spatial disturbance could 

 occur, but temporal 

 disturbance would be reduced. 

 This design feature does not 

 apply to or incorporate the 

 Soup Creek Salvage Project 

 area. 



• No harvesting would occur 

 within 165 feet of Soup Creek 

 or within other riparian 

 areas. These areas could 

 serve as movement corridors 

 and foraging areas for 

 grizzly bears and would not 

 be affected by this proposed 

 project. 



• Visual screening and hiding 

 cover would be retained to 

 the largest amount possible. 

 Salvage activities would not 

 alter submerchantable 

 vegetation through 

 harvesting; however, limited 

 damage could result due to 

 skidding operations. 

 Additionally, visual 

 screening would be reduced in 

 a 66-foot belt along the 

 western edge of the private 

 property in Section 17 (2 

 acres) and along the north 

 side of Soup Creek Road (0.4 

 acres) to reduce fire hazards 

 to private lands . 



Increased disturbance could 

 result in reduced habitat use and 

 displacement of grizzly bears 

 during project implementation. 

 Grizzly bears tend to avoid areas 

 with greater than 1 mile per 

 square mile of precise open- road 

 densities (Aface et al, 1997) . 

 This project would increase the 

 amount of habitat potentially 

 avoided due to road disturbance 

 by 1,399 acres (4.7 percent) in 

 the South Fork Lost Subunit, 34 

 acres (less than 0.1 percent) in 

 the Porcupine -Woodward Subunit, 

 and 11 acres (less than 0.1 

 percent) in the Goat Creek 

 Subunit. Most likely, all the 

 potential harvest units and 

 associated road systems would not 



be active concurrently; thereby, 

 the disturbance would be moved 

 through these areas over the 4 9 

 days of activities. For 

 instance, salvage harvests in the 

 Soup Creek Salvage Project 

 account for 547 acres affected by 

 road disturbance, but that 

 disturbance would be present for 

 only 1 week. During activities, 

 bears might alter their movements 

 temporally or spatially to avoid 

 one or several localized areas of 

 disturbance. To limit the 

 effects to bears, the disturbance 

 associated with this salvage 

 harvest would be confined to time 

 periods (summer 2003 and denning 

 seasons) when bear use of the 

 project area is expected to be 

 low and habitat most abundant. 

 Potential avoidance of forage 

 resources could occur, but due to 

 the limited temporal (49 days) 

 and spatial (limited to 2 

 adjacent project areas) design 

 features, the effects of reduced 

 habitat to grizzly bears are 

 expected to be short-term and 

 minor. 



In addition to the salvage 

 harvest, this project proposes 

 removal of the bridge over Soup 

 Creek that accesses the project 

 area. Access to the project area 

 would occur through a restricted 

 road off Highway 83. This 

 closure is secure and has not 

 been breeched since the inception 

 of the SVGBCA monitoring program 

 in 1997. Removal of this bridge 

 would improve grizzly bear 1 

 security by decreasing ongoing i 

 illegal motorized access across 

 Soup Creek. 



Cumulative Effects 



• Cumulative E^ffects oftlie Jtction I 



Mtemative to Grizssly Bears 



Under this alternative, no 

 cumulative effects are expected. 



Big Blowdown Salvage 



Page E-11 



