Glossary accessible—Pertaining to physical access to areas and calcareous—Consisting of or containing calcium activities for people of different abilities, especially carbonate. those with physical impairments. canopy—A layer of foliage, generally the uppermost adaptive resource management—The rigorous layer, in a vegetative stand; midlevel or understory application of management, research, and monitoring vegetation in multilayered stands. Canopy closure (also to gain information and experience necessary to assess canopy cover) is an estimate of the amount of overhead and modify management activities; a process that uses vegetative cover. feedback from research, monitoring, and evaluation of management actions to support or modify objectives CCP—See comprehensive conservation plan. and strategies at all planning levels; a process in CFR—See Code of Federal Regulations. which policy decisions are implemented within a framework of scientifically driven experiments to test cfs—Cubic feet per second. predictions and assumptions inherent in management plans. Analysis of results helps managers determine clonal—A group of genetically identical individuals (e. whether current management should continue “as is” g., plants, fungi, or bacteria) that have grown in a given or whether it should be modified to achieve desired location, all originating vegetatively (not sexually) conditions. from a single ancestor. adfl uvial—Lake dwelling. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)—The codifi cation of the general and permanent rules published in the Administration Act—National Wildlife Refuge System Federal Register by the executive departments and Administration Act of 1966. agencies of the federal government. Each volume of the CFR is updated once each calendar year. alternative—A reasonable way to solve an identifi ed problem or satisfy the stated need (40 CFR 1500.2); compatibility determination—See compatible use. one of several different means of accomplishing refuge purposes and goals and contributing to the Refuge compatible use—A wildlife-dependent recreational System mission (Draft Service Manual 602 FW 1.5). use or any other use of a refuge that, in the sound professional judgment of the director of the U.S. Fish amphibian—A class of cold-blooded vertebrates and Wildlife Service, will not materially interfere including frogs, toads or salamanders. with or detract from the fulfillment of the mission of the Refuge System or the purposes of the refuge annual—A plant that flowers and dies within 1 year of (Draft Service Manual 603 FW 3.6). A compatibility germination. determination supports the selection of compatible baseline—A set of critical observations, data, or uses and identified stipulations or limits necessary to information used for comparison or as a control. ensure compatibility. biological control—The use of organisms or viruses to comprehensive conservation plan (CCP)—A document control invasive plants or other pests. that describes the desired future conditions of the refuge and provides long-range guidance and biological diversity, also biodiversity—The variety of management direction for the refuge manager to life and its processes, including the variety of living accomplish the purposes of the refuge, contribute to organisms, the genetic differences among them, and the mission of the Refuge System, and to meet other the communities and ecosystems in which they occur relevant mandates (Draft Service Manual 602 FW 1.5). (Service Manual 052 FW 1.12B). The National Wildlife Refuge System’s focus is on indigenous species, biotic concern—See issue. communities, and ecological processes. cool-season grasses—Grasses that begin growth biotic—Pertaining to life or living organisms; caused, earlier in the season and often become dormant in produced by, or comprised of living organisms. the summer. These grasses will germinate at lower temperatures. Examples of cool-season grasses at the blowout— An area denuded of vegetation due to rapid refuge are western wheatgrass, needle and thread, and wind erosion. green needlegrass. 128 Draft CCP and EA, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, MT cover, also cover type, canopy cover—Present an environmental impact statement or a finding of no vegetation of an area. significant impact (40 CFR 1508.9). cultural resources—The remains of sites, structures, eutrophication--Characterized by an abundant or objects used by people in the past. accumulation of nutrients that support a dense growth of algae and other organisms, the decay of which deme—A local, usually stable population of depletes the shallow waters of oxygen in summer. interbreeding organisms of the same kind or species. extinction—The complete disappearance of a species depredation—Destruction or consumption of eggs, from the earth; no longer existing. broods, or individual wildlife due to a predatory animal; damage inflicted on agricultural crops or ornamental extirpation—The extinction of a population; complete plants by wildlife. eradication of a species within a specifi ed area. drawdown—The act of manipulating water levels in an fauna—All the vertebrate and invertebrate animals of impoundment to allow for the natural drying-out cycle an area. of a wetland. federal trust resource—A trust is something managed EA—See environmental assessment. by one entity for another who holds the ownership. The Service holds in trust many natural resources for ecosystem—A dynamic and interrelating complex of the people of the United States of America as a result plant and animal communities and their associated of federal acts and treaties. Examples are species listed nonliving environment; a biological community, under the Endangered Species Act, migratory birds together with its environment, functioning as a protected by international treaties, and native plant or unit. For administrative purposes, the Service has wildlife species found on a national wildlife refuge. designated 53 ecosystems covering the United States and its possessions. These ecosystems generally federal trust species—All species where the federal correspond with watershed boundaries and their sizes government has primary jurisdiction including and ecological complexity vary. federally endangered or threatened species, migratory birds, anadromous fish, and certain marine mammals. ecotone—The transition zone between two different plant communities, as that between forest and prairie. fen—An area of low, flat, marshy land. ecotype—A subspecies or race that is especially fl ora—All the plant species of an area. adapted to a particular set of environmental conditions. forb—A broad-leaved, herbaceous plant; a seed- EIS—Environmental impact statement. producing annual, biennial, or perennial plant that does not develop persistent woody tissue but dies down at emergent—A plant rooted in shallow water and having the end of the growing season. most of the vegetative growth above water such as cattail and hardstem bulrush. fragmentation—The alteration of a large block of habitat that creates isolated patches of the original endangered species, federal—A plant or animal habitat that are interspersed with a variety of other species listed under the Endangered Species Act habitat types; the process of reducing the size and of 1973, as amended, that is in danger of extinction connectivity of habitat patches, making movement of throughout all or throughout a significant portion of its individuals or genetic information between parcels range. difficult or impossible. endangered species, state—A plant or animal geographic information system (GIS)—A computer species in danger of becoming extinct or extirpated system capable of storing and manipulating spatial in a particular state within the near future if factors data; a set of computer hardware and software for contributing to its decline continue. Populations analyzing and displaying spatially referenced features of these species are at critically low levels or their (such as points, lines and polygons) with nongeographic habitats have been degraded or depleted to a attributes such as species and age. signifi cant degree. gleyed soil—Greenish-gray in color and oxygen- endemic species—Plants or animals that occur deprived due to high water content. naturally in a certain region and whose distribution is relatively limited to a particular locality. GIS—See geographic information system. environmental assessment (EA)—A concise public goal—A descriptive, open-ended, and often broad document, prepared in compliance with the National statement of desired future conditions that conveys a Environmental Policy Act, that briefl y discusses purpose but does not define measurable units (Draft the purpose and need for an action and alternatives Service Manual 620 FW 1.5). to such action, and provides sufficient evidence and analysis of impacts to determine whether to prepare Glossary 129 graminoid—Grasses or grasslike plants such as sedges mesotrophic— Commonly clear water lakes and ponds and rushes. with beds of submerged aquatic plants and medium levels of nutrients. grassland tract—A contiguous area of grassland without fragmentation. migration—Regular extensive, seasonal movements of birds between their breeding regions and their GS—General schedule (pay rate schedule for certain wintering regions; to pass usually periodically from one federal positions). region or climate to another for feeding or breeding. habitat—Suite of existing environmental conditions migratory birds—Birds that follow a seasonal required by an organism for survival and reproduction; movement