however, much of the proposed 

 project would not affect bald 

 eagles. The harvesting of 

 approximately 120 acres within 

 the home -range area would not 

 include the harvesting of 

 ponderosa pine or western larch 

 and should have a negligible 

 cumulative effect on the 

 availability of potential 

 nesting and perching trees . 

 Disturbance near Dog Lake may 

 displace foraging bald eagles 

 for the duration of the proposed 

 project. Concurrently, no other 

 plans are under consideration 

 that would affect eagle use of 

 the territory. 



Mitigation Measure Included: 



Cease all operations and consult 

 with a DNRC biologist for further 

 mitigations should an eagle nest 

 be observed within 1 mile of any 

 project-related activities. 



> Grizzly "Bear (C/rsusarceosi 



Issue 



There is concern that timber 

 harvesting and associated 

 activities could alter habitat or 

 create disturbance that would be 

 detrimental to grizzly bears. 



Existing Environment 



Grizzly bears are wide-ranging 

 mammals that use forested upland 

 habitats. Preferred grizzly bear 

 habitats are meadows, riparian 

 zones, avalanche chutes, subalpine 

 forests, and big game winter 

 ranges, all of which provide 

 seasonal food sources . The 

 proposed project area lies within 

 the Lazy Creek and Stryker Bear 

 Management Subunits of the North 

 Continental Divide Ecosystem 

 (NCDE) Recovery Area {USFWS 1993), 

 and grizzly bears are known to 

 inhabit the project area. 



The Lazy Creek Bear Management 

 Subunit is approximately 34,560 

 acres (54 square miles) managed/ 

 owned by: 



- Plum Creek Timber Company 

 (15,013 acres) , 



- State ownership managed by DNRC 

 (14,520 acres) , 



- FNF (4,008 acres), and 



- other private landowners (1,020 

 acres) . 



The Stryker Bear Management 

 Subunit is approximately 40,729 

 acres (64 square miles) managed/ 

 owned by: 



- State ownership managed by DNRC 

 and others (33,054 acres), 



- FNF (7,542 acres), and 



- other private landowners (133 

 acres) . 



There have been several recent 

 grizzly bear sightings within the 

 general vicinity of the project 

 area that have occurred on: 



- adjacent portions of Stillwater 

 State Forest, 



- adjacent portions of FNF, and 



- on Plum Creek Timber Company 

 land west of the project area. 



Grizzly bears generally use 

 different habitats relative to 

 season. The Dog Meadow Timber 

 Sale Project area is primarily 

 spring habitat. Summer or autumn 

 habitat values are low within the 

 project area. 



Managing human access is a major 

 factor in management for grizzly 

 bear habitat. DNRC is committed 

 to designing projects to result in 

 no net increase in the proportion 

 of each subunit of a bear 

 management unit (State trust lands 

 only) that exceed an open-road 

 density (percent of open road) of 

 1 mile per square mile and a total 

 road density (percent of total 

 road) of 2 miles per square mile 

 from levels in 1996 . 

 Additionally, DNRC is also 

 committed to a no-net decrease in 

 security core areas. Security 

 core areas should be 0.3 miles 

 from open roads or high-use 

 trails. Security core areas are 

 not necessarily roadless, but 



Appendix E-Wildlife Analysis 



Page E-9 



