to eagles perching or foraging along the 

 shorelines near these roads, thereby improving 

 habitat quality. No substantial harvesting 

 activities are proposed near any of the lakes 

 and all perch trees and screening vegetation 

 would remain under all alternatives. Most of 

 the large trees in the old stands near lakes that 

 may provide potential nest sites in the future 

 would remain. In summary, the proposed 

 project should have no negative impacts to 

 bald eagles and should have net positive 

 impacts due to the obliteration of roads near 

 lakes. 



PEREGRINE FALCONS 



All Alternatives 



No suitable nesting habitat exists within the 

 Beaver Lake project area, and the proposed 

 project would not negatively impact potential 

 nesting and foraging habitat. Peregrine falcons 

 would probably not find the existing condi- 

 tions suitable for nesting. Peregrine falcons do 

 not nest there now and do not readily colonize 

 new areas. Therefore, it is safe to assume that 

 peregrine falcons would not nest within the 

 project area any time during the activities of 

 this project. ,„„.....,. 



SENSITIVE SPECIES 

 CONSIDERED THROUGHOUT 

 THE ANALYSIS 



TOWNSEND'S BIG-EARED BAT 



No-Action Alternative"?^'''*'"" 



Townsend's big-eared bats occasionally use 

 large snags for roosting. The fate of roosting 

 habitat would follow that of the potential for 

 large snags. The No-Action Alternative would 

 provide for a slow increase in roosting habitat. 



Action Alternatives A and B -^•™- 



The action alternatives call for the retention of 

 large snags; thus, long-term habitat capability 

 should be maintained to the degree that snags 

 are provided. 



Identification of bat species in the field is 

 difficult; therefore, it is uncertain whether or 

 not Townsend's big-eared bats inhabit the 

 project area. Contracts written under any 

 action alternative would specify that if any 

 large aggregation of bats is discovered during 

 the preparation or administration of the sale, a 

 DNRC wildlife biologist would be informed as 

 soon as possible. Depending on the nature of 

 the report, the biologist would then coordinate 

 efforts to determine the species. If Townsend's 

 big-eared bats are determined to be present, 

 further mitigative measures would be devel- 

 oped as appropriate. 



PILEATED WOODPECKER 



No- Action Alternative 



Habitat quality would remain low. 



nun re Tiui, ;• iiu-:.t' i'-f itt, 

 Action Alternatives A and B 



. a!:mi 



Several harvest units (Units 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 

 13, 14 and 15) are all or partially in old-growth 

 stands of western larch /Douglas-fir. The 

 harvest prescription for most of these stands is 

 "group selection and improvement cut", i> 

 which would harvest approximately 90% of 

 the larger grand fir and subalpine fir, 50% of 

 the larger spruce, and 10% to 15% of the larger 

 Douglas-fir and western larch. The proposed 

 project would harvest from 25% to 33% of the 

 total volume. 



-t,,i 'ith no JBlidb-ti ; 

 The removal of larger western larch, grand fir, 

 and Douglas-fir represents a loss of future 

 potential nesting and foraging opportunities. 

 Pileated woodpeckers prefer to nest in forests 

 with closed canopies, and the reduction in 

 stand density would also reduce habitat 

 quality in the short term. In the long term, 

 thinning the stand should reduce competition 

 and may result in the remaining trees attaining 

 larger sizes that are of higher value to cavity- 

 nesting species. If these trees are not har- 

 vested commercially or by firewood cutters, 

 they may become high-quality nest trees. 



The following mitigations would be imple- 

 mented to minimize loss of pileated wood- 

 pecker nesting habitat: 



Chapter IV: Environmental Consequences 



-ilV-lt) 



