San Luis Valley Regional Habitat Conservation Plan Draft for Public Review
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8.2Relationship to the Flycatcher Recovery PlanThe recommendation of the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher Recovery Team was approved by the Service’s Southwest Regional Director on August 30, 2002. This recommendation was used as a source of information and guidance in preparation of this HCP. Although the recommendation in the Valley is currently being met, this HCP is intended to be consistent with the guidelines and suggestions of the Recovery Plan as discussed below. Management Units within broader Recovery Units are the basic geographical components of the Recovery Plan. The HCP plan area includes the entire San Luis Valley Management Unit, which is part of the larger Rio Grande Recovery Unit. The Rio Grande Recovery Unit encompasses the Rio Grande watershed from its headwaters in Colorado to the Pecos River confluence in southwestern Texas. The Recovery Plan sets recovery criteria for the entire San Luis Valley Management Unit at 50 territories (or at least 50 to 80 percent of that number if the overall goal in the Rio Grande Recovery Unit is met), unless changes are made as a result of reevaluation after five years (Service 2002a). The San Luis Valley Management Unit currently supports about 73 territories at four separate sites on Federal and State lands that have been surveyed. This number exceeds the recovery criteria for the San Luis Valley Management Unit. Consistency with Recovery CriteriaSeveral of the criteria used in developing the Recommendations, including the rationale for determining recovery criteria, provided guidance in the development of this HCP (Service 2002a, pp. 74-75). These criteria include:
Large populations (>10 territories), centrally located, contribute most to metapopulation stability, especially if other breeding populations are nearby. Such populations persist longer than small ones, and produce more dispersers emigrating to other populations or colonizing new areas (p. 74).
Within a Management Unit or portions thereof, a matrix of smaller populations may provide as much or more stability than a single isolated population with the same number of territories because of the potential to disperse colonizers throughout the network of sites (p. 75).
Maintaining and augmenting existing breeding populations is a faster, easier, and more reliable way to achieve and maintain population goals than to allow loss of existing populations with the hopes of replacement elsewhere. Thus, maintenance and protection of existing breeding populations is a priority (p. 75).
Existing riparian habitat in the Valley currently supports about 73 flycatcher territories, which exceeds the recovery goal for this Management Unit. This HCP is intended to support the conservation and management of core habitat on Federal and State lands, while also conserving high quality habitat on private lands. In addition to the management and enhancement of core habitat areas, this HCP presents a strategy that emphasizes the conservation, management, and enhancement of high quality riparian habitat on private lands adjacent to and outside of the core occupied habitat areas. This approach will provide a protected habitat buffer around existing occupied habitat sites, will provide additional dispersal habitat on private lands, and will ultimately contribute to the overall stability of flycatcher populations in the Valley. This approach is consistent with the recovery criteria outlined in the Recovery Plan, and will provide a framework for successful flycatcher conservation in the Valley. Consistency with Measures to Minimize Take and Offset ImpactsThe Recommendation also provides guidelines for measures to minimize take or offset impacts from projects (Service 2002a, pp. 82-83). These guidelines include:
As described in Section 6, this HCP includes monitoring of habitat quality in both Federal and State lands (core habitat) and on private mitigation lands, as well as ongoing surveys to track the presence or absence of the covered species. This monitoring data will provide a more robust understanding of local habitat conditions in the Valley, and how those habitat conditions correlate with use by the covered species. While the primary purpose of this monitoring is to ensure the suitability of conserved or restored areas for mitigation, a secondary benefit will be a growing database of habitat conditions and trends that can be used to identify high quality habitat, and minimize and work to further reduce future impacts to those areas.
As discussed previously, one of the main goals of this HCP is to conserve and enhance existing core flycatcher habitat in the Valley on private lands, and high quality buffer habitat on private lands. Most of the mitigation is expected to be obtained through conservation easements on private lands that protect riparian and flycatcher habitat in perpetuity.
The implementation strategy of this HCP includes commitments from the State to maintain and enhance habitat on State lands, and efforts to promote habitat enhancement on Federal lands. While it is not possible to identify specific long-term funding sources, the Applicants are dedicated to the implementation of this HCP and its commitments with funding from existing programs and other sources.
As discussed previously, the conservation priorities of this HCP are to 1) enhance occupied, protected habitat on State lands; 2) protect and enhance suitable habitat that is currently unprotected by promoting voluntary conservation efforts; and 3) protect potential habitat. Since flycatcher surveys have been, and will continue to be, focused on Federal and State lands, it is not known whether any occupied, unprotected habitat exists on privately owned land. However, the general approach of this HCP is consistent with the priorities in the recovery guidelines.
Occupied flycatcher habitat is only known to occur on Federal and State conservation lands that have been surveyed. These areas will be managed year-round to protect and enhance flycatcher habitat as part of a diverse riparian community. Consistency with Recommended Recovery ActionsThe Recovery Plan suggests a number of actions that are believed to be important to flycatcher recovery where feasible, legal, and effective (Service 2002a, pp. 105-136). Although this HCP is not required to contribute to the recovery of the flycatcher, it does seek to be consistent with the Recovery Plan recommendations to help ensure that the incidental take from the covered activities will not appreciably reduce the likelihood of survival and recovery of the species in the wild (Service and NMFS 1996, p. 3-20). The potential recovery actions that are relevant to this HCP include the following:
This HCP will focus on the conservation, management, and enhancement of core habitat on Federal and State lands, while also promoting voluntary conservation, enhancement, and impact minimization on private lands that support suitable habitat.
Livestock grazing is one of the activities covered by this HCP. Impacts to woody riparian habitat from livestock grazing (which primarily occur in marginal habitat areas) will be mitigated through the conservation, management, and enhancement of high quality habitat areas; resulting in a net increase in protected, suitable habitat for the covered species. In addition, education and outreach efforts will be implemented to reduce the impacts of grazing and other activities on riparian habitat, and to improve grazing management practices.
Exotic riparian plant species, such as salt cedar and Russian olive, are currently not a significant concern in the Valley. The Applicants are committed to aggressively controlling these exotic species so they do not become established and overtake native riparian habitat. However, the management and removal of these plant species could result in take of the covered species, and is covered by this HCP. This HCP is designed to encourage the proactive management of these and other exotic species.
A major component of HCP implementation is to work with State agencies, local governments, private conservation organizations, and individual landowners to encourage the conservation and management of non-federal lands in the Valley. During the course of HCP development, several collaborative conservation efforts have resulted in the successful conservation and enhancement of private lands in the Valley, benefiting the covered species and ultimate HCP implementation. The HCP also includes a list of conservation focus areas where ongoing conservation efforts should be targeted to provide the greatest benefit to the covered species. The District, the Applicants, and the HCP steering committee will work to coordinate and share riparian management practices, and support ongoing conservation efforts in the Valley that already benefit riparian areas. This will provide a coordinated and synergistic approach to flycatcher conservation.
This HCP provides a strategy to protect and enhance existing breeding sites, while encouraging the conservation and enhancement of additional habitat in adjacent and tributary areas that could potentially support new territories.
This HCP includes monitoring commitments that will ensure habitat quality on mitigation lands is sustained, and that management and restoration practices on those lands are successful.
Public education and outreach is an element of this HCP that will help educate landowners and the general public about the flycatcher and the importance of riparian habitat protection, and improve their access to technical and financial resources that can assist with habitat management, protection, and enhancement efforts. |