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