Wildlife Specialist report

6 th codes remains between 1.5 to 2 mi/m² under all action alternatives except Alternative
C (see Table 110).
The 6 th codes within the Silver City, Fort Bayard, and Mangas Valley watersheds that
have high road densities are associated with places like the community of Silver City.
The effects from these areas to wildlife on the Gila National Forest will not be significant
because these areas are primarily off the Forest.
The Coyote 6 th code watershed occurs primarily on the adjoining National Forest. The
effects from this watershed to wildlife on the Gila National Forest will not be significant
because most of this watershed occurs off Forest.
The Negrito Creek, Upper San Francisco, Tularosa, Middle Fork of the Gila, Alamocito,
and Mangas Creek 5 th code watersheds have hosted the majority of past and present
timber harvesting activities on the Forest, with roads having been constructed to
accommodate this action. Timber harvesting activities are no longer common but they
were prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s. A majority of the timber-related roads are still in
use and are contributing to cumulative wildlife impacts. The disturbance acres in both
watersheds are primarily a result of past and present vegetation treatment activities, the
roads associated with these treatments, and disturbance caused by wildfire. These
watersheds have localized areas of concern (see findings discussion).
Additionally, to help determine potential cumulative effects to federally listed species
open road densities (all ownership) where analyzed within the analysis area of each
species (see Table 108).
For the Chiricahua leopard frog and SWWF the analysis also looked at number of stream
crossings (all ownership) within the analysis area. Again, the overall analysis of all the
activities discussed above by 5 th code shows that the amount of directly affected habitat
for wildlife is low in comparison to the availability of habitat.
Cumulative Affects Findings
Across the Gila National Forest the incremental impacts of the proposed project and its
associated alternatives, when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable
future actions, are at levels that do not cause significant affects to wildlife species or their
habitat on the Forest.
This analysis shows that if the effects of all open roads are considered (private, county,
state, and federal) there are localized areas of concern under several of the action
alternatives for species like ungulates, wide ranging carnivores, and the Chiricahua
leopard frog.
Ungulates: Increases in ungulate harvest are associated with increased access. Rowland
et al. (2005) states that elk vulnerability to harvest increases as open road density
increases. This statement is supported by the literature (Unsworth et al. 1993, Gratson
139