Environmental Assessment

AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT & ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES CHAPTER 3
Figure 3-5 Soil Displacement Associated with Off-Road Motorized Vehicle Travel, Pumice Grape Fern Habitat, Opine
Planning Area
Approximately 1,567 acres of detrimentally impacted soils are located within the planning area. The
majority of these sites, totaling approximately 956 acres, is associated with past timber harvest activities
and includes landings, skid trails and other related disturbances. Under this alternative, these sites would
not be further disturbed and creating sites of exposed mineral soil that would provide habitat for invasive
plants including noxious weeds. Although many may not current provide habitat for the paintbrush due to
the lack of obligate shrub species, over time, these sites have the potential to provide habitat for the
paintbrush without competition from invasive plants. There are no known sites of detrimentally impacted
soils associated with past logging located within existing pumice grape fern habitat.
Alternatives 2 and 3 - Both Alternative 2 and Alternative 3 may impact individual green tinged
paintbrush plants or habitat, but neither is likely to contribute towards federal listing or cause a loss of
viability to the population or species (Plant BE, page 15). There are no major differences between the
two alternatives as both treat approximately the same number of acres of paintbrush habitat.
Although both alternatives have mitigation measures that will exclude green-tinged paintbrush
populations from units, some mortality is expected to the species under both action alternatives as a result
of project implementation. The extent of the loss is impossible to determine, especially in units treated
with prescribed fire, because of the random pattern of burning and the creeping of fire beyond intended
treatment areas. The number of treatment units in each alternative that contain populations of paintbrush,
coupled with human error due to misunderstandings and oversights associated with the large scale of
acres proposed for treatment, are also likely to contribute to potential losses. There are approximately
3-62