Because sensitive species usually 

 have specific habitat requirements, 

 consideration of their needs serves 

 as a useful "fine filter" for 

 ensuring that the primary goal of 

 maintaining healthy and diverse 

 forests is met. The following 

 sensitive species were considered 

 for analysis. As shown in TABLE F- 

 1 - LISTED SENSITIVE SPECIES FOR 

 NWLO SHOWING THE STATUS OF THESE 

 SPECIES IN RELATION TO THIS PROJECT, 

 each sensitive species was either 

 included in the following analysis 

 or dropped from further analysis for 

 various reasons . 



> fisher 



Due to their use of mature and 

 late-successional forested 

 habitats, fishers are listed by 

 DNRC as a sensitive species {DNRC 

 1996). DNRC's Strategy to 

 conserve fishers in a managed 

 landscape is aimed at protecting 

 valuable resting habitat near 

 riparian areas and maintaining 

 travel corridors . 



Fishers, generalist predators, 

 use a variety of habitat types, 

 but are disproportionately found 

 in stands with dense canopy 

 {Powell 1982, Johnson 1984) . 

 Fishers appear to be highly 

 selective of resting and denning 

 sites. In the Rocky Mountains, 

 fishers appear to prefer late- 

 successional coniferous forests 

 for resting sites and use 

 riparian areas disproportionately 

 to their availability. Fishers 

 tend to use areas within 155 feet 

 of water. Such areas contain 

 large live trees, snags, and 

 downed trees, which are used for 

 resting and denning sites and 

 dense canopy cover, which is 

 important for snow intercept 

 {Jones 1991) . Timber harvesting 

 and associated road construction 

 -cpuld affect fishers by altering 

 / habitat and/or by increasing 

 susceptibility to trapping. 



On State trust lands in the 

 project area, SLI data were 

 analyzed (by covertype and age 

 class) to assess potential fisher 

 habitat using criteria outlined 

 in Heinemeyer and Jones (1994) . 

 In the project area, an estimated 

 468 acres provide resting/denning 

 habitat, 760 acres provide 

 foraging habitat, and 65 acres 

 provide travel habitat . 



The South Fork Lost Soup Grizzly 

 Bear Subunit was used to assess 

 cumulative effects. For a 

 description of the subunit and 

 ownership, please refer to 

 Grizzly Bear in this analysis. 

 In the cumulative effects 

 analysis area. State trust lands 

 provide potential denning/ 

 resting, foraging, and travel 

 habitat. Continued salvage 

 harvesting would continue to 

 decrease the quality of fisher 

 denning/ res ting habitat. 



Direct Effects to Fishers 



• IHrectEl0'ectg((ftheJVo^ction 

 JlltemaHve to JPishers 



No additional human 

 disturbance would occur. 



• Direct Electa qftlie ilction JlUemaHve 

 to Fishery 



Some displacement could occur,- 

 however, the effects of this 

 displacement would be minor. 

 The risk of displacement is 

 approximately proportional to 

 the amount of habitat 

 affected. Areas along 

 perennial streams provide 

 high-use fisher habitat and 

 travel corridors . To reduce 

 effects to fishers, this 

 -. project does not propose 

 harvesting in these areas. 

 Any increases in disturbance 

 are expected to be minimal and 

 short term. 



Big Blowdown Salvage 



Page E-13 



