Final Environmental Impact Statement Rio de los Pinos Vegetation ...

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Final Environmental Impact Statement Rio de los Pinos Vegetation Management Project Alternative 2 – Full Salvage Harvest Under this alternative there is a small chance of lynx being temporarily displaced during harvest activities. Lynx denning and winter foraging habitat would be converted into winter foraging or other habitat. The mature spruce trees throughout this Analysis Area are infested with spruce beetles to a degree of 95-100% (Tooley personal communication 2009). Therefore, stands within the Analysis Area that do not have a multi-storied structure, or areas where the current understory is equivalent to a stand initiation structural stage (SISS), would be considered unsuitable for lynx. Creation of 0.2 miles of temporary road could result in an increased disturbance to lynx. In addition, 3.3 miles of closed roads would be temporarily re-opened for harvest activities which could disturb lynx until they are re-closed following harvest. Following harvest, this entire 3.5 miles of roads would be closed. After being closed and re-vegetated, the road may be used by hunters or recreationists on foot to access the Forest, potentially putting lynx at more of a risk of disturbance or accidental or deliberate shooting, (although this is highly unlikely due to the rarity of these types of incidents). Under this alternative, open road density would have an overall decrease of ½ mile. Lynx could be temporarily disturbed and/or displaced during logging operations, however, they would be expected to move into adjacent suitable habitat and would not be expected to be injured or killed by logging operations. Preferred lynx denning habitat occurs on north-facing, steep slopes. Most of this Analysis Area consists of more gentle slopes, fairly near to roads. Other nearby areas have steeper slopes and are further from disturbance associated with roads. The majority of these more suitable areas would not be treated, and would continue to provide suitable lynx denning habitat. If a den did occur in a treatment area and small lynx kittens were still in their dens while logging operations were taking place, they could potentially be injured or killed by logging equipment. However, it is highly unlikely that logging would occur during this time period (approximately April through early June), due to wet soil conditions, or that a den would be disturbed; so the chance of this type of mortalilty as a result of logging operations is thought to be insignificant and discountable. In addition, if logging operations were close enough to cause a mother lynx to become uncomfortable, she would likely move her young to a new, more remote den site. Selection of this alternative could decrease lynx habitat effectiveness in the Analysis Area in the short term, but the project and the LAU would continue to meet and exceed the Objectives, Standards, and Guidelines in the Southern Rockies Lynx Amendment (SRLA, 2008). These would be met by both alternatives 2 and 3 in the following manner: Objective VEG 01 Manage vegetation to mimic or approximate natural succession and disturbance processes while maintaining habitat components necessary for the conservation of lynx. • This entire project is a salvage of dead and dying trees from high levels (95-100%) of spruce beetle infestation. The removal of some of these trees will create gaps that Chapter 3 – Affected Environment & Environmental Consequences Page 3-38
Final Environmental Impact Statement Rio de los Pinos Vegetation Management Project encourage understory initiation and growth while the snags and downed logs that remain contribute to successional processes on the forest floor. The project area will resemble a disturbance patch within a larger matrix of late-successional, untreated stands when activities are complete. Objective VEG 02 Provide a mosaic of habitat conditions through time that support dense horizontal cover, and high densities of snowshoe hare. Provide winter snowshoe hare habitat in both the stand initiation structural stage and in mature, multi-story conifer vegetation. • As noted in the response to VEG01, the project area is expected to function as a disturbance patch within a larger matrix dominated by multi-storied late-successional, untreated spruce-fir stands. Stand initiation processes will be encouraged within the treatment areas and be surrounded by over 20,000 acres of high-quality habitat within the Rito Archuleta LAU. • Past treatment openings have been cited as providing good winter snowshoe hare habitat based on personal information provided by the lynx tracking crew (Gomez 2009). J. Ivans (hare researcher) also indicated that the older openings are similar to good hare habitat in the spruce-fir within his study area near Taylor Park, Colorado (Gomez 2009). • The combination of existing openings that support healthy immature trees, the proposed treatment areas, and the existing matrix of mature, multi-story spruce-fir stands suggest that a mosaic of habitat conditions will be provided through time. Objective VEG 04 Focus vegetation management in areas that have potential to improve winter snowshoe hare habitat but presently have poorly developed understories that lack dense horizontal cover. • A complete focus on areas of poorly-developed understory cannot be provided because of the high-levels of spruce beetle activity. Addressing these areas through salvage and reforestation, if needed, are also a key aspect of the proposed action. This treatment will remove a majority of the dead overstory trees and allow for the release of live canopy foliage and overstory characteristics important to the snowshoe hare as well as suitable habitat for the red squirrel, which is an important secondary prey item for lynx in Colorado (Shenk 2008). • Units having poorly developed understories are expected to be improved (through planting if necessary). See Project Design Criteria listed in Table 6. Chapter 3 – Affected Environment & Environmental Consequences Page 3-39
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Final Environmental Impact Statement Rio de los Pinos Vegetation ...

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