ALABAMA POWER COMPANY BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA COOSA AND WARRIOR RIVER PROJECTS E6 – THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES DATABASE SUMMARY REPORT APRIL 2004 Prepared by: ALABAMA POWER COMPANY BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA COOSA AND WARRIOR RIVER PROJECTS E6 – THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES DATABASE SUMMARY REPORT APRIL 2004 Prepared by: ALABAMA POWER COMPANY BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA COOSA AND WARRIOR RIVER PROJECTS E6 – THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES DATABASE SUMMARY REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................1-1 2.0 DATABASE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE..................................2-1 2.1 Content and Geographic Scope........................................................................2-1 2.2 Database Sources.............................................................................................2-2 2.3 Data Reconciliation..........................................................................................2-5 2.4 Maintenance.....................................................................................................2-6 3.0 DATABASE SPECIES SUMMARY..................................................................3-1 3.1 Coosa River Basin............................................................................................3-1 3.2 Black Warrior River Basin...............................................................................3-1 3.3 Alabama River Basin .......................................................................................3-1 4.0 DISCUSSION......................................................................................................4-1 5.0 LITERATURE CITED........................................................................................5-1 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 List of Counties intersecting the CWA Basins. ...........................................T-1 Table 2 Species Removed from the RTE database...................................................T-2 Table 3 Federally listed species in the RTE database by drainage ...........................T-3 Table 4 List of Critical Habitat Units in the Coosa, Black Warrior, and Alabama River drainages ............................................................................................T-5 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Counties within the CWA Basins ................................................................F-1 - i - LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A CCRT and WCRT Meeting Summaries, June 20, 2001 Appendix B E-6 IAG Work Plan - ii - ALABAMA POWER COMPANY BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA COOSA AND WARRIOR RIVER PROJECTS E6 – THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES DATABASE SUMMARY REPORT 1.0 INTRODUCTION Alabama Power Company (APC) is currently relicensing nine hydroelectric developments on the Coosa and Warrior Rivers in Alabama. These developments include Smith and Bankhead in the Warrior Basin (FERC No. 2165); Weiss, Neely Henry, Logan Martin, Lay, and Bouldin in the Coosa Basin (FERC No. 2146); and the Mitchell (FERC No. 82) and Jordan (FERC No. 618) Projects, also in the Coosa Basin. The relicensing process includes a multi-year cooperative effort between APC and interested stakeholders to address operational, recreational, and ecological concerns associated with hydroelectric project operations. During the initial (scoping) phase of the relicensing process, APC organized a wide variety of stakeholders, including state and federal resource agencies, non-governmental organizations, and concerned citizens, to form the Warrior Cooperative Relicensing Team (WCRT) and the Coosa Cooperative Relicensing Team (CCRT). The WCRT and CCRT are plenary groups that guide efforts to address relicensing issues. As part of the relicensing process, the WCRT and CCRT agreed to form an Issue Action Group (IAG) to address issues related to threatened and endangered species (Issue E6) (Appendix A - WCRT Meeting Summary, June 20, 2001; CCRT Meeting Summary, June 20, 2001). The E6 IAG approved a work plan (Appendix B) at its initial meeting on August 7, 2001. This work plan called for the development of a database of sensitive, threatened, and endangered species. The IAG determined the geographic scope of the database. The database includes the entire Coosa River Basin, the portion of the Alabama River Basin upstream of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Claiborne Lock and Dam (located approximately 240 river - 1-1 - miles below Jordan Dam), and the entire Black Warrior River Basin. The IAG also identified several sources of data that should be included in the database. Kleinschmidt gathered species data from sources identified by the IAG and entered the data into a relational database (MS Access). The draft database was presented to the IAG on October 24, 2001. Based on comments at that meeting, the database was revised to include additional information. On January 15, 2002, the IAG met to review revisions to the draft database and develop recommendations to present to the WCRT and CCRT. The E6 IAG recommendations regarding the database were presented on January 29, 2002 and approved by the WCRT and CCRT (see Appendix A – Meeting Notes). This report was prepared to document the development and maintenance of the species database, which will herein be referred to as the Coosa-Warrior-Alabama Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Species Database or RTE Database. - 1-2 - 2.0 DATABASE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE 2.1 Content and Geographic Scope The RTE database is a relational database created and maintained in Microsoft Access. The RTE database contains over 1,400 individual records on 378 species of plants and animals in the Coosa and Black Warrior river basins, as well as the Alabama River basin upstream of Claiborne Lock and Dam (collectively “CWA Basins”). Records for each species include data in several categories, which are described below. Scientific name - Each species in the database was assigned a unique numeric identification number that is linked to its scientific name. Common name - The common names for each species are associated with the scientific names. For species that do not have common names, such as aquatic insects, a simple placeholder name was used (e.g., “a caddisfly”). Species type - Each species in the database is categorized by species type. Species types include fish, amphibians, mussels, snails, insects, arachnids, crustaceans, birds, mammals, reptiles, vascular and non-vascular plants. Federal status - All species that are designated as endangered, threatened, proposed for listing, candidates for listing, or for which critical habitat has been designated are uniquely identified as such in the RTE database. State status - In Alabama, certain non-game and invertebrate species are covered by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) regulations (Alabama Administrative Code 220-2-.92, 220-2-.98). Species covered by these regulations are uniquely identified in the RTE database. Global and State Ranks - NatureServe, The Nature Conservancy, and the Natural Heritage Network have created a system that ranks the conservation status of species according to criteria developed by those organizations (NatureServe 2003). The RTE database includes the global and state rank assigned by the NatureServe system for each species in the database. - 2-1 - Forest Service Status - The U.S. Forest Service designates certain species that occur on lands it manages as sensitive. Species designated as sensitive that are reportedly present in Bankhead National Forest adjacent to Lewis Smith Lake are uniquely identified in the RTE database. Habitat information - Information regarding the habitat preferences of certain species is contained in the RTE database. This information was derived from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recovery plans, as well as USFWS and NatureServe species accounts. Location data - Location information for many species is contained in the RTE database. The Location data is in latitude/longitude format and is accurate to the nearest minute (approx. 1.3 mi2) due to limitations of mapping technology. In some instances, more accurate data is available but is not being made available to the public to ensure protection of the species. While every effort was made to use the best available data during construction of the database, it should be noted that locational data has not been independently verified by APC or the E6 IAG. Several of the sources (including the Alabama Natural Heritage Program and the Georgia Natural Heritage Program) caution that location information in their databases may not be up-to-date, and in some instances, has not have been verified by recent on-site field surveys by the source database (Georgia Natural Heritage Program 2004, Alabama Natural Heritage Program 2003). 2.2 Database Sources The RTE database was developed based on information from the USFWS, Alabama Natural Heritage Program, NatureServe, the ADCNR State Lands Division – Natural Heritage Section, and the Georgia Natural Heritage Program. A detailed description of each of these information sources and their contribution to the RTE database is provided below. - 2-2 - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The USFWS Daphne Field Office maintains a web-based list of all Alabama species designated as threatened, endangered, proposed for listing, candidate for listing, and species for which critical habitat has been designated (USFWS 2003). The USFWS list includes the common name, scientific name, and status of federally listed species for each county in Alabama.