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

Final Environmental Impact Statement Rio de los Pinos Vegetation Management Project
Guideline VEG G5
Habitat for alternate prey species, primarily red squirrel, should be provided in
each LAU.
• 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).
Guideline VEG G11
Denning habitat should be distributed in each LAU in the form of pockets of large
amounts of large woody debris, either down logs or root wads, or large piles of small
wind thrown trees (“jack-strawed” piles). If denning habitat appears to be lacking
in the LAU, then projects should be designed to retain some coarse woody debris,
piles, or residual trees to provide denning habitat in the future.
• Adequate denning habitat (32% of lynx habitat) would continue to be available following
treatment. In addition, 38-60 trees per acre (8” dbh and larger) would be left throughout
the analysis area, providing large amounts of woody debris. Root wads of harvested trees
would also remain on site. Habitat on the western edge of this analysis area (that will not
be harvested during this project) is thought to provide more favorable potential denning
habitat (due to slope, etc.) than the actual project area.
It is expected that sufficient adjacent cover would remain within the forested matrix that the
general area and overall LAU would continue to function as and provide lynx denning and
winter foraging habitat. In addition to harvest, the natural processes impacting lynx denning
habitat would be allowed to occur similarly as described in Alternative 1. At least 38 to 60 trees
per acre 8” dbh and above would be left standing in the units. Many of these trees would be
expected to eventually die and blow down, providing potential lynx denning habitat and/or cover
and foraging habitat for snowshoe hares (lynx primary prey).
In addition, 57 acres of small (1/4 to 5 acre) patch cuts are proposed under Alternative 2, which
would more drastically alter these small areas of lynx habitat, making them unsuitable in the
short term and lynx winter foraging habitat in the long term. Under this proposal, no trees within
100 feet on either side of intermittent or perennial streams would be harvested. These areas
would continue to have dense standing trees and would eventually have an abundance of coarse
woody debris and standing snags, with interspersed regeneration. These areas could be used as
travel corridors for lynx at least until the understory throughout the analysis area grew tall and
dense enough to provide hiding cover.
Understory trees would be impacted by logging operations. It is estimated that up to 30%
incidental damage to understory vegetation could occur, although project design criteria would
be implemented to reduce this impact. Most “damaged” trees which are not killed would still be
expected to fully retain their function as wildlife habitat. The “damage” would have more of an
impact on their future timber value than on their habitat value. The remaining understory trees
Chapter 3 – Affected Environment & Environmental Consequences Page 3-42