CONSERVATION STRATEGY FOR HENRYS FORK BASIN WETLANDS by Mabel Jankovsky-Jones Conservation Data Center April 1996 Idaho Department of Fish and Game 600 South Walnut, P.O. Box 25 Boise, ID 83707 Jerry M. Conley, Director DEQ Standard Contract # QCO17100 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................i LIST OF FIGURES........................................................ii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................ii LIST OF APPENDICES....................................................ii SUMMARY.............................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...................................................iv INTRODUCTION ........................................................1 STUDY AREA ..........................................................2 STATUS OF WETLANDS..................................................3 National Wetlands Inventory...............................................3 Wetland Acreage ......................................................5 Wetland Types........................................................6 Wetland Ownership ....................................................6 Wetland Protection Status ...............................................7 Wetland Condition.......................................................7 Wetland Losses .......................................................8 Functional Shifts.....................................................8 Impairments.......................................................8 Type Changes.....................................................10 Enhancements.....................................................10 WETLAND PLANT COMMUNITIES.........................................10 Forested Vegetation .....................................................11 Scrub-shrub Vegetation...................................................12 Emergent Vegetation.....................................................12 Peatlands..............................................................12 RARE FLORA ...........................................................16 RARE ANIMALS.........................................................17 SIGNIFICANT SITES .....................................................19 Class I Sites............................................................20 Class II Sites...........................................................20 Reference Sites.........................................................20 Habitat Sites ...........................................................20 CONSERVATION OF HENRYS FORK WETLANDS ............................24 Class I Sites ............................................................24 Class II Sites ...........................................................24 Reference Sites .........................................................25 Habitat Sites ...........................................................25 Other Sites and Priorities for Conservation ....................................26 HOW TO REQUEST ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ............................27 LITERATURE CITED .....................................................28 i List of Figures Figure 1. Location of wetland and deepwater habitat in the basin by system. ............4 Figure 2. Acreage of wetland and upland habitat in the basin. ........................5 Figure 3. Acreage of wetland and upland habitat by county. .........................5 Figure 4. Dominant systems and subsystems in wetlands in the basin. ..................6 Figure 5. Land ownership of wetlands in the basin. ................................6 Figure 6. Location of wetland sites inventoried in the Henrys Fork Basin. ..............21 List of tables Table 1. Definition of wetland and deepwater systems. .............................3 Table 2. Acres of wetland and deepwater habitat by protected and unprotected status in the basin. ..................................................7 Table 3. Natural wetland plant communities in the Henrys Fork Basin. .................13 Table 4. Rare flora of Henrys Fork Basin wetlands. ...............................17 Table 5. Rare animals of Henrys Fork Basin wetlands. .............................18 Table 6. Definitions and indicators of criteria for allocating sites into management categories. .............................................19 Table 7. Wetland sites in the Henrys Fork Basin. .................................22 Table 8. Accessing wetlands related data housed at Idaho Department of Fish and Game. 27 List of appendices Appendix A. Key to wetland plant communities in the Henrys Fork Basin. ............ A-1 Appendix B. Characterization abstracts for high ranking plant communities in the Henrys Fork Basin. ........................................... B-1 Appendix C. Guidelines for assigning community ranks. ......................... C-1 ii Appendix D. Site summaries for wetland sites in the Henrys Fork Basin. ............. D-1 Appendix E. Wetland and deepwater habitat acreage for the basin and counties. ........ E-1 Appendix F. Taxonomy, range, status and management of rare plant species in the Henrys Fork Basin. ........................................... F-1 Appendix G. Taxonomy, range, status and management of rare animal species in the Henrys Fork Basin. ........................................... G-1 iii SUMMARY The Idaho Conservation Data Center received a wetland protection grant from the Environmental Protection Agency under the authority of Section 104 (b)(3) of the Clean Water Act to enhance existing wetland information systems. The information summarized here can be applied to state biodiversity, conservation, and water quality enhancement projects on a watershed basis. The initial project area encompassed the Henrys Fork Basin including the Teton River drainage. Currently, work is continuing in the Big Wood River basin, Idaho Panhandle watersheds, southeastern Idaho watersheds, and east-central basins. We used the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) to gain a broad perspective on the areal extant and types of wetlands in the basin. Land ownership and management layers were overlaid on the NWI to determine ownership and the protected status of wetlands. Plant communities occurring in the basin were placed into the hierarchical NWI classification and provide information relative to on-the-ground resource management. Assessment of the quality and condition of plant communities and the occurrence of rare plant and animal species allowed us to categorize forty-two wetland sites based on conservation intent. Eight wetlands occur in a relatively natural condition and full protection is the priority. The biological significance of the surveyed wetland sites and abstracts for rare plant communities, plant species, and animal species are provided to guide management activities. Land managers can apply the methods presented here to categorize wetlands which were not surveyed. We identify conservation strategies for sites surveyed and for plant communities that are unprotected or under-protected. Less than 4% of the wetlands in the basin have protection beyond regulatory provisions of the Clean Water Act. Most of the protected wetlands are in the emergent vegetation category. Deciduous forested wetlands, non-willow shrub wetlands, and peatlands are currently under-protected and should be of high priority for conservation activities. Only portions of the information from the NWI maps and database records are summarized in this conservation strategy. All information contained in the databases is available for public use except a limited amount of threatened and endangered species information considered sensitive by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Contacts for accessing digital and analog data are included at the end of this manuscript. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many individuals within federal, state, and private agencies provided assistance with this project. Staff of the Targhee National Forest, including Stuart Markow, Ronnee-Sue Helzner, Duane Monte, and Timm Kaminski suggested sites and furnished access to files, reports, and herbarium specimens. Regional personnel from Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Martha Wackenhut, June Johnson and Mel Sadecki, provided field tours and information on department iv projects. Karen Rice, Upper Snake River District BLM, helped prioritize sampling efforts and provided preliminary riparian data collected by field crews during the summer of 1995. Steve Ray, Teton County Natural Resources Conservation Service, assisted with landowner contacts and site selection. Mike Whitfield, Mary Maj, and Mike Merigliano of the Teton Valley Land Trust shared their knowledge of the natural history of the basin and provided valuable suggestions for potential sites. Louise Kellogg and Trent Stumph of The Nature Conservancy provided important information on TNC projects in the basin, The preparation of the manuscript and appendices would not have been possible without the assistance of headquarters staff at Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Pam Peterson and Linda Williams of the Conservation Data Center are responsible for most of the data entry from which the appendices were generated. George Stephens assisted with database management, report generation, and exporting files for use in GIS. Steve Rust helped develop standards for the site and managed area databases and provided input on community database management. Bob Moseley’s previous work in wetlands in the state and the basin