elk within the area of influence. No data could be located to 

 justify an elk population of that magnitude unless the entire Fisher 

 River drainage was considered. Therefore, the population estimate 

 of Brown (1983, pers. commun.) was used. 



4) Assessment of Impacts 



Inundation of habitat and loss of habitat due to construction 

 of the relocated railroad grade and the new road system had negli- 

 gible impacts on the resident elk population. These developments 

 did increase the total amount of human disturbance within the impact 

 area, producing a slight detrimental effect on the seasonal distri- 

 bution of animals. 



5) Estimated Losses Due to the Project 



A negligible number of elk were estimated to be lost from the 

 population inhabiting the impact area. 



6) Derivation of Loss Estimates 



Because of the low levels of impacts to the elk population and 

 the abundance of habitat to which impacted animals could disperse, 

 negligible losses were estimated to have occurred. 



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