Mark VanEvery District Ranger

Consultation History

On June 10, 16, and 20, 2003, the Twin Cities Ecological Services Field Office and Superior National Forest biologist Mr. Ed Lindquist held informal telephone discussions about the Crab Lake Portage Re-route Project. On June 20, 2003, we received an electronic copy of the BE for the Crab Lake Portage Re-route Project in the Kawishiwi Ranger District. The BE identified Federally listed threatened and endangered species known or likely to occur in the project area, an analysis and determination of effects anticipated from the proposed action on listed species, and recommendations for removing, avoiding, or compensating for any adverse effects on listed species. The analysis provided in the BE and informal telephone discussions form the basis for this consultation.
If you have any questions or comments on this biological opinion, please contact me at 612-725-3548 ext 201.
Sincerely,

Dan P. Stinnett

Field Supervisor

Attachment

BIOLOGICAL OPINION
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ACTION
The Crab Lake Portage Re-route Project connects Burntside Lake, outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), with Crab Lake, within the BWCAW. Purpose of the project is to re-route a portion of the existing Crab Lake portage that crosses private property and to retain portage access to State and Federal lands within the BWCAW. The project area is located on the northwest shore of Burntside Lake in Section 19, T63N R13W and connects to the existing portage trail in Section 18, T63N, R13 W, St. Louis County, Minnesota. A total of 2,750 feet of new portage will be required; approximately 522 feet of existing portage will be closed and restored to pre-portage conditions. New trail construction and old trail closure is scheduled to occur during the summer of 2003.
Primary components of the project include the following:

1. 
   New trail construction will be designed for foot travel only and will be 18 inches wide with a six-foot clearing width. Gravel, fabric mat, stepping stones, bridges or boardwalks may be required to minimize impacts and to protect existing resources.
   

2. Old trail closure will be designed to prevent/deter human use while stabilizing and restoring vegetation to pre-portage conditions.

STATUS OF THE SPECIES
Species Description
The Canada lynx is a medium-sized cat distinguished from bobcats (Lynx rufus) by long tufts on their ears and a short, black-tipped tail (McCord and Cardoza 1982). The lynx’s long legs and large, well-furred paws make it highly adapted for hunting in deep snow. Critical habitat has not been designated for the threatened population of Canada lynx in the contiguous United States.

Life History

Lynx home range sizes vary from 8 to 800 square kilometers (3 to 300 square miles) and may generally be larger at the southern extent of their range (Saunders 1963; Brand et al. 1976; Mech 1980; Parker et al. 1983; Koehler and Aubry 1994; Apps 2000; Mowat et al. 2000; Squires and Laurion 2000). Lynx are capable of dispersing extremely long distances (Mech 1977; Washington Department of Wildlife 1993), and dispersal peaks when snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) populations decline (Ward and Krebs 1985; Koehler and Aubry 1994; O’Donoghue et al. 1997; Poole 1997).

Snowshoe hares are the primary prey of lynx especially in the winter, comprising 35-97 percent of the diet throughout the range of the lynx (Koehler and Aubry 1994). Other prey species include red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), other small mammals and birds; lynx also eat carrion (Saunders 1963; van Zyll de Jong 1966; Nellis et al. 1972; Brand et al. 1976; Brand and Keith 1979; Koehler 1990; Staples 1995; O’Donoghue et al. 1998a, b). In northern regions, when hare densities decline, the lower quality diet causes sudden decreases in the productivity of adult female lynx and decreased survival of kittens, which causes the numbers of breeding lynx to level off or decrease (Nellis et al. 1972; Brand et al. 1976; Brand and Keith 1979; Poole 1994; Slough and Mowat 1996; O’Donoghue et al. 1997). Relative densities of snowshoe hares at southern latitudes are generally lower than those in the north, but population dynamics of southern populations of snowshoe hare are poorly understood (Hodges 2000b).
Lynx populations are closely tied to snowshoe hare distribution. Snowshoe hares have evolved to survive in areas that receive deep snow (Bittner and Rongstad 1982). They prefer stands of conifers with shrub understories that provide forage, cover to escape predators, and protection during extreme weather (Wolfe et al. 1982; Monthey 1986; Koehler and Aubrey 1994). Early successional forest stages generally have greater understory structure than do mature forests and therefore support higher hare densities (Hodges 2000a, b), although openings in mature forests with dense understory also support hares (Buskirk et al. 2000a).
Cover is important to lynx when searching for food (Brand et al. 1976), although lynx often hunt along edges (Mowat et al. 2000). Lynx use large woody debris, such as downed logs, root wads, and windfalls, to provide denning sites with security and thermal cover for kittens (McCord and Cardoza 1982; Koehler 1990; Koehler and Brittell 1990; Mowat et al. 2000; Squires and Laurion 2000). Den sites may be located within older regenerating stands (>20 years since disturbance) or in mature conifer or mixed conifer deciduous (typically spruce/fir or spruce/birch) forests (Mowat et al. 2000). Downed logs and overhead cover must be available throughout the home range to provide alternative den and nursery sites, and security when lynx kittens are old enough to travel (Bailey 1974). Denning habitat must also be in or near foraging habitat.
Lynx breed in spring and produce up to five kittens per litter, with litter size affected by hare densities. During the low phase of the hare cycle, few if any live kittens are born (Brand and Keith 1979; Poole 1994; Slough and Mowat 1996). Litter sizes may be smaller in southern lynx range due to lower peak hare densities (Koehler 1990; Squires and Laurion 2000).
The most commonly reported causes of lynx mortality include starvation of kittens (Quinn and Parker 1987; Koehler 1990), and human-caused mortality, mostly fur trapping (Ward and Krebs 1985; Bailey et al. 1986). Significant lynx mortality due to starvation (up to two-thirds of deaths) has been demonstrated in cyclic populations of the northern taiga, during the first 2 years of hare scarcity (Poole 1994; Slough and Mowat 1996). Other forms of mortality include predation and highway collisions, although their significance to lynx populations is unknown (Brand and Keith 1979; Carbyn and Patriquin 1983; Ward and Krebs 1985; Bailey et al. 1986).
Buskirk et al. (2000a) suggested that when other hare predators, particularly coyotes (Canis latrans), can access lynx winter hunting areas via compacted snow they may compete for prey sufficiently to affect local lynx populations. Buskirk et al. (2000a) also suggested that direct killing by coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions (Puma concolor) could affect lynx numbers where these competitors overlap substantially with lynx.
In Canada and Alaska, lynx populations undergo extreme fluctuations in response to snowshoe hare population cycles (Mowat et al. 2000). A lack of accurate data limits our understanding of lynx population dynamics in the contiguous United States at the southern periphery of their boreal forest range. Southern lynx populations may be naturally limited by the availability of snowshoe hares, as suggested by large home range size, high kitten mortality due to starvation, and greater reliance on alternate prey.

Status and Distribution

Canada lynx range is closely associated with the distribution of North American boreal forest inhabited by snowshoe hares (Agee 2000) and extends from Alaska, the Yukon and Northwest Territories south across the United States border in the Cascades Range and northern Rocky Mountain Range, through the central Canada provinces and down into the western Great Lakes region, and east to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada and south into the northeastern United States from Maine to New York (McCord and Cardoza 1982; Quinn and Parker 1987). In the western Great Lakes region, lynx range extends south from the classic boreal forest zone into the boreal/hardwood forest ecotone (Agee 2000; McKelvey et al. 2000). At its southern margins in the contiguous United States, forests with boreal features become naturally fragmented as they transition into other vegetation types and many patches cannot support resident populations of lynx and their primary prey species.

In response to the emerging awareness of the uncertain status of Canada lynx populations and habitat in the coterminous United States and the onset of the listing process, an interagency Canada lynx coordination effort was initiated in March 1998. The Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service have participated in this effort. Three products important to the conservation of Canada lynx on federally managed lands have been produced AThe Scientific Basis for Lynx Conservation@ (Ruggiero et al. 1999); the Lynx Conservation Assessment and Strategy (LCAS; US Forest Service 1999); and Lynx Conservation Agreements (CA) between the Service and various land management agencies. The CA is intended to promote the conservation of Canada lynx and its habitat in the national forests and identify actions the Forest Service agrees to take to reduce or eliminate potential adverse effects or risks to Canada lynx and their habitat. The LCAS was produced in 1999 to provide a consistent and effective approach to conservation of Canada lynx on federal lands and was used as a basis for assessing the effects of the preferred alternative on Canada lynx.
Canada lynx are solitary carnivores, generally occurring at low densities in boreal forest habitats. Within most of their range, Canada lynx densities and population dynamics are strongly tied to the distribution and abundance of snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), their primary prey. However, this relationship may be muted or absent in more southern populations (Halfpenny et al. 1982). Females may not reproduce during food shortages, and food availability directly correlates with the survival of young Canada lynx, with few kittens surviving when food is scarce (Koehler 1990). Kittens are born in May or June after a 60 to 74 day gestation period, and typically remain with their mothers until about 10 months of age.
Canada lynx may compete with canids, other felids, mustelids, and raptors for snowshoe hares and small mammals. Bobcat home ranges often exhibit elevational separation from those of Canada lynx, which are better adapted to deep snow. Bobcats are thought to displace Canada lynx where both felids are locally sympatric.
Minnesota has a substantial number of historical lynx reports, primarily trapping records and primarily from northeastern counties (Gunderson 1978, Mech 1980, McKelvey et al. 2000). Historically, lynx were trapped in Minnesota through both population highs and lows, indicating that at least some animals may have persisted in a core resident population. Lynx habitat in northeastern Minnesota is contiguous with boreal forest lynx habitat in Ontario and hence, the continental lynx population. Henderson (1978), Mech (1980), and McKelvey et al. (2000) suggested that the harvest peaks were influenced by influxes of lynx from Canada. Harvest records for Minnesota dating back to 1930 reveal approximate 10-year cycles, with highs in Minnesota of 330-400 lynx trapped in 1940, 1952, 1962, and 1973 (John Erb, personal communication 2003).¹ Because lynx numbers did not increase in the early 1980s on the expected 10-year cycle (very few were harvested or reported observed), Minnesota closed its lynx season in 1984.
The Minnesota harvest trends are consistent with cyclical patterns in Ontario lynx harvest data. Ontario harvests were highest in 1926-27, 1962-63, and 1972-73 (Neil Dawson, personal communication 2002). Ontario harvest was then especially low in the 1990s “peak” (only one-fifth the 1972-73 harvest) following a period of very high prices for lynx pelts. The pattern of steeply declining peaks in the lynx harvest recorded from the 1970s to the 1990s in Ontario, however, occurred on a similar scale from the 1920s to the 1940s when fur prices were consistently much lower. Thus, the causes for reduced lynx harvests and likely abundance in Ontario in the early 1990s remain unexplained—as does the lack of anticipated lynx observation records in Minnesota in the early 1980s and 1990s. Snowshoe hare harvest data (the only available long-term index to hare abundance in Minnesota) show a very inconsistent pattern from 1941-2000. Hare abundance, as indicated by hunter harvests, peaked in the early 1940s and 1950s along with lynx harvests, but not in the early 1950s or 1960s. In contrast, hare harvest was double any previous year from 1977-1980, yet lynx did not increase. Hares remained at relatively low densities through the 1990s. At least in recent decades, lynx dynamics in the Great

Lakes region may have been influenced more by immigration than local hare cycles (McKelvey et al. 2000). The role that changes in forest disturbance patterns (fire, blowdown, timber harvest) have had on Minnesota hare populations has not been studied.

Lynx are known to have reproduced in Minnesota during higher abundance phases in the 1970s (Mech 1973; 1980) and in 2002 (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources lynx observations database 2003). Based on large numbers of reported sightings since 2001 and genetic samples collected in 2002, lynx are experiencing a population peak in northeastern Minnesota (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources lynx observations database 2003). While recent records, including kitten observations, resolve that lynx are again reproducing and resident in Minnesota, the question of whether the population has previously or will in the future persist in Minnesota through cyclical population declines is uncertain. It is not clear whether Canada lynx persist in the state throughout the entire population cycle. Nevertheless, lynx that occur in Minnesota are members of a broad population that extends into and beyond Ontario in the boreal forest.

ENVIRONMENTAL BASELINE

Status of the Species Within the Action Area
Unlike other Great Lakes and northeast regions of lynx range in the Unites States most lynx habitat in northeastern Minnesota is on public lands, particularly the Superior National Forest. The Forest Service, in consultation with the Service, has mapped areas of suitable lynx habitat into Lynx Analysis Units (LAUs) to promote lynx management under the Lynx Conservation Assessment and Strategy (LCAS; Ruediger et al. 2000). The proposed project on the Kawishiwi Ranger District is within one LAU. Lynx have been documented near the project area.

Factors Affecting the Species Environment Within the Action Area

In the LCAS, the Lynx Biology Team identified potential risk factors to lynx that are within the authority and jurisdiction of the Federal land management agencies. These risk factors include management of timber, wildland fire, recreation, roads and trails, grazing, and other human developments. Roads, railroads, utility corridors, and land ownership patterns and developments may affect lynx movements. In general, risks of direct lynx mortality may come from trapping, shooting, predator control, vehicle collisions, and competition or predation as influenced by human activities. Other large-scale risk factors are fragmentation and degradation of lynx refugia. New foot trail development and associated passive recreational use are most likely to affect potential lynx denning habitat in this area. The trail will not be designed or designated for over-the-snow use. The Superior National Forest is implementing the LCAS and Canada Lynx Conservation Agreement (CA) between the Service and the Forest Service (February 2000) during all forest activities that occur within Lynx Analysis Units. Thus, the aforementioned risk factors are being minimized and managed appropriately to promote the conservation of lynx within the Superior National Forest and the proposed project site within the Kawishiwi Ranger District.

In addition to the above, the Forest Service and other agencies have aggressively pursued development and funding for a three-year Canada lynx research project in northeastern Minnesota. Data collection began with the first radio collared lynx in March 2003. Objectives of the study will improve upon the current limited knowledge of the general ecology and natural history of lynx in Minnesota; an understanding of lynx population viability; lynx distribution and prey relationships; and, lynx habitat requirements. Research results will facilitate and promote regional and national lynx recovery efforts and eventual delisting.

EFFECTS OF THE ACTION

The proposed project may affect lynx by temporarily disturbing any animals that are traveling or denning near the project site during and after trail construction activities or as a result of continued use of the existing trail. The level of recreational use of the new portage re-route is expected to be comparable to the use received on the closed portion of the trail. Thus, the greatest level of effect anticipated is that animals would temporarily move away from the project site when it is being constructed or used for human foot travel. The project proposal includes mitigation measures that require notification of the District Biologist to avoid effects in the unlikely event that lynx den sites are subsequently established or identified in the project area. If new information reveals the potential for an adverse affect on lynx, consultation with the Service will be reinitiated. Thus, we expect that effects on this species will be insignificant and no incidental taking of any individuals is anticipated.

CUMULATIVE EFFECTS

Cumulative effects include the effects of future State, tribal, local, or private actions that are reasonably certain to occur in the action area considered in this biological opinion. Future Federal actions that are unrelated to the proposed action are not considered in this section because they require separate consultation pursuant to section 7 of the Act.

The proposed re-route will provide alternate access for canoe portage on Federal lands. Past, present and future use of the area is expected to remain the same. No cumulative effects to Canada lynx are expected. Forest Service personnel will monitor access sites to verify closure compliance and revegetation success.

CONCLUSIONS

After reviewing the current status of Canada lynx, the environmental baseline for the action area, the effects of the proposed action, and the cumulative effects, it is the Service’s biological opinion that the proposed project implemented in conjunction with LCAS, is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the lynx. No critical habitat has been designated for this species; therefore, none will be affected.

INCIDENTAL TAKE STATEMENT
Section 9 of the Act and Federal regulation pursuant to section 4(d) of the Act prohibit the take of endangered and threatened species, respectively, without special exemption. Take is defined as to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct. Harm is further defined by the Service to include significant habitat modification or degradation that results in death or injury to listed species by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding, or sheltering. Harass is defined by the Service as intentional or negligent actions that create the likelihood of injury to listed species to such an extent as to significantly disrupt normal behavior patterns which include, but are not limited to, breeding, feeding or sheltering. Incidental take is defined as take that is incidental to, and not the purpose of, the carrying out of an otherwise lawful activity. Under the terms of section 7(b)(4) and section 7(o)(2), taking that is incidental to and not intended as part of the agency action is not considered to be prohibited taking under the Act provided that such taking is in compliance with the terms and conditions of this Incidental Take Statement.
The Service does not anticipate that the proposed action will result in the incidental take of any Canada lynx. Reasonable and Prudent Measures and Terms and Conditions are not applicable because no incidental take is anticipated.
CONSERVATION RECOMMENDATIONS
Section 7(a)(1) of the Act requires Federal Agencies to utilize their authorities to further the purposes of the Act by carrying out conservation programs for the benefit of endangered and threatened species. Conservation recommendations are discretionary agency activities to minimize or avoid adverse effects of a proposed action on listed species or critical habitat, to help implement recovery plans, or to develop information. As we do not anticipate any adverse effects of the proposed action on Canada lynx, no conservation recommendations are necessary.
REINITIATION-CLOSING STATEMENT
This concludes consultation on the action outlined in your June 20, 2003, request for consultation for the Crab Lake Portage Re-route Project. As provided in 50 CFR 402.16, reinitiation of formal consultation is required where discretionary Federal agency involvement or control over the action has been maintained (or is authorized by law) and if: (1) the amount or extent of incidental take is exceeded; (2) new information reveals effects of the agency action that may affect listed species or critical habitat in a manner or to an extent not considered in this opinion; (3) the agency action is subsequently modified in a manner that causes an effect to the listed species or critical habitat that was not considered in this opinion; or (4) a new species is listed or critical habitat designated that may be affected by the action. In instances where the amount or extent of incidental take is exceeded, any operations causing such take must cease pending reinitiation.

LITERATURE CITED
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1 Lynx were unprotected in Minnesota before 1976 and harvest data come from trapper report cards (bounties were paid for lynx from 1951-1964). From 1976-1983 lynx harvest seasons were set and data on hunting and trapping come from registrations.