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CONSERVATION STRATEGY FOR SPOKANE RIVER BASIN WETLANDS Prepared by Mabel Jankovsky-Jones Conservation Data Center June 1999 Idaho Department of Fish and Game Natural Resource Policy Bureau 600 South Walnut, P.O. Box 25 Boise, ID 83707 Jerry Mallet, Interim Director Report prepared with funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency through Section 104(b) (3) of the Clean Water Act Grant No. CD990620-01-0 SUMMARY The Idaho Conservation Data Center has received wetland protection grant funding from the Environmental Protection Agency under the authority of Section 104 (b)(3) of the Clean Water Act to enhance existing wetland information systems. The information summarized here can be applied to state biodiversity, conservation, and water quality enhancement projects on a watershed basis. Previous project areas included the Henrys Fork Basin, Big Wood River Basin, southeastern Idaho watersheds, the Idaho Panhandle, and east-central basins. This document is a summary of information compiled for the Spokane River Basin. We used the United States Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) to gain a broad perspective on the areal extant and types of wetlands in the survey area. Land ownership and management layers were overlaid on the NWI to determine ownership and the protected status of wetlands. Plant communities occurring in the survey area were placed into the hierarchical NWI classification and provide information relative to on-the-ground resource management. Assessment of the quality and condition of plant communities and the occurrence of rare plant and animal species allowed us to categorize twenty-four wetland sites based on conservation intent. Five wetlands occur in a relatively natural condition and full protection is the priority. The biological significance of the surveyed wetland sites, abstracts for rare plant communities, and summaries of animal species are provided to guide management activities. Land managers can apply the process presented here to categorize wetlands which were not surveyed. We identify conservation strategies for sites surveyed and for plant communities that are unprotected or under-protected. Less than 5 percent of the wetlands in the survey area have protection beyond regulatory provisions of the Clean Water Act. Most of the protected wetlands are in the emergent vegetation category. Deciduous forested wetlands and scrub-shrub weltands are currently under-protected and should be of high priority for conservation activities. Additonally, peatlands should be of high priority for protections due to rarity. Only portions of the information from the NWI maps and database records are summarized in this conservation strategy. All information contained in the databases is available for public use except a limited amount of threatened and endangered species information considered sensitive by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Contacts for accessing digital and analog data are included at the end of this manuscript. i TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY .............................................................i TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................ii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................iii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................iii LIST OF APPENDICES ....................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................v INTRODUCTION ........................................................1 SURVEY AREA .........................................................2 STATUS OF WETLANDS ..................................................3 National Wetlands Inventory ...............................................3 Wetland Acreage and Types ..............................................5 Wetland Ownership ....................................................8 Wetland Protection Status ...............................................8 Wetland Condition .......................................................9 Wetland Losses .......................................................9 Functional Shifts ......................................................10 Impairments .......................................................10 Type Changes .....................................................13 Enhancements .....................................................14 WETLAND PLANT COMMUNITIES .........................................14 Forested Vegetation .....................................................15 Scrub-shrub Vegetation ...................................................15 Emergent Vegetation .....................................................16 Aquatic Bed and Lacustrine Littoral Vegetation .................................17 Moss-Lichen Vegetation ..................................................17 Peatlands ..............................................................17 RARE FLORA ...........................................................20 RARE ANIMALS .........................................................21 WETLAND SITE CLASSIFICATION .........................................23 Class I Sites ............................................................24 Class II Sites ...........................................................24 Reference Sites .........................................................24 Habitat Sites ...........................................................25 CONSERVATION OF SPOKANE RIVER BASIN WETLANDS ....................25 Class I Sites ............................................................25 Class II Sites ...........................................................26 Reference Sites .........................................................26 Habitat Sites ...........................................................27 Other Sites and Priorities for Conservation ....................................27 HOW TO REQUEST ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ............................31 LITERATURE CITED .....................................................32 ii List of Figures Figure 1. Location of wetland and deepwater habitat in the survey area by system. .........4 Figure 2(A). Comparison of upland and wetland (including deepwater) habitat in the Spokane River Basin . ............................................5 Figure 2(B). Dominant wetland (including deepwater) systems in the Spokane River Basin .........................................................5 Figure 3(A). Comparision of upland and wetland habitat in the Spokane River Basin. ......6 Figure 3(B). Dominant wetland (excluding deepwater) systems, subsystems, and classes in the Spokane River Basin ..........................................6 Figure 4(A). Comparison of upland wetland (including deepwater) habitat in Benewah County, Idaho ...................................................6 Figure 4(B). Dominant wetland (including deepwater) systems in Benewah County, Idaho ..6 Figure 5(A). Comparison of upland wetland (including deepwater) habitat in Kootenai County, Idaho ...................................................7 Figure 5(B). Dominant wetland (including deepwater) systems in Kootenai County, Idaho .........................................................7 Figure 6(A). Comparison of upland wetland (including deepwater) habitat in Shoshone County, Idaho ...................................................7 Figure 6(B). Dominant wetland (including deepwater) systems in Shoshone County, Idaho .........................................................7 Figure 7. Land ownership of wetlands in the survey area . ...........................8 Figure 8. Location of wetland sites inventoried in the Spokane River Basin. ..............29 List of Tables Table 1. Definition of wetland and deepwater habitat systems. ........................3 Table 2. Acres of wetland and deepwater habitat and protected status ..................9 iii Table 3. Plant communities and ranks in the Spokane River Basin, arranged by Cowardin system, class, and subclass. ............................................18 Table 4. Rare flora of the Spokane River Basin wetlands, conservation ranks, and INPS category. .........................................................20 Table 5. Rare animals of Spokane River Basin wetlands. ............................22 Table 6. Definitions and indicators of criteria for allocating sites into management categories. ........................................................23 Table 7. Wetland sites in the Spokane River Basin .................................30 Table 8. Accessing wetlands related data housed at Idaho Department of Fish and Game. ...31 List of Appendices Appendix A. Key to wetland plant communities in the Spokane River Basin. ........... A-1 Appendix B. Characterization abstracts for high ranking plant communities in the Spokane River Basin. ....................................... B-1 Appendix C. Guidelines for assigning community ranks. .......................... C-1 Appendix D. Site summaries for wetlands in the Spokane River Basin. ................ D-1 Appendix E. Wetland and deepwater habitat data for Hydrologic units and counties. ..... E-1 Appendix F. Range, status, and habitat of rare animal species in the Spokane River Basin. ...................................................... F-1 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many individuals within federal, state, and private agencies provided assistance with this project. K. J. Hackworthy and Janice Hill of the North Idaho office of The Nature Conservancy helped prioritize sampling efforts. Idaho

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