Appendixes, Final Comprehensive Conservation Plan And
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Glossary accessible: Pertaining to physical access to areas baseline: A set of critical observations, data, or infor- and activities for people of different abilities, mation used for comparison or a control. especially those with physical impairments. BCR: Bird conservation region. active management: The direct manipulation of hab- biological control: The use of organisms or viruses to itats or wildlife populations to achieve specific control invasive plants or other pests. objectives. Actions could include planting food biological diversity, also biodiversity: The variety of plots, managing water levels, prescribed grazing life and its processes including the variety of liv- or fire, or wildlife relocations. ing organisms, the genetic differences among adaptive resource management: The rigorous appli- them, and the communities and ecosystems in cation of management, research, and monitoring which they occur (The Fish and Wildlife Service to gain information and experience necessary to Manual, 052 FW 1.12B). The National Wildlife assess and change management activities; a pro- Refuge System’s focus is on indigenous species, cess that uses feedback from research, monitor- biotic communities, and ecological processes. ing, and evaluation of management actions to biological integrity: Biotic composition, structure, support or change objectives and strategies at and function at genetic, organism, and community all planning levels; a process in which policy deci- levels. sions are carried out within a framework of sci- biotic: Pertaining to life or living organisms; caused, entifically driven experiments to test predictions produced by, or comprising living organisms. and assumptions inherent in management plan. BLM: See Bureau of Land Management. Analysis of results helps managers determine Bureau of Land Management (BLM): A Federal agency whether current management should continue that was established in 1946 through consolida- as is or whether it should be modified to achieve tion of the General Land Office and U.S. Grazing desired conditions. Service. The agency has a multiple-use mandate Administration Act: National Wildlife Refuge System is responsible for a variety of programs for man- Administration Act of 1966. aging and conserving surface and subsurface min- alternative: A reasonable way to solve an identi- eral estates, mostly in the western United States. fied problem or satisfy the stated need (40 CFR canopy: A layer of foliage, generally the uppermost 1500.2); one of several different means of accom- layer, in a vegetative stand; midlevel or under- plishing refuge purposes and goals and contribut- story vegetation in multilayered stands. Canopy ing to the Refuge System mission (The Fish and closure (also canopy cover) is an estimate of the Wildlife Service Manual, 602 FW 1.5). amount of overhead vegetative cover. amphibian: A class of cold-blooded vertebrates CCP: See comprehensive conservation plan. including frogs, toads, or salamanders. CFR: See Code of Federal Regulations. annual: A plant that flowers and dies within 1 year of cervid: All members of the family Cervidae and germination. hybrids including deer, elk, moose, caribous, rein- appropriate management response: The response to deer, and related species. a wildfire based on an evaluation of risks to fire- CFR: See Code of Federal Regulations. fighter and public safety, the circumstances under cfs: Cubic feet per second. which a fire occurs including weather and fuel CO2: Carbon dioxide. conditions, natural and cultural resource manage- Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): The codification of ment objectives, protection priorities, and values the general and permanent rules published in the to be protected. Federal Register by the Executive departments appropriate use: A proposed or existing uses on and agencies of the Federal Government. Each national wildlife refuges that meet at least one volume of the CFR is updated once each calendar of the following: (1) is a wildlife-dependent rec- year. reational use; (2) contributes to fulfilling refuge compatibility determination: See compatible use. purposes, the Refuge System mission, or goals compatible use: A wildlife-dependent recreational and objectives outline in a CCP; or (3) the refuge use or any other use of a refuge that, in the sound manager has evaluated the use and found it to be professional judgment of the Director of the appropriate. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will not materi- ATV: All-terrain vehicle. ally interfere with or detract from the fulfillment AUM: Animal-unit month. of the mission of the Refuge System or the pur- 360 Final CCP and EIS, Charles M. Russell and UL Bend National Wildlife Refuges, Montana poses of the refuge (The Fish and Wildlife Service ecosystem: A dynamic and interrelating complex of Manual, 603 FW 3.6). A compatibility determi- plant and animal communities and their associ- nation supports the selection of compatible uses ated nonliving environment; a biological commu- and identified stipulations or limits necessary to nity, together with its environment, functioning ensure compatibility. as a unit. For administrative purposes, the Ser- comprehensive conservation plan (CCP): A document vice has designated 53 ecosystems covering the that describes the desired future conditions of United States and its possessions. These eco- the refuge and provides long-range guidance and systems generally correspond with watershed management direction for the refuge manager to boundaries and their sizes and ecological complex- accomplish the purposes of the refuge, contribute ity vary. to the mission of the Refuge System, and to meet ecosystem resilience: See ecological resilience. other relevant mandates (The Fish and Wildlife EIS: Environmental impact statement. Service Manual, 602 FW 1.5). endangered species, Federal: A plant or animal spe- concern: See issue. cies listed under the Endangered Species Act of conservation district: Organized in the 1930s as a 1973, as amended, that is in danger of extinction response to the severe erosion problems, a district throughout all or a significant part of its range. is often a political subdivision of a State. Money endangered species, State: A plant or animal species comes from assessments levied on real property in danger of becoming extinct or extirpated in a within the boundaries of the district. It helps cit- particular State within the near future if factors izens in conserving renewable natural resources. contributing to its decline continue. Populations of conspecific: An individual belonging to the same these species are at critically low levels or their species as another. habitats have been degraded or depleted to a sig- cool-season grasses: Grasses that begin growth ear- nificant degree. lier in the season and often become dormant in the endemic species: Plants or animals that occur natu- summer. These grasses will germinate at lower rally in a certain region and whose distribution is temperatures. Examples of cool-season grasses relatively limited to a particular locality. at the refuge are western wheatgrass, needle and Enhancement Act: Title VIII of the Water Resources thread, and green needlegrass. Development Act of 2000. county road: In general, means any public highway environmental assessment: A concise public docu- opened, established, constructed, maintained, ment, prepared in compliance with the National abandoned in accordance with State law. Environmental Policy Act, that briefly discusses cover, cover type, canopy cover: Present vegetation. the purpose and need for an action and alterna- cultural resources: The remains of sites, structures, tives to such action, and provides sufficient evi- or objects used by people in the past. dence and analysis of effects to determine whether depredation: Destruction or consumption of eggs, to prepare an environmental impact statement or broods, or individual wildlife due to a predatory finding of no significant impact (40 CFR 1508.9). animal; damage inflicted onagricultural crops or environmental health: Composition, structure, and ornamental plants by wildlife. functioning of soil, water, air, and other abiotic DNRC: Montana Department of Natural Resources features. and Conservation. EPA: Environmental Protection Agency. DOI: Department of the Interior. extinction: The complete disappearance of a species drawdown: The act of manipulating water levels in from the earth; no longer existing. an impoundment to allow for the natural drying- extirpation: The extinction of a population; complete out cycle of a wetland. eradication of a species within a specified area. EA: See environmental assessment. fauna: All the vertebrate and invertebrate animals ecological resilience: The ability to absorb distur- of an area. bances, to be changed, and then to reorganize and Federal trust resource: A trust is something man- still have the same identity, that is, keep the same aged by one entity for another who holds the own- basic structure and ways of functioning. A resil- ership. The Service holds in trust many natural ient system is forgiving of external shocks; a dis- resources for the people of the United States as a turbance is unlikely to affect the whole. A resilient result of Federal acts and treaties. Examples are habitat (1) sustains many species of plants and species listed under the Endangered Species Act, animals and a highly variable structural compo- migratory birds protected by international trea- sition; (2) is asymmetric; (3) exemplifies biological ties, and native