DRAFT SUPPLEMENTAL SPECIAL-STATUS SPECIES SCREENING ANALYSIS Kirkland High Quality Pozzolan Mining and Reclamation Plan of Operations Prepared for: U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management, Hassayampa Field Office 21605 North 7th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85027 AZA 37212 May 4, 2018 WestLand Resources, Inc. 4001 E. Paradise Falls Drive Tucson, Arizona 85712 5202069585 Kirkland High Quality Pozzolan Draft Supplemental Special-Status Mining and Reclamation Plan of Operations Species Screening Analysis TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ...................................................................................... 1 2. METHODS ................................................................................................................................................ 1 3. RESULTS ................................................................................................................................................... 3 4. REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 31 TABLES Table 1. Bureau of Land Management Phoenix District Sensitive Species Potential to Occur Screening Analysis Table 2. Arizona Species of Greatest Conservation Need Potential to Occur Screening Analysis Table 3. Migratory Bird Potential to Occur Screening Analysis APPENDICES Appendix A. Bureau of Land Management, Arizona – Bureau Sensitive Species List (February 2017) Appendix B. Arizona Game and Fish Department Environmental Online Review Tool Report Appendix C. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Information for Planning and Consultation Resource List Appendix D. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Bird Conservation Region 33 Species List Appendix E. Arizona Breeding Bird Atlas Kirkland Quadrangle Query Results WestLand Resources, Inc. ii Q:\Jobs\1900's\1998.01\ENV\04 NEPA\403 Draft EA\Supplementals\SS_Species Screen\2018-05-04 DRAFT Submittal\Supp_SS_SpeciesScreen_05.04.18.docx Kirkland High Quality Pozzolan Draft Supplemental Special-Status Mining and Reclamation Plan of Operations Species Screening Analysis 1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND WestLand Resources, Inc. (WestLand) has prepared a supplemental special-status species screening analysis to support the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) analysis for the Kirkland High Quality Pozzolan Draft Mining and Reclamation Plan (Draft MRPO). Kirkland Mining Company (KMC) is proposing to mine a high quality natural pozzolan (HQP) and remove a stockpile of screened HQP fines from a previous mining operation (the Project) on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The Draft MRPO proposes future mining and related operations on approximately 88 acres within 160 acres of BLM land and 5 acres of KMC privately-held land1 (the Project). The Project is within portions of Sections 28, 32 and 33 of Township 13 North, Range 4 West, Gila and Salt River Baseline and Meridian (the Project Area). This special-status species screening analysis is a supplement to the Biological Evaluation (BE) prepared for the Project (EPG 2017). Additional species identified for evaluation are assessed in this document, including species from the BLM Arizona Sensitive Species List for the Phoenix District, species listed by Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) as Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN), and migratory birds with potential to occur within the Project Area. 2. METHODS Special-status species for the purpose of this report includes: 1. Species listed as sensitive on the BLM 2017 Arizona Sensitive Species List for the Phoenix District (Appendix A); 2. Species listed by AGFD as a Tier 1a or 1b under SGCN2 (Appendix B); 3. Migratory bird species listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that: a. have been identified by the USFWS Arizona Ecological Service Field Office through the unofficial Information, Planning, and Conservation System (IPaC) report (Appendix C)3 b. as having potential to occur within the Project Area, or 1 Privately held lands are located within a portion of Section 29 of Township 13 North, Range 4 West, Gila and Salt River Baseline and Meridian. 2 Tier 1a includes species that have been scored as “vulnerable” by AGFD, and are regulated under one of five additional laws or regulations (AGFD 2018). Tier 1b species have been scored as “vulnerable” by AGFD, but do not match any of the additional criteria required for 1a species. Tier 1c includes species with insufficient information to be evaluated for vulnerability; Tier 1c species were not included in this analysis. 3 The IPaC identifies species that may occur within one or more delineated United States Geological Survey 7.5-minute quadrangles that the Project Area intersects (Appendix C). An unofficial USFWS IPaC report (Appendix C) was used to identify migratory bird species, rather than an official IPaC report, as official IPaC reports only include critical habitat and species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). WestLand Resources, Inc. 1 Q:\Jobs\1900's\1998.01\ENV\04 NEPA\403 Draft EA\Supplementals\SS_Species Screen\2018-05-04 DRAFT Submittal\Supp_SS_SpeciesScreen_05.04.18.docx Kirkland High Quality Pozzolan Draft Supplemental Special-Status Mining and Reclamation Plan of Operations Species Screening Analysis c. are identified in Bird Conservation Region (BCR) 33 (Sonoran and Mojave Deserts U.S. portion only) (Appendix D), from the USFWS Birds of Conservation Concern list (2008); and 4. Species listed by the USFWS under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) identified either in the IPaC query (Appendix C) or the BLM Arizona Sensitive Species List for the Phoenix District (Appendix A). The BLM has identified sensitive species for the Phoenix District in the 2017 BLM Arizona Sensitive Species List (Appendix A). The list includes species within the Phoenix District that meet the BLM-established criteria for sensitivity, as well as federally-listed species listed that have the potential to occur within the district. The AGFD Heritage Database Management System (HDMS) online environmental review tool query was used to identify SGCN-listed species predicted by AGFD’s HabiMap tool to occur within five miles (eight kilometers [km]) of the Project Area (Appendix B). Additionally, the HDMS query identified special status species recorded within 5 miles of the Project Area. Species that do not meet the parameters of a special status species as defined in this report (for example, U.S.D.A. Forest Service sensitive species) were excluded from analysis. The complete list of special-status species generated from the above sources was compared to the list of species analyzed in the BE prepared for the Project Area (EPG 2017). Species that had already been analyzed in the BE were excluded from further analysis. Determinations of the potential for special-status species to occur in the Project Area were based on: • Field survey observations and habitat assessments of the Project Area; • Review of the natural history and known geographical and elevational ranges of special status species; • Results of an AGFD HDMS online environmental review tool query, which provided records of special status species within 5 miles (8 km) of the Project Area (Appendix B); • Results of an Arizona Breeding Bird Atlas HDMS query of the Kirkland 7.5-minute series USGS Quadrangle (Kirkland Quadrangle), which provides records or suspected occurrences of breeding birds within a 7.5-minute quadrangle (Appendix E). The Project Area occurs entirely within the Kirkland Quadrangle; 4 • Review of other occurrence records in published or grey literature; and • Comparisons of this information with the habitats present in the Project Area. 4 Grey literature includes documents that are not controlled by commercial publishers such as technical reports produced by government agencies, academic institutions, scientific research groups, or private industry (e.g., AGFD unpublished species abstracts and maps). WestLand Resources, Inc. 2 Q:\Jobs\1900's\1998.01\ENV\04 NEPA\403 Draft EA\Supplementals\SS_Species Screen\2018-05-04 DRAFT Submittal\Supp_SS_SpeciesScreen_05.04.18.docx Kirkland High Quality Pozzolan Draft Supplemental Special-Status Mining and Reclamation Plan of Operations Species Screening Analysis The criteria used to determine the potential of occurrence of each species included in this screening analysis are defined as follows: Present: The species has been observed to occur in the Project Area based on known records, the Project Area is within the known range of the species, and habitat characteristics required by the species are known to be present. Possible: The species has not been observed in the Project Area based on known records, but the known, current distribution of the species includes the Project Area and the required habitat characteristics of the species may be present in the Project Area. Unlikely: The known, current distribution of the species does not include the Project Area, but the distribution of the species is close enough such that the Project Area may be within the dispersal or foraging distance of the species. The habitat characteristics required by the species may be present in the Project Area. None: The Project Area is outside of the known distribution of the species, and/or the habitat characteristics required by the species are not present. WestLand biologists conducted a field visit on January 28 and May 24, 2017, to assess the physical and biological environment of the Project Area, which