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Wildlife Conservation Strategy Wildlife Conservation Strategy Boise National Forest July 2010 What is the Wildlife Conservation Strategy? The Boise National Forest is developing a Wildlife Conservation Strategy (WCS) in accordance with its Land and Resource Management Plan (Forest Plan). The WCS will prioritize the types of activities that should be undertaken to help maintain or restore habitat for wildlife species in greatest need of conservation. The WCS will also identify where these actions are most needed. Assessing 300 wildlife species and their habitats on the planning unit is very complex. To reduce this complexity, the WCS and associated Forest Plan amendments will be completed in four phases over the next 4–5 years, based on four major biological communities: ♦ Phase 1: Forested Biological Community ♦ Phase 2: Rangeland Biological Community ♦ Phase 3: Unique Combinations of Forested and Rangeland Communities ♦ Phase 4: Riparian and Wetland Communities The Forest Service completed Phase 1 of the WCS in July 2010. Location of the Boise National Forest Why did the Forest Undertake Development of a WCS? In 2003, the Boise National Forest revised its 1990 Forest Plan. During Forest Plan revision, wildlife habitat families that had declined from historical conditions were identified and management direction was developed for these families based on identified habitat conservation and restoration needs. However, a comprehensive strategy that prioritized areas for wildlife habitat maintenance and restoration was not included in the 2003 Forest Plan update. Instead, the revised Forest Plan contained a wildlife objective (WIOB03) that called for developing such a strategy—the WCS. Work began in 2005 to meet this wildlife objective by developing a strategy that prioritizes areas for treatments to improve the health and sustainability of forests and associated wildlife habitat. A strategic approach will allow the Forest Service to focus its limited resources in areas where the greatest benefits may be realized. The long-term goal of the WCS will be to maintain or restore a representative, resilient, and redundant network of wildlife habitats across the Boise National Forest that will provide for a diversity of terrestrial species and be consistent with overall multiple-use objectives. The short-term emphasis will be placed on prioritizing and restoring habitats associated with species believed to be of greatest conservation concern. Only those portions of the Forest Plan needed to integrate the WCS will be amended through this forest planning process. The remaining portions of the Forest Plan that address other multiple-use management goals and objectives will not be changed. Old-forest ponderosa pine habitat 1 WCS Phase 1 Decision Alternative B (the Proposed Action) has been selected by the Responsible Official, Forest Supervisor Cecilia R. Seesholtz. The rationale for making this decision can be found in the Record of Decision (ROD) issued in July 2010. This decision is subject to the optional appeal procedures available during the planning rule transition period pursuant to 36 CFR 219.35(b) provisions of the 2000 Planning Rule (65 FR 67514) and 2001 interpretative rule (66 FR 1864). The ROD contains direction on filing appeals. A brief overview of the WCS assumptions, foundational conservation principles, alternatives assessed in the supporting Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and their anticipated effects are presented below. For detailed alternative discussions and effects disclosure, refer to the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). Underlying Assumptions for Developing the WCS Historical range of variability increases as habitat departure from ♦ Using the HRV to guide (HRV) concepts have been used as the HRV increases. management implies managing for an underlying foundation to this ♦ Strategies using the HRV remain a range of conditions, not a single amendment process. Using HRV useful in light of evidence of condition. concepts to guide forest planning first climatic change because historical ♦ Managing within the range of the came from a committee of scientists. forests were likely more resilient HRV allows greater latitude and While the HRV has limitations, it and resistant to drought, insect requires greater flexibility than continues to be used as a tool to pathogens, and severe wildfire. many traditional management develop management strategies. The ♦ Using the concept of the HRV strategies. following are underlying assumptions does not mean taking landscapes ♦ To provide for the variety of in using the HRV: back to a pre-Columbian condition multiple uses from the Boise or that human uses should be National Forest, managing for a ♦ The risk of losing species, precluded from the landscape. subset of HRV rather than the full ecosystem processes, or genetic range was deemed appropriate. diversity within populations Six Conservation Principles To ensure the WCS is based on the 3. Large blocks of habitat containing best available science, it draws upon large populations of species are a variety of scientifically accepted superior to small blocks of conservation concepts that were habitat containing small converted into six conservation populations. principles to guide the development of 4. Blocks of habitat close together are Forest Plan strategies. The principles better than blocks far apart. and indicators generated by the 5. Interconnected blocks of fragmented interdisciplinary team provided habitat are better than isolated blocks, the framework for developing the and dispersing individuals travel more Proposed Action: readily through habitat resembling that 1. Species well distributed across preferred by the species in question. their range are less susceptible to 6. Blocks of habitat that are in areas extinction than species confined to where the direct or indirect effects small portions of their range. of human disturbance are low are 2. Habitat in contiguous blocks is more likely to provide all elements better than fragmented habitat. of species’ source environments than Pileated woodpecker, a Forest Plan Management Indicator Species (MIS) areas that are not. 2 The Role of Fire Historically, wildfire disturbance helped shape forested landscapes across the Boise National Forest. However, decades of fire exclusion, forest management, wildfires, insect outbreaks, and other factors have substantially altered the structure of forests, especially in the low- to mid-elevation ponderosa pine forest that comprise about 52% of the forested acres on the Boise National Forest. While fire frequency has remained relatively stable, ongoing drought, severe weather conditions, and in some cases, altered forest structure have contributed to a dramatic increase in the number of acres affected by wildfire over the last two decades. In addition, past forest management—which actively suppressed most wildfires and favored harvesting large, economically desirable ponderosa pine and other fire-resistant species—helped create undesirable conditions that vary from historical conditions. These same influences have directly and indirectly affected wildlife habitat quality, quantity, and distribution, especially within the low- to mid-elevation ponderosa pine forests. Moreover, the updated multi-scale assessment indicates that most terrestrial wildlife species of concern associated with the forested biological community are linked to habitats found in the low- to mid-elevation ponderosa pine forests. Total acres burned between 1952 and 2007 Historically, many low-elevation forests in southern As wildfires were excluded over the last century, Idaho were “single-storied,” characterized by old, many warm, dry forests in southern Idaho developed large ponderosa pine (below). multiple “stories,” or canopies, with smaller trees filling in below and between large, old trees (right). 3 Current Forest Conditions Compared to Historical Conditions Compared to historical conditions (i.e., HRV), an updated assessment by the Boise National Forest found or projected the following trends: The Historical Range ♦ Substantial reductions in the abundance and extent of the large tree of Variability (HRV) is size class and old-forest habitat, especially in the low- to mid-elevation defined for this analysis ponderosa pine forests1 as the vegetation ♦ Substantial reductions in the abundance of legacy ponderosa pine, western conditions that existed larch trees, and large snags in managed areas. This reduction is believed to more than 100 years result from substantial reductions in the large tree size class and old-forest ago. Researchers assume habitat, snag removal levels in historic salvage operations, and greater that if a variety of removal of wood products where road access is extensive. historically functioning ♦ Substantial increases in tree densities and ladder fuels within stands, ecosystems across resulting in reduced habitat quality and increased risks for habitat loss from the landscape can be future uncharacteristic wildfire or insect events in the low- to mid-elevation produced or mimicked, ponderosa pine forests then much of the habitat for native flora and ♦ Reductions in habitat quality due to increases in climax tree species fauna should be present. (e.g., Douglas-fir and grand fir) that historically would not have been as widespread within the low- to mid-elevation ponderosa pine forests ♦ Reductions in forest cover from uncharacteristic wildfire and/or insect and disease events, all of which have become more extensive and severe with changes in tree species
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