Botanical Resources Report 2015 SW Oregon Mineral Withdrawal Botanical Resources Report: Threatened, Endangered, Sensitive (TES) and Survey and Manage (SM) Plants/Fungi; Invasive Plants; Botanical Areas, Research Natural Areas and Areas of Critical Environmental Concern 2015 Southwestern Oregon Mineral Withdrawal Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, Bureau of Land Management Medford and Coos Bay Districts A hanging fen populated by Darlingtonia californica along Pack Saddle Gulch, a tributary to the N. Fork Smith River /s/ Clint Emerson Date: March 10, 2016 Clint Emerson, Rogue-River Siskiyou Forest Botanist /s/ Bryan Wender Date: March 10, 2016 Bryan Wender, Medford BLM District Botanist 1 Botanical Resources Report 2015 SW Oregon Mineral Withdrawal Botanical Resources Introduction The Southwestern Oregon Watershed and Salmon Protection Act of 2015 (S. 346 and H.R. 682) was introduced to Congress on February 3, 2015, proposing to withdraw certain lands in Curry County and Josephine County, Oregon from all forms of mineral entry, appropriation, or disposal under public land laws, subject to valid existing rights. This proposed legislation includes federally owned land within the area depicted on two maps submitted with the draft legislation. The areas include approximately 5,216 acres of BLM-managed public domain and revested Oregon California Railroad lands (O&C), and 95,806 acres of National Forest System (NFS) lands. As a result of the legislative proposal, the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management published a Notice of Proposed Withdrawal and Notification of Public Meetings in the Federal Register on June 29, 2015. The notice segregates for two years the described lands from settlement, sale, location, and entry under the public land laws, location and entry under the United States mining laws, and operation of the mineral and geothermal leasing laws. The purpose and need of the proposed 5-year temporary withdrawal is to maintain the current environmental baseline, relative to mining, mineral exploration and development, and geothermal energy development, while Congress considers legislation enacting a permanent withdrawal from mineral entry for the federal lands depicted on the official maps. Proposed Action: 5-year Mineral Withdrawal The Forest Service and BLM propose a 5-year withdrawal from location and entry under the United States mining laws, and operation of the mineral and geothermal leasing laws for approximately 5,216 acres of BLM-managed public domain and revested Oregon California Railroad Grant lands and 95,806 acres of National Forest System lands in Josephine and Curry Counties. An additional 1,680 acres of non-federal lands included in the external boundaries of the maps would not be affected. Under withdrawal, no new mining claims may be located, mineral entry would be prohibited, and no mineral leasing is allowed. Withdrawal from operation under the mining and mineral leasing laws is subject to valid existing rights (VER). Existing mining claims may be developed after a minerals validity examination determines that a discovery of a valuable mineral deposit existed at the time of the segregation. No other land management activities are affected by withdrawal from mineral entry. The duration of the requested withdrawal is five years. At the end of this period, the BLM will reevaluate the withdrawal concerning the desirability and justification for extending the withdrawal for an additional period. Alternative Action: 20-year Withdrawal In response to public input received during the 90-day comment period, we will analyze withdrawal for a 20-year period. This alternative is the same in detail as the proposed action, except for the extended time period. 2 Botanical Resources Report 2015 SW Oregon Mineral Withdrawal No Action: No Mineral Withdrawal Withdrawal from location and entry under the mining laws and operation of the mineral and geothermal leasing laws would not occur, and the current segregation would end with the Secretary’s decision. New mining claims could be established, and proposed plans of operation and notices of intent could be submitted. The agencies would proceed with evaluating and authorizing previously submitted PoOs, subject to site-specific NEPA analysis including specified mitigations and project design criteria for mining and mineral development. Suction-dredge operations could occur outside of the streams currently covered by the State of Oregon’s moratorium on motorized placer mining (Oregon Senate Bill 838, July 2013) and on all streams within the project area after the moratorium expires in January 2021. Regulatory Framework Threatened, Endangered and Sensitive Plants and Fungi Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 provides the impetus for language in Forest Service Manual (FSM) sections 2670.31 and 2670.32 which outline objectives at a national level for the management of threatened, endangered and sensitive plant and fungi species on USFS lands. The objectives are explicit in their intent to inform forest level management plans leading to the following forest-wide standards and guidelines within the 1989 Siskiyou National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (SLRMP) for plant species of conservation concern (see SLRMP IV 26-27, 37). SLRMP Standards and guidelines applicable at the project level include: 1. Monitor the effects of management activities on TES plant species. If the results of monitoring show a decline in species viability then, alter the management strategy. 2. Analyze the potential effects of all ground disturbing projects on TES plant species and habitat. Mitigate project effects to avoid a decline in species viability at the Forest level. 3. Map, record, and protect essential habitat for TES plant species. Species management guides should be prepared to address the effects of land management activities on local populations of TES at a broader scale, and to identify opportunities to enhance and develop habitat locally. Similarly, for lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the District Records of Decision (ROD) and Resource Management Plans (RMP) provide management direction relevant to the proposed action. Management direction provided in the Medford District ROD/RMP (BLM 1995a) includes: 1. Protect lands that have important resource values or substantial levels of investment by withdrawing them, where necessary, from the implementation of nondiscretionary public land and mineral laws (p. 49). 2. Manage for the conservation of Bureau Sensitive species and their habitats. Study, maintain, or restore community structure, species composition, and ecological processes of special status plant and animal habitat (p. 51). 3. Maintain, protect, or restore relevant and important values of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (p. 56.) 3 Botanical Resources Report 2015 SW Oregon Mineral Withdrawal The Coos Bay District ROD/RMP also provides management direction to maintain, protect, or restore relevant and important values of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (BLM 1995b, p. 38). Survey and Manage Plants and Fungi The 1993 Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (FSEIS) and 1994 Record of Decision for Amendments to Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Planning Documents within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl (also known as the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP)) created the survey and manage standard and guideline for all land allocations on the west side of the Cascades in Oregon, Washington and northern California and east Cascade forests within the range of the northern spotted owl. The standard and guidelines were created to gain information that could help manage a set of lesser known and possibly rare taxa. Species of fungi, lichens, bryophytes and vascular plants were included to determine the status of their population viability. The original survey and manage provision of the NWFP was amended in 2001 and 2004, then it was completely removed in 2007. A recent settlement agreement to a lawsuit (Conservation Northwest, et al. v. Sherman, et al., No. 08-1067-JCC (W.D. Wash.)) reinstated the program to the 2001 species list and level of management. On December 17, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington issued an order in Conservation Northwest, et al. v. Sherman, et al., No. 08-1067-JCC (W.D. Wash.), granting Plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment and finding NEPA violations in the Final Supplemental to the 2004 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to Remove or Modify the Survey and Manage Mitigation Measure Standards and Guidelines (USDA and USDI, June 2007). In response, parties entered into settlement negotiations in April 2010, and the Court filed approval of the resulting Settlement Agreement on July 6, 2011. Projects that are within the range of the northern spotted owl are now subject to the survey and management standards and guidelines in the 2001 ROD, as modified by the 2003 annual species review. Invasive Species Policy Management direction on this subject is given in the Siskiyou NF LRMP under forest-wide standards and guidelines item 12-6: "Control of Invasive Plants should be accomplished in cooperation with state, county, and private organizations through Weed Control Districts or Coordinated Resource Management Agreements. Preventive management is critical to an effective control program." In addition, this document incorporates by reference the specific standards and guidelines described in the Pacific Northwest Region