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Impacts of Land and \Mater Tlse on Fish and Their Habitat Part I

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Impacts of Land and \Mater Tlse on Fish and Their Habitat Part I Alasha Habitat Management Guide Impacts of land and \Mater tlse on Fish and Their Habitat Part I Produced by State of Alasha Department of Fish and Game Division of Habitat Iuneau, Alasha 1986 Olgge BYTHE ATASKADEpAPTMENT OF FISHAND CIAME Contents Achnowledgements v General Introduction 0verview of the Habitat Management Guides Project 3 Introduction to Part 1 7 Purpose 7 Approach 7 Organization of the Volume 8 Users Guide 10 Methods 11 Cross-reference of Activities 13 Activiry Index Marine Fish and Shellfish 31 Freshwater Fish 61 Impact Index Marine Fish and Shellfish 119 Freshwater Fi sh i51 Appendices A. Di rectory of Reviewers and Contributors 207 B. Land and Water Uses and Development Types 208 C. Descriptions of Activities 209 D. Fish Impact Categories 2L0 E. Correction Form zLl F. Additional References 213 Map 1. The six regions of the Alaska Habitat Management Guides 5 444 Figtrres 1. Types of narratives and maps produced by the Alaska Habitat Management Guides Project 6 t. General hierarch'ical relationships of land and water uses, activ'ities and impacts 9 Itables 1. Activities involved'in each land or water use or development type 10 2. Sunmary of the I iterature for defined activi tyl impact categories: marine fish and shellfish 32 3. Summary of the I iterature for defined activity/impact categories: freshwater fi sh 62 4. Summary of the I iterature for defined activity/impact categories: marine fish and shellfish I20 5. Sununary of the I iterature for defined activity/impact categories: freshwaier fish L52 Achnowledgements This project is under the djrection of the Conmissioner of the Department of j Di the Divi s'ion of Habi tat F sh and- Game, Don W. Col'l i nsworth, the rector of ' Norman A. Cohen, and the Deputy Director, Eruce H. Baker. Many individuals have been involved in the production of this two-part f is-heries 'impacts volume. Al1 products were viewed f irst by project staff and d'istributect for techn'ical reviews. The names of reviewers and other contributors are compiled in appendix A. The following lists the team responsib'le for production of this volume: Marianne G. See, Coordjnator Bob Durr, Editor C. Wayne Dolezal, Fish Group Leader Len Vining, Literature Researcher Charlotte Bridges, Systems Manager Authors Brian Bigler, Fishery Biologist C. Wayne Dolezal , Habitat B'iologist Melinda L. Rowse, Fishery Biologist Sandra K. Sonnichsen, F'ishery Biologist Kathleen R. Thornburgh, Habi tat B'iol ogi st Len V'ini ng, Habi tat Bi ol ogi st Support staff Laurerr Barker, Librarjan Ca ro I Ba rnh i I 1 , Ca rtog raphe r Kitty Farnham, Clerk Typist Susan H. Grainger, Clerk Typist Juanita R. Henderson, Clerk TYPist Clare A. Johnson, Clerk Typist Mike Masters, Hab'itat B jologist Brooks Pangburn, Analyst/Programmer Gay Pu11ey, Graphic Artjst Richard T. Shideler, Habitat Biologist Karen Wil lard, Clerk Typist Jack Wjnters, Habitat Biologist The process of developing the initial plan and procedures for this proiect involvect a number of individuals who are not othenvise listed as authors and contributors. These 'include many of the staff within the Division of Habitat, as well as planners, research and management coordinators, and reg'ional superv'isors of other cliv'is'ions. Special ntention should be made of rhe support fronr Alvin G. 0tt, Rick Reed, Lance Trasky, and Carl Yanagawa, Regional Supervisors of the D'ivjsion of Habitat for the Interior-Arctic, Southeast, hlestern and Southwest, and Southcentral regions, respectively. We would also like to acknowledge the many contributions of John A. Clark, who was Drrector of the Division of Habitat until his death in 1985. 114 General Introduction Orerview of the Habitat i{anagement Guides Proiect Background Alaska is an irunense and bountiful frontier, and until recently it was almost inconceivable that we would ever need to worry about its capacity to sustain the wealth of fish and wildlife resources for which it is renowned. But the impetus of progress has not abated, and the pressure to develop our lands and waters intensifies dai'ly. Every year more lands in Alaska are being proposed for uses other than as wi'ldlife habitat, especially around cities, towns, and vi1lages. These proposed uses inc'lude logging, mining, agriculture, settlement, and geotherma'1, oil and gds, and hydroelectric projects , among others. As the number of proposa I s and pl ans for development continues to increase, so does the need [o careful ly and efficiently evaluate their possible effects upon species and habitats, and upon human use of species. 0nce these evaluations have been completed we can recorrnend viable managerial options to guarantee that our valuable fish and wildlife resources and habitats, and uses of these fish and wild'life resources are adequately protected and maintained. By using appropriate planning and manageria'l techniques most of the potential for damage to fish and wildlife resources and loss of human use of these resources can be avoi ded. One of the responsibilities of the Alaska Department of Fish ancl Game (ADF&G) is to assist land managers by recommending to them the best ways and means, basecl upon the best available data, for protecting fish and wildlife resources and human use of these resources againsr impacts. Because many proposals and plans for development and land uses require a rapid response from the department, there may not be enough time for staff to actually stucly the specific area in which the proposed development is to occur. However, the department stjll needs to accumulate and assess a wide variety of information in order to prepare recomnendations for managing habitat. Therefore, the department initiated the Alaska Habitat Management Guides (AHMG) project to prepare reports of the kinds of information upon which its recormendations must be founded in order to responsibly and rapidly address land and water use proposals made by land managers. Pu rpose The Alaska Habitat Management Guides (AHMG) present the best available information on selected fish and wildlife species: mapping and discussing their geographical distribution; assessing their relative abundance; describing their life functions and habitat requirements; identifying the human uses made of them; describing their role in the state's economyi determ.ining the impacts of human land uses and developments on these species; anO developing guidelines to avoid or minimize such impacts. Essential ro assessing what might happen to fish and wildlife if their habitats are al tered is information about what impacts are typical ly associated with particular kinds of developmenta'l activities. The habitat rinug.rnunt guidei therefore also provide summaries of these known impacts.. This'informition, in conjunction with compiled species life history gnd distribution'informat'ion, will allow those concerned to estimate to what degr.ee fish and wildlife species and habitats are liable to be impact_ed and to develcrp recommendations for the avoidance or minimization of such impacts. , The comp'leted guides coverage of fish and wildlife resources encompasses.the Fish and Game Resource Mana-gement Regions established by the Joint Board of Fisheries ano Game (map 1): These regions provide the most'inclusive and consistent format foi presenting information and fish and wi'ldlife resources and relating it to management attivities and data collection efforts within the department. Appl i cati ons The choice of the term "guides" rather than "plans" for t!. reports is consistent with the largely- advisory role of the department with respec-t to I and management i ssues. The guides- wi 1 I provide the d.ep-artment as wel I as oit'.r stale, federal, and private land managers with information necessary for the devel opment of i anO ancl water use Pla.ns. Thqs , the gu i des themselves are not land management p1ans, and neither do they p-ro-vide for the allocation or enhancement of fish and wildlife populations. Information included in the gu'ides will be used by the department's staff during their i nvol vement i n t-he I and use pl ann'i ng endeavors of vari ous I and managers. ioi-speclfic 'land use plannihg efforts,--thq department ioins with other agencies to recommend particulai uses of Alaska's lands and waters, ds, for Area Plan, eiampfe,-Aasi in plarrs by-P1an, the Department of Natural Resources.(Susitna ianuhu ri Area Sbutheast Ti del ands Area Pl an ) . -Th. pub'l i c, by rujnr gf the public review that is an integral par! of land management ug.nii.t ' p1 anni ng processes , then has an opportuni ty tg eval uate any recommendations mioe by the ADF&G that are incorporated by the land management agencY. The guides have been ctesigned to provide- users with interrelated subiect habitat areas- that can be applleO to specific quest'ions regarding _ *inig.r"ni- Each type bf data will be presented in a separate volume, as inOiiareO in figure 1. Material from the project's database can be used, foi example, to correlate information on species' seasonal and.geographic habitat use with the writterr and mapped information on known distribution and abundance. The narratives and maps regarding human use.s of fish and wildl.ife cdn be compared with abundance and distribution information to obtain an indication of the overall regional patterns of distribution' o oD \ \ o $ b- o -o-cn o EE:EoE { 333t&E===l/.,='tb=i=obgl o rttttl I FN(v)Tlo@ o :bu D ,o J I Q) o aL a q) It (, q) E q, trr o c o E .g 3 o 7 € .ia a c q) a,i ! e, It ! o h A (tt a (lt tr ! tr G (t q)) o li € o a q) cl F c L J EI lJ.
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