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<br />A, INTRODUCTION: <br /> <br />Wildlife habitat will be monitored at selected sites in the McElmo <br />Creek Salinity Control unit. These sites are presently in the process of <br />being selected from the first year of contracts (1990). Habitat changes <br />are presently being tracked for all salinity contracts to measure habitat <br />quality and quantity. <br /> <br />B, OBJECTIVES: <br /> <br />Evaluations will be made to measure the impacts of salinity project <br />implementation to wetland and upland wildlife habitat and to also assess <br />the effectiveness of voluntary actions by landowners to replace or <br />mitigate for any habitat losses attributed to irrigation system <br />improvement. <br /> <br />C. METHODOLOGY: <br /> <br />Habitat quality will be determined by using the U.S. Fish and <br />Wildlife service Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP). Habitat data <br />gathered from individual salinity contracts and randomly selected <br />monitoring sites will be used to calculate Habitat Suitability Index <br />(HSI) values for selected wildlife species. The HSI is a numerical index <br />rating which measures habitat quality for wildlife species on a scale of <br />zero (0) to one (1). The value attained reflects the potential of a <br />habitat type to support a specific wildlife species. (HSI models <br />basically look at the life requisites, food, water and cover, of a <br />species and their seasonable availability to that species.). An HSI <br />value of 1.0 implies an area has the greatest potential to support the <br />selected wildlife species, while a value of .1 denotes significantly <br />lower potential (one-tenth of potential to support that species) for that <br />species to exist in the area. <br /> <br />The HSI is calculated from a habitat suitability index model for a <br />particular wildlife species. These models differentiate the individual <br />habitat needs and relationships critical to a wildlife species existence <br />in order to evaluate the effects of vegetative suitability changes on <br />that species. with this tool, a representative change (either negative <br />or positive) to habitat quality can be determined. This value can then <br />be multiplied by acres of covertype being evaluated to come up with <br />Habitat Unit Value (HUV - an integration of qualitative values <HSI> and <br />quantitative values <Acres>) <br /> <br />r....... 0'-;0 <br />l- ~: .L"; · <br />