NEPA--Environmental Assessment

Concurrent to this grazing analysis, the BLM is updated the Alpine Triangle Recreation Area
Management Plan, which sets management direction for the Silverton area. The updated plan will
likely make minor adjustments to management emphasis in certain areas, and will update guidance
to include current uses.
Travel management in the Silverton landscape area will undergo the public planning process in the
near future in order to meet the new Forest Service travel management rule. This rule requires that
all motorized travel occur on designated trails and roads. The planning process will utilize the
Forest Plan direction which will display areas suitable for motorized travel. Because the Silverton
landscape already has limited off-road motor vehicle use, this would likely have only minor impacts
on recreation use in the Silverton area.
Under the on-going Land Management Plan revision process, proposal may be made that would
change suitability determinations for the types of recreation or other activities in the landscape.
Wildlife – Threatened and Endangered Species _______
AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT
A Biological Assessment (BA) was conducted to evaluate the potential effects from domestic
livestock grazing in the Silverton Landscape to federally listed threatened or endangered fish and
wildlife species, species proposed for federal listing, and designated critical habitat, as designated by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Schultz 2009a). The BA addresses those listed species and/or
their critical habitat that are known to occur or have the potential to occur on the San Juan National
Forest and/or BLM Field Office, or are known to occur downstream and have the potential to be
affected by actions proposed to occur on San Juan Public Lands.
Analyzing and disclosing the effects of the proposed action to federally listed species is needed to
comply with the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C.1531 et seq.), as amended; BLM
manual 6840 direction for special status species management; the National Forest Management Act
of 1976 (including FS Manual 2670 direction for threatened, endangered, and sensitive species
management); and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (42 U.S.C.4321 et seq.),
as amended.
A BA is the means to review, analyze, and document the direct, indirect and cumulative effects to
federally listed species, species proposed for federal listing, or designated critical habitat for listed
species. The full BA for this project can be found in the project record (Schultz 2009a). The section
below summarizes the findings of the BA.
Federally listed species addressed in the BA are from the most recent list received from the USFWS
(USDI 2009). There are no species proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act, nor is
there any designated critical habitat for any listed species in the Silverton Landscape.
There are eight species listed as threatened or endangered that have the potential to occur or be
affected by projects on the Columbine Ranger District and BLM Field Office (Table C-1, Appendix
C). Five of these species do not have habitat in the Silverton Landscape and are not affected by the
proposed actions: Mexican spotted owl, razorback sucker, bonytail chub, Colorado pikeminnow, and
Humpback chub. For this reason, these five species were dropped from further evaluation and the
effects determination for these five species was “no effect.”
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