SPECIES at RISK REPORT for New Mexico and Arizona Funded by U.S. Department of Defense Legacy Grant Completed September 2006 Acknowledgements This report was funded by the Department of Defense through a Legacy Grant awarded to the Southwest Strategy Endangered Species Act Team in late 2004. The Southwest Strategy Endangered Species Act Team is composed of individuals from the Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Defense, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. Others participating in this effort included the Arizona Game and Fish Department Natural Heritage Program, New Mexico Game and Fish Department, and the New Mexico Natural Heritage Program. 2 Species at Risk Report TABLE OF CONTENTS Scope of Work . 4 Background Information. 4 Methodology. 4 Species at Risk List. 6 Species Papers. 6 Conclusion and Summary. 8 Appendices Appendix A – Species at Risk List Criteria. .9 Appendix B – Nature Conservancy Conservation Status Rankings. .10 Appendix C - Species Determined Priority for Preparing Species Papers. .19 Appendix D – Species Papers Format. .26 Appendix E – Species at Risk List. .27 Appendix F - Baird’s sparrow. .28 Appendix G - California floater. 33 Appendix H - Mexican gartersnake. 41 Appendix I - Poling’s hairstreak. 48 Appendix J - Rio Grande sucker. .52 Appendix K - Western red bat. .60 3 Scope of Work The purpose of this effort was to finalize a Species at Risk (SAR) list that has been under development by a group of federal and state agency biologists and threatened and endangered species Program Managers from Arizona and New Mexico over the last few years. In addition to finalizing the SAR list, a Species at Risk (SAR) Report was to be prepared. The SAR report was to include the SAR list and conservation and management recommendation papers for a number of the species found on the list. As a final step, the SAR Report was to be made available to state and federal agency biologists in Arizona and New Mexico to be used as a tool to assist them in becoming aware of the species at risk in the two states and to assist them with conserving and managing for these species when opportunities arise. Background Information In late FY 2001, as the result of interest by various state and federal agencies to engage in an effort to develop a consistent and comprehensive Interstate/Interagency SAR list for the states of Arizona and New Mexico, a coordination group was formed. This group was composed of state and federal agency biologists and threatened and endangered species Program Managers from the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZG&F), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Department of Defense (DOD), National Park Service (NPS), New Mexico Game and Fish Department (NMG&F), New Mexico Natural Heritage Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the U.S. Forest Service (FS). By 2004, a draft list had been prepared; however, it became difficult for the members of the group to remain active on the project and the list was never finalized. In 2004, the Southwest Strategy Endangered Species Act Team (SWESA)1, who were aware of the on-going effort to compile a sensitive species list for the two states, applied for and received a Legacy Grant from the DOD to complete the list and prepare a SAR Report. Funds were transferred to the FS for completion of the Grant in 2005. Methodology Species at Risk list The Interstate/Interagency coordination group began the process of developing a comprehensive sensitive species list for New Mexico and Arizona by agreeing upon a set of criteria (Appendix A). Specifically, the criteria developed required the inclusion of federally proposed and candidate species, as well as those species which have been federally delisted within the last 5 years. Furthermore, other species could be added if they had Nature Conservancy Conservation Status rankings of G1-3 or S1-3 (Appendix 1 The Southwest Strategy Endangered Species Act Team is composed of individuals from the Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Defense, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. The Team provides training and develops actions to improve implementation of the Endangered Species Act with focus on the section 7 consultation process. 4 B). A species could also be included if current knowledge indicated a high level of concern, if the species was state listed as threatened or endangered, if the species could be highly sensitive to indirect or cumulative effects of actions on the ground, or it could be demonstrated that the species had importance at the periphery of its range and that was the situation in New Mexico and/or Arizona for the species. For invertebrates, due to the large number of species, it was necessary to primarily limit the criteria to only those species which had Conservation Status rankings of G1 and S1, unless information was provided by a species expert that justified inclusion based on other factors. From the Interstate/Interagency Coordination group a Species Subgroup was formed. Species group leaders were chosen from the subgroup to represent the following species groups: Amphibians, Birds, Clams, Crustaceans, Fish, Insects, Mammals, Reptiles, and Snails. The species group leaders were fish and wildlife biologists from both the FS and FWS. Each group leader was responsible for developing a draft list of species for their particular species group by consulting with various experts (state and federal agencies, universities, and others) and databases (primarily NatureServe, Arizona Natural Heritage and Bison-M), or other sources as necessary. A draft SAR list was completed in 2004. The completion of the SAR list was accomplished by contacting the original Interstate/Interagency coordination group subgroup leaders to obtain the most current copy of their work on the 2004 draft SAR list. The list was reviewed for accuracy using information gathered from databases (primarily NatureServe, Bison-M, Arizona Natural Heritage Program and New Mexico Natural Heritage Program). In addition, habitat and management recommendation information were added for as many species as possible. Species Papers In order to determine which species on the SAR list could be considered priority for completing species papers; suggestions for inclusion were solicited from the species group leaders who were involved in originally developing the draft SAR list. From this effort, 25 species came forward as priority species (Appendix C; plants not included). It was quickly realized that, due to time and funding constraints, completing 26 species papers was unreasonable for this effort. Therefore, the SWESA Team developed the following set of criteria to narrow the number of species papers to those of highest priority for this effort: 1. Species with multiple land jurisdiction, especially those including Department of Defense lands; 2. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Proposed/Candidate species or State listed species; and, or 3. Species for which information is not readily available to field biologists. In addition, an effort was made by the SWESA Team to try to include species from as many of the species groups as possible. Six species were chosen based upon the criteria and the interest in having a wide representation of species. 5 A format for the species papers was developed by the SWESA Team (Appendix D). The format included a variety of information on the species, including a species description, life history, distribution and abundance, threats and range maps, and habitat management recommendations. The species papers were written based on information gathered from a variety of sources including NatureServe, Bison-M, Arizona’s Natural Heritage Program: Heritage Data Management System, New Mexico Heritage Program, and scientific journals and other scientific literature. Furthermore, the papers were sent to the species group leaders for their review. Species at Risk List (SAR) Appendix E contains the 2006 final SAR list for the states of Arizona and New Mexico. The list includes information on the species state and global status, state and federal listing status, land jurisdiction of occurrence, limiting factors and justification for inclusion on the list. For a large number of species on the SAR list columns with information on habitat requirements and management recommendations have also been included. These columns were added during this effort; however, it was not possible to complete these columns for all species at this time. Currently, the SAR list contains 448 (plants are not included2) (Table 1). Table 1. Number of species by Species Group on the 2006 SAR List. Species Group Number of Species Amphibians 14 Birds 62 Clams 7 Crustaceans 9 Fish 31 Insects 47 Mammals 133 Reptiles 48 Snails 97 Total 448 Species Papers Based on the criteria above (Methodology section), the following 6 species were identified as priority species: Baird’s sparrow Land ownership of occurrence: FWS, FS, BLM, DOD, NPS, state and private. 2 It should be noted that there is a separate ongoing effort to complete a similar list for sensitive plants species in Arizona and New Mexico; however, at this time that list is still in draft form. 6 This species has a restricted range, spotty distribution, and recent rapid and long-term population and range declines. Although considered secure globally (G4), the species is considered imperiled in both Arizona and New Mexico and NM (S2). In Arizona it is designated a Species of Special Concern and it is listed as threatened by the state of New Mexico. The species also occurs on the FWS List of Birds of Conservation Concern and is a Species of Concern for the New Mexico FWS Ecological Services field office.