V. PREVIOUS MITIGATION 



1) Introduction 



Mitigation of impacts to the wildlife populations and habitat 

 resulting from the construction of the Libby Dam project has con- 

 sisted of 3 types of projects: 1) land acquisiticn; 2) habitat 

 manipulation; and 3) habitat improvements. The original basis for 

 these efforts was the impact assessment compiled by the U.S. Fish 

 and Wildlife Service (U^. Dep. Inter. 1965). The document report- 

 ed 1,450 white-tailed deer, 1,800 mule deer, 170 mountain sheep, 

 300 Rocky Mountain elk and 300 moose inhabited the reservoir area 

 of influence and estimated $1,300,530 would be needed to acquire 

 and enhance lands needed to mitigate the impacts to these big game 

 species. In 1971, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined, 

 based on costs per hunter day, the value of the impacted species 

 was $1,374,413.90; of this total $70,601.00 would be spent enhanc- 

 ing U.S. Forest Service lands and $1,303,812.90 would be spent 

 acquiring no more than 12,000 acres of easements or fee title for 

 wildlife grazing lands (U.S. Dep. Inter. 1971a, 1971b). Legisla- 

 tion authorizing the Libby Dam project (Public Law 81-516) did not 

 contain specific provisions for fish cind wildlife. Tlie Fish and 

 Wildlife Coordination Act of 1958 (Public Law 85-62) provided the 

 fc»asis for consideration of tlie wildlife resources within the ?rea 

 of concern, and provided land acquisition for wildlife mitigation 

 h^d be specifically authorized by Congress (U.S. Dep. Army 1972). 



2) Land Acquisition 



The Water Resources Development Act of 1974 (Public Law 93- 

 251) authorized the expenditure of $2,000,000 for acquisition of up 

 to 12,000 acres of wildlife grazing lands in mitigation of habitat 

 losses resulting from the overall Libby Dam project. The Montana 

 Department of Fish, V/ildlife and Parks acted as a consultant to the 

 U.S. Corps of Engineers and identified and prioritized several 

 parcels of suitable wildlife habitat that qualified as wildlife 

 replacement lands. During the late 1970's three separate parcels, 

 totalling 2,443.81 acres, were acquired by the U.S. Army Corps of 

 Engineers exhausting the $2,000,000 (Table 5). Title to 

 these lands was subsequently transferred to the Montana Department 

 of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. 



DeRozier Unit. This unit, located adjacent to the United 

 States - Canada border northeast of Eureka, consists of 1,417.0 

 acres. This area is located primarily in the foothill transition 

 zone between tlie Tobacco Plains and the V^iitefish Range. A portion 

 of this unit is utilized by mule deer and elk as v^inter range 

 (Zajanc 1948). Extensive spring use by mule deer - r)articularly of 

 tiie hayf ields - has been observed (J. Cross 1984, pers. common.) , 

 while mule deer, white-tailed deer and elk utilize the area during 

 the summer. A number of historical grizzly bear observations have 

 been documented on or adjacent to the imit with the most recent 

 being in the early 1970'^s (U.S. Dep. Agric. unpubl. files). It was 



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