Stuart Osbrack DATE: October 02,2012 Stuart Osbrack District Botanist
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Charter Communication Fiber Optic Line Botanical BE Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Invasive Plant Risk Assessment Wild River Ranger District October 02, 2012 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ROGUE RIVE-SISKIYOU NATIONAL FOREST WILD RIVERS RANGER DISTRICT Charter Communication’s Fiber Optic Interconnect Project Biological Evaluation (BE) for Threatened, Endangered, and Sensitive Plants, Lichen, and Fungi And Invasive Plant Risk Analysis PREPARED BY: /s/ Stuart Osbrack DATE: October 02,2012 Stuart Osbrack District Botanist 1 of 15 pages Charter Communication Fiber Optic Line Botanical BE Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Invasive Plant Risk Assessment Wild River Ranger District October 02, 2012 PROJECT PROPOSAL Charter Communication (Charter) plans to construct an aerial fiber interconnect between Grants Pass, Oregon and Crescent City, California. Charter has requested approval from the Siskiyou National Forest to build approximately 3.6 miles of the project on forest lands. The fiber optic line will be built within an existing Pacific Power and Light (PP&L) easement. This project will provide critical telecommunications redundancy to rural communities in Northern California and Southern Oregon that will increase the reliability of telemedicine and educational and public safety networks. Charter is requesting a 20-foot-wide easement to construct the aerial fiber interconnect within the outer western edge of the existing right-of-way. The wood poles for the project will be offset approximately 47 feet from the existing PP&L utility poles. Poles will be between 35- to 45-feet tall. Existing access roads will be used to access the pole sites. No new roads will be constructed for this project. In some cases, existing dirt berms may need to be removed to allow equipment and vehicle access. Once construction is complete in an area, any berm that was removed for construction access will be restored. The work area around each pole site is expected to be approximately a 20-foot radius. Vegetation clearing will only be needed in the area where the pole will be set. Additional vegetation clearing may be necessary to allow equipment access, but it is expected that the majority of access will on existing access roads or by driving over low growing vegetation. An auger will be used to dig a hole approximately 6 feet deep; the diameters of the holes are not expected to exceed 2 feet. Poles will be placed in the excavated hole and the area around the pole will be backfilled with native material. If rock is encountered, a jack hammer may be used to excavate the hole. Guy wire anchors will be required at a majority of the pole locations (14 poles require anchors on forest land); anchors will be installed with the auger or jack hammer, depending on substrate. Spans between poles will range between approximately 200 and 1500 feet. The fiber optic line will be “shot” from pole to pole using a gun powder-charged system (4570 caliber rifle) that will shoot the line cross country up to 1000 feet depending on the size of the charge. Several shots may be required depending on the length of the span. In these cases, the person conducting this work will walk to the end location of the previous shot and continue shooting the line until it reaches the pole location. Tensioning of the line will be done at each pole location. Vehicles or equipment will not be required between spans for this operation. Unused spoils not used for backfill or that cannot be spread at the pole site will be removed for off-site disposal. Disturbed areas will be recontoured and stabilized as needed to prevent erosion. Erosion and sediment control devices needed to prevent sediment from leaving the work area will be left in place until stabilization has been established. As noted above, any existing road berms will be restored after construction is complete in the area. 2 of 15 pages Charter Communication Fiber Optic Line Botanical BE Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Invasive Plant Risk Assessment Wild River Ranger District October 02, 2012 FOREST SERVICE POLICY THREATENED & ENDANGERED SPECIES It is mandate that the Forest Service (FS) conduct its activities and programs to assist in the identification and recovery of threatened and endangered plant species and avoid actions which may cause a species to become threatened or endangered. The FS will not approve, fund or take any action that is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of threatened and endangered species or destroy any habitat necessary for their conservation unless exemption is granted pursuant to subsection 7(h) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (FSM 2601.2). FS SENSITIVE SPECIES It is FS policy to maintain habitats for all existing native and desired non-native plant species and manage such species to maintain at least viable populations. In achieving this objective, habitat must be provided for the number and distribution of reproductive individuals to ensure the continued existence of a species throughout its geographic range (FSM 2601.2). Proposed management actions must not result in a loss of species viability or create significant trends toward Federal listing (FSM 2670.32). LOCATION The propose project is located along FS Road 4402 in Josephine County Oregon on the Wild Rivers Ranger District, Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest: Cave Junction USGS 7.5-minute quadrangle: T 40S, R 9W, Section 34 Chetco Peak USGS 7.5-minute quadrangle: T 41S, R 9W, Sections 4 and 17 Shelly Creek Ridge USGS 7.5-minute quadrangle: T 41S, R 9W, Section 17 3 of 15 pages Charter Communication Fiber Optic Line Botanical BE Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Invasive Plant Risk Assessment Wild River Ranger District October 02, 2012 PRE-FIELD REVIEW REVIEW OF PREVIOUSLY DOCUMENTED SPECIES The area was examined using Rogue River-Siskiyou NF archived rare plants files and GIS layers. Although negative findings are not always well documented within FS archived files, all positive findings (T&E, S&M, & FS Sensitive) are archived within the Rogue River- Siskiyou rare plants database. These databases & the original paper site forms were referenced during pre-field review to identify any known rare plant locations documented within the proposed project area. FIELD RECONNAISSANCE SURVEY HISTORY Field work was conducted July 2012. All species with potential habitat were considered during field work. However, GIS analysis of nearby known occurrences, soil type, elevation, aspect and habitat type were used to focus surveys toward locating species with the highest likelihood of occurring within the project area. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS There will be no effect to any federally threatened and endangered plant species. The Rogue River-Siskiyou NF sensitive plant species Streptanthus howellii (Howell’s jewel-flower) and Calochortus howellii (Howell’s mariposa-lily) was identified during project surveys within the project footprint. EXISTING CONDITION AND AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT EXISTING CONDITION The project area is within an existing power line easement on serpentine soils. There are a shrub dominated plant communities in areas with forbs and graminoids other areas are dominated by sparse forbs and graminoids. FOREST SERVICE SENSITIVE SPECIES PRESENT Streptanthus howellii (Howell’s jewel-flower) The Forest Service sensitive plant Streptanthus howellii (Howell’s jewel-flower) is a member of the Brassicaceae (Mustard) family. It is a strict serpentine endemic and the range is southern Oregon (Josephine, Curry, and Jackson counties) and northern California (Del Norte and Mendocino counties). The status and ranking for the species in Oregon is S2: imperiled; in California the status is S1.2: critically imperiled; and its Global rank and status is G2: imperiled. It is a candidate for state listing in Oregon. The Oregon Biodiversity Information Center ranks the species as a list 1, endangered or threatened throughout their range. Streptanthus howellii is an herbaceous perennial that produces a glabrous, glaucous stem that is 30 to 80 centimeters in length. It is generally un-branched. The ephemeral basal leaves are similar to cauline leaves and have fleshy blades that are broadly spatulate-obovate to 4 of 15 pages Charter Communication Fiber Optic Line Botanical BE Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Invasive Plant Risk Assessment Wild River Ranger District October 02, 2012 suborbicular with smooth or toothed edges, borne on petioles. Mid-cauline leaves are petioled, 1.5–10 cm long, broadly obovate to round and entire to wavy or obtusely dentate, base wedge- shaped to attenuate. Flowers occur at intervals along the upper stem. Each has a bell-shaped calyx of oblong purple sepals 5 to 8 mm long with purple-tipped yellow petals emerging from the tip. The petals are 8 to 12 mm long and 0.5 to 1 mm wide. The fruit is a spreading-ascending silique, 5.5–12 cm, 2.5–3.2 mm wide, straight to ± incurved, not constricted between seeds; valves glabrous, midvein distinct. Fruits produce 24-44 seeds and the seeds are 3–4 mm, broadly oblong to ± round; the wing is 0.5–1.1 mm wide, continuous. The species blooms in June and July and is restricted to serpentine soils where it grows on dry, rocky slopes and ridges, open conifer/hardwood forests and is also found on roadsides at an elevation of 600 to 800 meters. According to the California Native Plant Society, there are 21 occurrences in California. In Oregon it occurs on the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest where there are 35 sites and 1305 plants. Streptanthus howellii also occurs on BLM land on the Medford District where it is classified as C-1 (Special Status Plant for the Medford District) and BS (BLM sensitive). It is threatened by mining and fire suppression. The Oregon Department of Agriculture’s ongoing propagation research has not had luck germinating seeds.