Programmatic Environmental Assessment for Implementation of the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program Agreement for Pennsylvania
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PROGRAMMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE VOLUNTARY PUBLIC ACCESS AND HABITAT INCENTIVE PROGRAM AGREEMENT FOR PENNSYLVANIA FINAL THE PENNSYLVANIA GAME COMMISSION In Partnership With U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency May 2011 ES- ES- BLANK ES - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) describes the potential environmental consequences resulting from the proposed implementation of Pennsylvania’s Voluntary Public Access Habitat Incentive Program (VPA-HIP) agreement. The environmental analysis process is designed: to ensure the public is involved in the process and informed about the potential environmental effects of the proposed action; and to help decision makers take environmental factors into consideration when making decisions related to the proposed action. This PEA has been prepared by the Pennsylvania Game Commission in accordance with the requirements of the United States Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, the Council on Environmental Quality regulations implementing NEPA, and 7CFR 799 Environmental quality and Related Environmental Concerns – Compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. Purpose and Need for the Proposed Action The purpose of the proposed action is to implement Pennsylvania’s VPA-HIP agreement. Under the agreement, eligible private lands in Pennsylvania will be enrolled in the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s existing Public Access Cooperator Program and an enhanced mapping system of these properties will be developed for the hunting public to locate and utilize these Public Access properties. The Game Commission will provide incentives for new cooperator enrollment such as increased availability of antlerless deer tags for deer control, a Pennsylvania Game News subscription, payments to public access cooperators that provide grassland habitat for upland birds, and free services including property-specific wildlife habitat plans, habitat improvements, bird and mammal nesting boxes and pheasant stocking. The Pennsylvania Game Commission VPA-HIP agreement is needed to meet the following goals: • Provide 25% more new hunting and trapping opportunities to hunters and trappers for pheasants, rabbits, woodcock, ducks, quail, mink and muskrats. • Increase our current 3 million acre, 13,822 public access participant program by 1 million acres and 6,065 private landowner cooperators with 5-year contracts within 3 years. • Increase habitat quality on at least 100,000 acres on participating properties to increase the quality of the recreational experience of the users and increase the likelihood that recreational users will visit CREP and other access properties for recreation. • Achieve the above objectives by enhancing existing program elements and instituting new program elements to improve habitat and increase program participation by landowners and availability and use by hunters and trappers. ES- 1 Proposed Action and Alternatives The proposed action would implement Pennsylvania’s VPA-HIP agreement. Under this agreement, 1,000,000 additional acres of eligible private lands in Pennsylvania statewide would be enrolled in the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Public Access Program over the next three years. Wildlife habitats would be improved and Pennsylvania hunters will be provided access to enhanced mapping of private lands open to public hunting. The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) will expand its existing successful public access program to provide the public with new opportunities for hunting, trapping, and wildlife-watching. The proposed program enhancements include increased mapping, signing, outreach, cooperator incentives and habitat improvements and will be focused in the 59 county-area currently eligible to enroll land in the existing two CREPs and any of the remaining 8 counties that may be included in a proposed CREP during the grant period. The PGC will enhance existing program elements and institute new program elements to improve habitat and increase program participation by landowners and availability and use by hunters and trappers. Landowner participation will be encouraged in the public access program by offering new or enhanced incentives, which either have proven to be successful in our programs in the past, or based on the results of our Responsive Management survey of public access cooperators, are expected to meet with widespread acceptance among landowners. Program elements including funding and other details to meet these objectives follow: o 1. Public Access Mapping – location data will be collected using GPS units for every cooperator property, locations will be verified, GIS based maps will be created that are available on the PA Game Commission website, and will be updated quarterly. Maps will be printed quarterly and made available to the public at all PGC offices, county Agricultural Service Centers and mailed upon request. o 2. A Public Access Field Coordinator position will be contracted to Pheasants Forever (PF) to ensure that public access signs that are embossed with all partner insignias, including FSA, are posted at all access points on public access cooperator properties, habitat evaluations are conducted on all properties to ensure adequate wildlife habitat is present to justify habitat and incentive payments to landowners, provide outreach on CREP mid-contract management participation and implementation, and supervise Public Access Habitat Specialists. Public Access Habitat Specialists contracted to PF will solicit enrollments from landowners on a targeted basis, provide outreach on CREP mid- contract management participation and implementation, and provide general access program outreach materials and presentations. o 3. NEW Cooperator Partnership Incentive Program – provide NGO and Local Agency partners with financial incentives standardized at $100/cooperator to enroll their personnel-contacted landowners into our program as a 5-year public access contract enrollment. o 4. Landowners Incentives Program – provide a multi-faceted menu of appropriate incentives to encourage private landowners to enroll in public access programs, ES- 2 specifically targeting CREP participants for many of the facets. Some activities and programs provided are not funded with this grant, but are provided as extra incentives. All enrolled landowners will get liability protection under state law by participating in our program, additional PGC law enforcement, and eligibility for all of the other applicable program enhancements listed below. CP2 Incentive Program – the PGC will pay any CREP participant that is enrolled or agrees to enroll in the public access program and selects CP2 (Native Grass Establishment) in their CREP contract, a one-time payment equal to the standard rental rate on all acres of CP2 planted for CREP up to $3,000 per landowner. Annual and 3-year Grassland Set-aside Program – highly targeted to new and existing public access cooperators in 6 pre-designated Wild Pheasant Restoration Areas and Quail Focus Areas to improve grassland bird nesting and brood rearing habitat in areas that PGC has invested in recovering wild populations of pheasants and quail. Cooperator Habitat Improvement Projects – contracted habitat improvements on private lands to create and improve native grassland and early successional habitats. The most targeted component of this program, designed to create up to 30 ten-acre minimum sized habitat projects on public access cooperators lands on a voluntary basis with priority given to landowners enrolled in CREP to create or improve additional habitat areas for sensitive species on acres not eligible for CREP. NEW Cooperative Invasive Weed Control Program –provide 3,000 public access cooperators with one 2 ½ gallon container of surfactant-free Glyphosate to treat a non-noxious, but invasive weed control issue related to habitat improvements, provide Aqua-Neat or similar surfactant-free glyphosate product to public access cooperators, including CREP cooperators to control weeds. Pennsylvania Game News subscription, a monthly magazine, will be provided free to all public access cooperators. The magazine will have a regular Public Access feature article, including one of the first that will highlight the VPA-HIP program. Bird boxes, Kestrel boxes, Barn owl boxes, Squirrel boxes, Bat boxes and others will be provided to cooperators at their request from their responses to our annual seedling and wood products solicitation each fall. Public Access cooperators participating in CREP will receive priority in box requests other than bluebird boxes. Stocking pen-raised upland game birds on CREP participant lands enrolled in PGC Public Access programs when not located in Wild Pheasant Restoration Areas (WPRA) or Quail Focus Areas (QFA). The results of our responsive management survey of public access cooperators indicated that landowners would like us to stock pen-raised pheasants and/or quail on their farms. We will stock at least 20 pheasants/quail on each CREP participant that is enrolled in public access that has at least 10 acres of adequate habitat as evaluated by our field staff or contract personnel. This PEA documents the analysis of the proposed action and the No Action Alternative. Under the No Action Alternative, no additional lands would be enrolled in public access program by these incentives. None of the conservation practices or rental payments described above would be ES- 3 implemented. No additional