Habitat Evaluation Procedures Hep Report

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ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 83 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (727 download)

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Download or read book Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP) Report written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the mid-1980s, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has been participating in the Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA's) efforts to mitigate for the negative impacts to fish and wildlife resulting from the development and operation of the 7 Columbia Basin Federal Hydropower System. BPA's mitigation obligations were formally recognized and mandated by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 and are guided by the Northwest Power Planning Council's (NWPPC's) Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. BPA funds fish and wildlife projects throughout the Basin to meet the habitat and population restorative goals and objectives outlined in the NWPPC's Fish and Wildlife Program and to fulfill its mitigation responsibilities under the Power Act. Impacts to wildlife resulting from hydrofacility construction/inundation were estimated using Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP) in the mid and late 1980s and are documented in BPA' s Wildlife Loss Assessments (Rasmussen and Wright 1990,a, b, c, d) and in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lower Snake River Wildlife Habitat Compensation Evaluation (ACOE 1991). The loss assessments provided estimates of lost habitat quality and quantity for the target species selected to represent the habitat cover types impacted by hydropower construction/inundation. The NWPPC incorporated these losses into their Fish and Wildlife Program, recognizing them as the unannualized losses attributable to the construction/inundation of the federal hydropower system (NWPPC 1995 and 2000, Table 1 1-4). The HEP methodology is used by wildlife managers within the Columbia Basin to determine habitat values, expressed as Habitat Units, gained through BPA-funded mitigation project work. ODFW and the other Oregon wildlife managers (i.e., U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Confederated Tribes of the Warms Springs Reservation of Oregon, Burns Paiute Tribe, and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation [CTUIR]) have been working together since 1991 to coordinate the planning, selection, and implementation of BPA-funded wildlife mitigation projects. In 1997, the Oregon wildlife managers developed a programmatic project for mitigation planning and implementation within Oregon. The Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area Additions project is one of many habitat acquisition and restoration projects proposed under the Oregon wildlife managers programmatic project that have been approved and recommended for funding by the NWPPC. The Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area Additions mitigation project will protect and restore wetland, riparian and other habitats on newly acquired parcels at ODFW's Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area (LMWA). Wildlife habitat values resulting from the acquisition and enhancement of Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area lands will contribute towards mitigating for habitat lost as a result of the development and operation of the Columbia Basin hydropower system. This report summarizes the HEP survey conducted in June 2001 to document the baseline habitat values on four parcels recently added to the Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area: the 309.66-acre Wallender property, the 375.54-acre Simonis property, the 161.07-acre Conley Lake property, and the 74.55-acre Becker property. The 2001 HEP Team was comprised of the following members and agencies: Susan Barnes (ODFW), Allen Childs (CTUIR), Tracy Hames (Yakama Indian Nation), Dave Larson (ODFW), Cathy Nowak (Cat Tracks Wildlife Consulting), and Ken Rutherford (ODFW). Results of the HEP will be used to (1) determine the pre-restoration habitat values of the project sites, (2) the number of Habitat Units to be credited to BPA for protection of habitats within the project area, (3) determine the enhancement potential of the sites, and (4) develop a habitat management plan for the area.