 2019 Cow Fire boundary with native western larch and ponderosa pine.
Build, re-build and/or maintain approximately 30 miles of fencing to improve livestock management and distribution, protect critical bull trout aquatic habitat, enhance riparian areas and hardwoods, and enhance Monument Rock Wilderness values.
Treat forested stands and reduce fuels using commerical harvest, precommerical thinning, & prescribed burning, designate replacement old growth areas, and implement a roads management plan (including road construction and decommissioning)
This project is proposed to protect lives and property within the adjacent wildland urban community interface. It is a project that was indentified in the Grant County Community Fire Protection Plan.
Thinning timber stands to reduce fire hazard, insect and disease risk, and enhance old-growth; treat slash with mechanical and prescribed; restore riparian and stream function; reduce road and weeds impacts; within the WUI of Seneca, OR.
Approval of 20 year authorization of communication site use for Grant County and Oregon Department of Transportation. Upgrading and replacing existing solar roof panels.
Precommercial thinning of seedlings and saplings on up to 5000 acres of 10 to 20-year old pine plantations established in clearcuts and shelterwood harvest units.Created slash would be either pulled back, hand piled, grapple piled and burned.
Treat 1500 acres of western juniper and ponderosa pine trees up to 16 inches in diameter (dbh) that are sparsely scattered across open sagebrush and Mountain Mahogany vegetation types.
Replace 2 culverts on Forest Service roads 4340 and 4300050 that block fish passage and hinder proper hydrologic functioning on Emigrant Creek with properly sized and designed culverts.
Authorization of a new 20 year lease term for the Fall Mountain Communication Site. No changes to the existing facilities or increases in scope or intensity of authorized activities are being requested at this time.
The purpose of the project is to promote reforestation of burned areas with appropriate conifer species and promote restoration of appropriate hardwood and shrub species. The need was necessitated by the 2024 Falls and Telephone Fires.
Construction and operation of a 199 foot communications tower, communication facility building, generator, propane tank(s) and security fencing in support of the FirstNet Emergency Services Project.
The USFS will evaluate alternatives to the wildlife standard of the Eastside Screens that limits harvest of trees greater than 21 inches for the Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman, Malheur, Ochoco, Deschutes, and Fremont-Winema National Forests.
The Forest Service was a cooperating agency, assisting the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in that Agency's geothermal leasing analysis and decision. The BLM issued a record of decision on 12/17/2008.
Allow the excavation of material from an existing mining trench and existing pit with the use of a 6,000 lb mini excavator, Polaris ranger, trommel and highbanker sluice box.
Allow the excavation of material from an existing mining trench and existing pit with the use of a 6,000 lb mini excavator, Polaris ranger, trommel and highbanker sluice box.
Vegetation and watershed restoration projects, including thinning, road closures, and decommisioning, prescribed burning, and riparian and fisheries enhancement.
Creating a corral to provide the permittee a better area to hold cattle, and reduce the amount of necessary cattle trailing, allowing the more efficient rangeland practices.
We propose amending the Malheur and portion of Ochoco National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan to add indaziflam to the list of approved herbicides for use as part of the integrated treatment toolbox for invasive plants.
The Emigrant Creek Ranger District, Malheur National Forest, proposes to continue authorization of livestock grazing within the Izee allotment using adaptive management strategies designed to meet Forest Plan standards and guidelines.
Develop JB spring for livestock and wildlife use. Install a steel headbox, livestock water trough and thin approximately 5 acres of small juniper that have encroached into the spring area.
Reduce the fire hazard, create two fuel breaks, and reduce the impact and severity of the current Western spruce budworm outbreak within the Calamity subwatershed.
This project is to decommission the current NFS road 3940136 which accesses private property and install a private driveway. Doing so will reduce resource damage to wet soils and water resources in the area.
AT&T has applied for a special use authorization to construct and operate a FirstNet site on Long Creek Pass. Site would include a 195-foot tower with associated facilities for operation.
The Magone Project includes a suite of activities to restore forest resiliency, including silviculture and fuels treatments, Magone Lake restoration, recreation developments, and associated road activities.
Analyze and designate the appropriate system of roads, trails, and areas open for motorized travel across the forest. Analyze the potential for game retrieval, dispersed camping, and seasonal closures to address resource issues and social concerns.
(Corrected) Treatment of known and newly discovered invasive plants using herbicide, manual, mechanical, biological and/or cultural treatments. Includes 1 non-significant forest plan amendment to allow use of aminopyralid (Milestone TM).
Proposed extension of the Malheur River Drift Fence, and Cross Springs water source reconstruction and extension to a second trough. Development of new water source at Dollar Basin Spring.
Renewal of expired special use permit - operation and use of domestic water supply for residences and the Fireside Lodge building. Improveme eighteen inch concrete collection spring box which feeds buried 1 1/4 inch plastic 2900 foot water line.
Reduce post-settlement juniper trees in big game winter range, increase late season stream flow, and increase forage availability for wild horses, cattle, and wildlife.
This project proposes to reinforce existing fiber optic cable from the OTC Station in Bates to Prairie City & add new conduit to Austin House & the ODOT maintenance yard to provide better telephone/internet access to local communities & businesses.
Oregon rail Electric Cooperative (OTEC) to replace overhead line with buried line within existing corridor and road prism. Oregon Telephone Corporation will co-locate fiber conduit at the same time.
Renewal of Special Use Permit for the Oregon Water Resources Department Strawberry Creek Gauging Station. The gauging station has collected critical baseline stream data since 1925, and is one of the State's priority stations to maintain.
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has submitted an application to amend its existing special use permit, PCD33, authorizing the operation and maintenance of ODOT's Austin Maintenance Station, to incorporate a temporary de-icer facility.
OTC is proposing to install a new fiber optic line in conduit in their existing right-of-way between their Bates to Unity transfer stations to replace the original fiber optic cable installed in 1996.
Authorizing the Warm Springs Tribe to perform stream restoration activities NFS land adjacent to private land as a part of a larger project. The project area encompasses small (less than 5%) of NFS land that intersects the MFJD River.
Salvage danger trees along selected reaches of 19 roads for a total of 236 acres within the Parish Cabin Fire. The purpose of the project is to salvage selected danger trees that would otherwise be cut down and left on site to abate safety hazards.
The Blue Mountain Ranger District is proposing to plant about 4,500 acres of upland forests and riparian areas to accelerate the vegetative recovery of a portion of the area burned in the Parish Cabin Fire of 2012.
The project includes a suite of activities to restore forest resiliency and function, including: upland restoration activities; watershed, fisheries, and wildlife restoration; prescribed burning; road activities; and recreation system changes.
Remove dead, dying and unsound danger trees within Rock Springs and Buck Springs Camprounds. Hazard trees may be removed in small sales, used as fuelwood for the campgrounds, or cut and left on site for other resource needs.
The purpose of this project is to authorize livestock grazing in a manner that moves management of the Roundtop Complex allotments towards objectives and desired conditions identified in the Malheur Forest Plan, as amended.
Replace 3 undersized culverts on the South Fork of the John Day River that have contributed to streambed degradation and created fish passage barriers.
PCRD is proposing to allow continued use and expansion of the Savage Quarry. The proposed project would allow expansion of the quarry area by approximately 5 acres. Development within the proposed expansion area would require the cutting of trees.
Construct up to 1/2 mile of 4-strand barbed wire fence to create a 4-acre grazing enclosure and thin juniper and conifers up to 20.9 inches dbh. Slash would be piled/burned, lopped/scattered, felled into creek, or used as a livestock barrier.
Application to install an aerial fiber optic cable to existing power pole structures within the existing powerline 40%u2019 right-of-way from Canyon City to Seneca. Five miles would be across national forest system lands.
Approximately 20,000 acres of thinning in timber stands to reduce fire hazard, insect and disease risk, improve old growth, identify / plan biomass stands, restore riparian aspen, restore mountain mahogany, and maintain wildlife habitat.
This project proposes to revegetate approximately 1,900 acres of stand replacement patches within the South Fork Complex Fire that burned in 2014 on the Blue Mountain Ranger District.
Thin approximately 90 acres of juniper trees from riparian zones along the South Fork of the John Day River. Some of the juniper may be placed into the stream channel to protect and rebuild vulnerable stream banks.
Aspen and stream restoration in the Starr sub-watershed. Removal of encroaching conifers through commercial and non-commercial treatments. Addition of large and course wood in streams.
The project area will be treated to reduce fuel loading and improve forest health. This project area is within the Grant County Community Fire Protection Plan.
The existing rockpit would be expanded by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). Trees removed in the rockpit expansion process are planned be sold. Pit expansion may require a Forest Plan Amendment.
Reduce fire hazard near evacuation route for at-risk communities; reduce stand density to increase resilience to insect and disease; protect bull trout habitat; develop pre-fire suppression old-growth stand composition; protect scenic and roadless
Approximately 70 acres would be hand-treated with an intermediate cut to improve stand growth and development followed by hand-piling and pile burning or jackpot burning.
The project looks to replace 15 culverts located on the Middle Fork of the John Day River to provide stream passage through culverts for all life stages of aquatic organisms.
The proposal includes hazardous fuel reduction activities including biomass removal and salvage of recently dead trees, landscape scale prescribed burning activities, and access and travel management activities.
Thin approximately 77 acres of juniper trees from riparian zones along Venator Creek. Some of the juniper may be placed into the stream channel to protect and rebuild vulnerable stream banks.
Treat five needle pine trees and stands with pouches and the semi-liquid formulations of Verbenone to reduce the rate of mortality resulting from mountain pine bark beetle attack to the pines. Application would occur in early to mid-summer.
Construct up to 750 feet of 4-strand barbed wire fence to realign a portion of the West Sugarloaf/Scharff Cabin pasture boundary on the Sawtooth allotment to create a livestock driveway.
Watershed restoration activities within the Wolf Creek Watershed that improve the health, vigor, and resiliency of vegetation; improve soil and watershed conditions; reduce the fire hazard, and capture the economic value of surplus trees.
