All research activities or field trips scheduled to take place on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests or Thunder Basin National Grassland must be included and approved as part of an institutional operating plan that the University will submit to the U.S. Forest Service twice per year.
New and continuing field trips and research activities
Digging
Sample Collection
May through October
Applications due second Friday of October
November through April
Applications due second Friday of April
You will need contact information for your main contact, your responsible party, and any additional personnel that will need to be included in notifications. Please be aware that graduate students who are the main contact but not the responsible party will not receive notifications from USFS. Your responsible party must be aware of this and check for USFS correspondance after submission.
Please provide a project abstract that includes the exact locations of research/field trip, a brief description of methods, timing of when and how long your project/field trip will occupy NFS lands, your plan for removal of the project from NFS lands, and any other information that you feel is relevant to approving your occupation of NFS lands. Additionally, you will need to specify which roads you'll be using, to include parking and vehicle count, and a headcount of your party.
Please include a detailed map that identifies the exact location(s) of the research or field trip. For field trips pinpoints in Google Maps are adequate. This file needs to be in PDF format.
- Why is it necessary for you to conduct this project/field trip on National Forest System (NFS) lands? Is it possible to conduct this project on state or private land?
- Are you fully capable of implementing, operating, and rehabilitation activities involved with this research project/field trip on NFS lands? Explain.
- Do you have all the necessary authorizations/permissions from other federal and state agencies and/or private landowners?
- How do you plan on accessing the activity area on NFS lands (i.e. open or closed roads, trails, motorized or non-motorized, etc.). Roads and trails open to motor vehicle use, including seasons of use, are identified on the Motor Vehicle Use maps. Any proposed motor vehicle use on roads or trails not shown on the MVUM should be clearly identified.
- Please provide location maps and sketch (diagram) maps clearly showing the proposed research area. Maps should be at an appropriate scale to effectively convey the location, intent, and methodology of the activity. Provide shapefiles if possible.
- Is this a multi-year project that will have equipment present on NFS lands for more than one year? Is so, what cumulative effects do you anticipate?
- What equipment, supplies, facilities, etc., do you plan on leaving on NFS lands, where, and for how long? Why is it necessary for you to leave these items in place?
- Please describe your plan, including a timeline for removing all equipment left on NFS lands (i.e. signs, cages, markers etc.)
- What sort of ground disturbance will the activity cause (i.e., area, depth, etc)? Please calculate the area of expected disturbance. How will the ground disturbance be repaired?
- What sort of vegetation disturbance will the project/field trip cause? Do you plan on removing any vegetation for NFS lands? If so, why is it necessary? How will vegetation disturbance be repaired?
- Do you plan on removing any soil or rocks from NFS lands? If so, why is it necessary?
- Are you proposing to conduct work in designated Wilderness Areas or Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRA)? If so, can you explain how this activity id dependent on the Wilderness/IRA and why it cannot occur on another area of the National Forest.?
USFS Program Officer: Quien Crowe
RDO: Nicholas Giraldo
