Old Forest Habitat – 2009 Report The HFQLG Record of Decision requires that suitable habitat for old forest-dependent and aquatic/riparian-dependent species not be reduced by more than 10 percent of levels originally measured in 1999 within three specific old forest vegetation types across the Pilot Project. California Wildlife Habitat Relationship (CWHR) labels 5M, 5D and 6 are used to represent habitat required by old forest-dependent species. Each project planned to date under the HFQLG Pilot Project was evaluated to determine the reduction, if any, in the vegetation strata in CWHR labels 5D, 5M and 6. The vegetation strata CWHR size class 5 represents a single-story, predominantly large tree (greater than 24-inch diameter at breast height (DBH)) stand. Density class D has a 60100 percent canopy cover and density class M has a 40-59 percent cover. CWHR size class 6 represents a multi-layered stand where CWHR size class 5 is over a distinct layer of size class 4 (11-24 inch DBH) or size class 3 (6-11 inch DBH) and where total tree canopy is 60 percent or greater. Reductions are documented and a cumulative total is tracked to make sure no greater than a 10 percent reduction occurs over the life of the HFQLG Pilot Project. Vegetation strata analysis and mapping has calculated there are 204,770 acres with these strata labels in the Pilot Project. A more accurate assessment was completed in 2009 to amend the 1999 baseline. A cumulative total of reductions in habitat are tracked to monitor loss of old forest habitat. To date, 4,365 acres (2.1 percent) have, or will have, a reduction based on projects with a signed Record of Decision. For comparison, wildfire through 2009 reduced an additional 25,094 acres (12.3 percent). See Tables 1, 2 and 3 for more details. Table 1. HFQLG Projects related old forest habitat reductions. Ranger District Beckwourth Feather River Mount Hough Sierraville Almanor Eagle Lake Hat Creek Riparian Habitat Acres Old Forest Removed Habitat Reduced 614 3 1299 0 2419 0 0 0 33 0 0 0 0 0 Table 2. Wildfire related old forest habitat reductions. Ranger District Beckwourth Feather River Mount Hough Sierraville Almanor Eagle Lake Hat Creek Riparian Habitat Acres Old Forest Removed Habitat Reduced 657 0 0 0 24431 598 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 Table 3. Total reductions of old forest habitat within the HFQLG Pilot Project Area 1999-2006. Reductions are shown both for HFQLG implemented projects, and for comparison, reductions from wildfires are also shown. The reference condition is based on 1999 levels from the HFQLG vegetation layer CWHR labels 5M, 5D and 6. Old Forest Habitat Reductions HFQLG Projects Results of Wildfire Old Forest Habitat - 1999 Level Acres 4365 25,094 204,770 Percent of Percent old Total forest reduction Reductions 15 85 2.1 12.3 Prepared by: Colin Dillingham HFQLG Monitoring Team Leader 19 Feb 2010 Revised 9 Feb 2011 Note: This revision corrected a mistake. The Mt Hough HFQLG project reductions (Table 1, 2419 acres) had inadvertently been included also in the “Wildfire related old forest habitat reductions” table 2, and were accidently double counted. This version fixed the error.