Habitat Concerns – 2008 Report The HFQLG ROD requires that habitat connectivity be maintained to allow movement of old forest or aquatic/riparian-dependent species between areas of suitable habitat. It further requires that suitable habitat for old forest-dependent species and aquatic/ripariandependent species shall not be reduced by more than 10 percent below 1999 levels. 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 186,394 acres with these strata labels in the Pilot Project. To date 3,774 acres have, or will have, a reduction based on projects with a signed Record of Decision. This is approximately 2.0 percent of the acres with these strata in the Pilot Project. For comparison purposes, wildfire reduced an additional 24,074 acres for an additional 12.9 percent reduction. 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 23 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 6 0 0 0 24062 598 0 0 0 0 6 unknown 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 Prepared by: Colin Dillingham HFQLG Monitoring Team Leader 30 Jan 2009 Acres 3774 24,074 186,394 Percent of Percent old Total forest reduction Reductions 14 86 2.0 12.9