I Have Reviewed the Proposed Project to Reissue a Special Use Permit
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BOTANY REPORT FOR THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES, SENSITIVE SPECIES, and MANAGEMENT INDICATOR SPECIES Includes Biological Evaluation and Management Indicator Species Reports Upland Island Wilderness Fuels Reduction Project ANGELINA and JASPER COUNTIES, TEXAS July 30, 2008 _______________________ Prepared by Thomas Philipps Forest Botanist National Forests and Grasslands in Texas Supervisor’s Office INTRODUCTION AND PROPOSED ACTION I have reviewed the proposed project designed to conduct prescribed burning on approximately 11,990 acres in Upland Island Wilderness (UIW) within the Angelina National Forest (ANF). The proposed project is designed to reduce hazardous fuels, maintain natural communities, improve existing habitat for threatened and endangered animal species (Red-Cockaded Woodpecker), reduce the chance of destructive wildfires, and to perpetuate fire adapted plants and animals all inclusive of the goal to manage for a healthy, productive, and sustainable forest within UIW through the reintroduction of fire as a management tool. This botany report will serve as the Biological Evaluation and Management Indicator Species Report for vegetation resources for this project. The proposed action includes the following: Conduct prescribed burning on approximately 11,990 acres in Upland Island Wilderness to reduce hazardous fuels. In addition, the project proposes to conduct prescribed burns on approximately 990 acres of adjacent private property, state lands, and national forest lands for an approximate total of 12,980 acres. The proposed action includes approximately 1,260 acres in a No Burn Area in the vicinity of Graham and Cypress Creeks inside UIW that would be excluded from prescribed fire. Construction of approximately 17.0 miles of fire control lines on the exterior of UIW. These lines will be located on private lands adjacent to UIW. These lines will use existing control lines where they exist on adjacent private property, and be established with mechanical tools (e.g., bulldozer) or hand tools on private property with permission from the land owners. In addition, this proposal includes 14.6 miles of interior control lines within UIW. Approximately 6.3 miles of interior control lines would be established using hand tools on abandoned roads that accessed the area prior to the establishment of the wilderness in 1984. No hand line would be constructed in previously undisturbed areas inside UIW. Approximately 4.7 miles of creeks or naturally wet fuel breaks would be used as control lines where hand clearing may be necessary. In addition, approximately 3.6 miles of existing roads on non-wilderness lands would be used as fire breaks to separate burn units or burn blocks. The project would occur primarily in upland sites dominated by pine or pine-hardwood in Management Area 7 (MA-7), Wilderness. The desired future condition of MA-7 includes lands that are administered to maintain or achieve a natural state. MA-7 permits prescribed fire to manage wilderness as determined through site-specific environmental analysis that addresses: (1) the role of fire in fire dependant or related ecosystems, and (2) fuel loadings which are a fire risk to resources and values outside of wilderness (Revised Land and Resource Management Plan, 1996). Historically, frequent fires maintained the open character of the longleaf pine communities in Upland Island Wilderness and promoted an herbaceous understory dominated by perennial grasses. Riparian areas that lie adjacent to upland sites would be included in the prescribed burns where they cannot be excluded without the construction of ground-disturbing fire control lines. Riparian areas within UIW will be managed similarly to Streamside Management Zones (MA-4). THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES The project will not impact any listed Threatened and Endangered Species. I reviewed the current list of species (Table 1) for the counties that contains UIW. The Navasota Ladies’- Tresses (Spiranthes parksii) is the only listed plant species known to occur on the Angelina NF. However, it typically occurs within or adjacent to rayless goldenrod- little bluestem plant communities (Catahoula pine barrens) on streamsides among post oaks. There is no suitable habitat for this species within the project area. As such, there will be no effect to this federally listed plant species due to the proposed action and it will be dropped from further consideration herein. Table 1: Federally- listed plant species known to occur and/or adjacent to various units of the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas (NFGT). Individual NFGT Units NFGT Distribution and Common Name Scientific Name Habitat Species Known Is Suitable To Occur Habitat Present White bladderpod Lesquerella pallida Weches formation Earthfruit Geocarpon minimum Saline glades and barrens Not on any NFGT units Texas prairie dawn Hymenoxys texana Saline glades and barrens Navasota ladies’- Spiranthes parksii Catahoula pine barrens Angelina NF No tresses REGION 8 SENSITIVE SPECIES Information on R8 sensitive species status, distribution, and ecology was derived from Texas Natural Heritage Program (TNHP) data base maps and reports, Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) habitat mapping, personal knowledge from Forest Service botanists, various scientific studies and reports, field surveys described below, and an extensive compilation of information contained in the Forest Plan (USFS 1996). Determination of risks to populations of sensitive plants considers overall population size and density, occurrence, suitable habitat, location of the population, and consequences of adverse effects on the species as a whole within its range and within the project area. I have reviewed the current list of Region 8 (R8) sensitive plant species. Based on the habitats to be affected and the habitat affinities of the R8 sensitive plant species (Table 2), the Upland Island Fuels Reduction Project will create beneficial effects for those species that are known to be present or those species that may be present due to the presence of suitable habitat because they are adapted to fire-dependent ecosystems. The single exception is Bartonia texana. The Upland Island Fuels Reduction Project will have no impacts due to project design criteria and mitigations that will be implemented to protect riparian areas (Ma-4 streamside zones). Table 2. This table is “Step 1” of a Biological Evaluation, a pre-field checklist of Region 8 Sensitive Species (plants) that may occur or their habitat may be present within the UIW. Only the species that either occur or have suitable habitat within the project area will be carried through analysis. Fish, amphibians, insects, other invertebrates, and terrestrial wildlife will be covered in other reports. Table 2: R8 Sensitive plant species known to occur and/or having suitable habitat on various units of the NFGT Individual UIW Units NFGT distribution and Is Common name Scientific name Species habitat suitable known habitat to occur present? Panicled Amorpha Angelina NF in bogs and No Yes indigobush paniculata bayballs Incised Angelina NF in sandy Agrimonia incisa No Yes agrimony longleaf savanna Texas Angelina and Sam Houston Bartonia texana No Yes bartonia NF in baygalls Warner’s Crataegus Davy Crockett NF in deep No hawthorn warneri sandy soils Mohlenbrock’s Cyperus Angelina and Sabine NF in umbrella No Yes grayoides xeric sandylands sedge Southern Cypripedium Angelina and Sabine NF in ladies’- No kentuckiense beech-white oak ravines slipper Comanche LBJ Grasslands on Dalea peak prairie goodland limestone No reverchonii clover soils Neches river Hibiscus Davy Crockett NF in No rose mallow dasycalyx sloughs and marshes Angelina and Sabine NF in Pineland Lachnocaulon hillside seepage slope No Yes bogbutton digynum bogs Texas golden Leavenworthia Weches formation No gladecress texana Angelina and Sabine NF in Slender Liatris tenuis sandy longleaf pine Yes Yes gayfeather savanna Yellow Platanthera Angelina NF in hillside fringeless No Yes integra seepage slope bogs orchid Barbed Prenanthes Angelina and Sabine NF in rattlesnake No barbata beech-white oak ravines root Large Rhynchospora Angelina NF in hillside No Yes beakrush macra seepage slope bogs Angelina and Sabine NF in Sabine Rudbeckia hillside seepage slope Yes Yes coneflower scabrifolia bogs and baygalls Texas Schoenolirion Angelina NF in catahoula No sunnybells wrightii pine barrens Scarlet Sabine NF on sandy post Silene subciliata No catchfly oak hillsides Clasping Streptanthus Sabine NF where No twistflower maculatus glauconite is present Trillium Angelina NF in baygall Texas trillium No Yes texanum ecotones Drummond’s Xyris Angelina NF in hillside Yes Yes Individual UIW Units NFGT distribution and Is Common name Scientific name Species habitat suitable known habitat to occur present? yellow-eyed drummondii seepage slope bogs grass Louisiana Angelina NF in hillside yellow-eyed Xyris louisianica No Yes seepage slope bogs grass Harper’s Angelina and Sabine NF in yellow-eyed Xyris scabrifolia hillside seepage slope Yes Yes grass bogs Sensitive Plants Records of past species occurrence reports and aerial photography was reviewed in order to determine presence/absence or areas of potential suitable habitat for these species. A site visit was conducted by the Forest Botanist on 6/14-15/2007 and again on 7/23/2008. Sensitive plant species listed in Table 2 that either are known to occur or have suitable habitat in the project area have been identified and will be incorporated in further effects analysis.