Environmental Assessment

AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT & ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES CHAPTER 3
Table 3-4 summarizes the current conditions of the areas that contain significant amounts of deer
summer range.
Table 3-4 Deer Summer Range Areas in Opine Planning Area
Sub-Area
Acres of Current Cover (Percent of Forested Acres)
(Forested Acres)
Pine Mountain (4,042 ac) 1,445 ac. (36%)
General Forest (782 ac) 337 ac (43%)
Pumice Springs OGMA (338 ac) 113 ac (33%)
Totals (5,169 ac.) 1,892 ac (37%)
In most ponderosa pine stands in the planning area, hiding cover is generally of low quality. This is in
part due to past timber harvest that cultured even-aged "black bark" ponderosa pine stands decreasing
the quantity and distribution of hiding cover. Black bark stands generally lack understory regeneration
and only provide the limbless boles of trees for cover. Better quality hiding cover is found in multistory
lodgepole pine stands (stands that contain regeneration). The lack of hiding cover is further
exacerbated by extensive areas of xeric shrublands that do not provide hiding cover under the current
definition. Areas of tall shrubs do provide "camouflage" cover, particularly in rolling topography.
Roads and motorized trails also negatively affect deer hiding cover.
Existing Condition Thermal Cover – Thermal cover is defined as cover used by big game to moderate
cold weather conditions and to assist in maintaining a constant body temperature. Tree canopy cover
conditions that provide optimal thermal cover are considered to be: “A crown cover greater than 40
percent with trees 30 feet high is recommended for thermal cover.” (LRMP, page 4-113)
Few if any of the forest acres in the planning area are capable of sustaining canopy cover levels that
would meet the above thermal cover definition without running a high risk of damage or loss due to
bark beetle attack and wildfire events.
Table 3-5 displays current thermal cover conditions within the planning area by WRHU and the general
forest land allocation (MA-8). Optimal cover meets the LRMP definition for thermal cover; canopy
closures are 40 percent or greater. Acceptable and marginal cover, canopy closures of 30 to 39 percent
canopy closure and 20 to 29 percent canopy closure respectively, do not meet the LRMP definition of
thermal cover. The cover acres and percentages only include forested acres as, by definition,
shrublands do not provide thermal cover.
Table 3-5 Current Thermal Cover Levels, Opine Planning Area
Thermal Cover Quality Categories 31 Winter Range
Habitat Unit or
LRMP allocation
(forested acres)
(acreages)
Non-
Optimal Acceptable Marginal
thermal
Sub-Area Totals: acres 32
/percentage of forested
acreage
General Forest (782 ac.) 5 243 485 239 248 / 32%
Lavacicle (1465 ac.) 0 297 1131 6061 297 / 20%
Mahogany (5912 ac.) 35 430 2400 9248 465 / 8%
Pine Mt.- winter range
only (1123 ac.)
(0) (113) (244) (8129) (113) / 10%
31
Category definitions—optimal (LRMP definition) = 40+% canopy cover, acceptable = 31-39% canopy cover, marginal = 21-
30% canopy cover, and non-cover =0-20% canopy cover (including non-forested habitat types).
32
Acres of thermal cover only include the optimal and acceptable categories with the percentages based upon the forested areas
(i.e. potential thermal cover habitats) of each sub-area
3-9