Johnny O'Neil Late Successional Reserve Habitat Restoration and ...

zone (.5 mile radius) and a foraging habitat zone (1 mile radius) around all known goshawk nest
sites. Approximately 300 acres of mature conifer forest should be maintained within the primary
nest zone, and 900 acres of mid-mature and mature forest in the foraging zone. In addition,
seasonal restrictions are required for habitat modification within ½ mile of known sites and for
noise generating activities within ¼ mile of known sites.
For the purpose of this analysis, the analysis area chosen for the goshawk is the same as used for
the northern spotted owl (NSO), recognizing the goshawk use area may be slightly smaller.
Approximately 18,900 acres of suitable habitat occur in the analysis area. Due to the dominance
of early and dense mid-successional stands in the project area, existing high quality habitat is
primarily limited to the lower slope positions within the east and west forks of Horse Creek and
in Crawfish Gulch in the LSR. Other suitable habitat is patchy, of small stand size, and/or of low
quality.
Three GMAs occur within the Horse Creek 6 th field watershed (OK9, OK10, and OK11). One to
three visits per year in 2009-2010 were conducted using broadcast surveys and visual stand
searches of all suitable habitat within GMAs. Year of action surveys will be conducted within
0.5 mile of the proposed treatments inside designated GMAs; Primary Nest and Foraging Habitat
Zones will be created in the event occupancy is determined.
OK9 (Middle Creek) - Surveys at OK9 determined a pair with young in 2009 and a single in
2010. The pair location was about one mile from the nearest proposed burn unit and about 1.5
mile from the nearest proposed thinning unit.
OK10 (Upper East Fork Horse) – There are no historic KNF records of single or nesting
goshawks in any of these sites (T. Burnett personal communication). There were no goshawk
detections or sign during 2009-2010 surveys. Because there are no nesting records for this site,
no Primary Nest or Foraging Habitat Zones as described in the LRMP have been delineated.
OK11 (Seiad Low Gap) - There are no historic KNF records of single or nesting goshawks at this
site (T. Burnett personal communication). There were no goshawk detections or sign during
2009-2010 surveys. Because there are no nesting records for this site, no Primary Nest or
Foraging Habitat Zones as described in the LRMP have been delineated.
Additional surveys were conducted in two areas where incidental observations outside of
established GMAs had been made during the planning of the Johnny O’Neil project (Horse
Creek Section 36 and Hamburg Gulch). At the Hamburg Gulch site, nesting was suspected in
2009 and a pair was found in 2010. There are no commercial thinning units proposed within one
mile of the Hamburg site. In August 2011, a pair of goshawks were found in Unit 453, in the
northeast quarter of Section 36; a nest or young were not located. This unit is located within the
0.5 mile of a northern spotted owl core that has not been recently occupied (KL1152).
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