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CHAPTER FOUR CUMULATIVE IMPACTS ON SPECIAL STATUS PLANT AND ANIMAL SPECIES AND HABITAT The quality and quantity of special status plants and animal species and habitat would be maintained under this alternative. IMPACTS ON TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE AND HABITAT IMPACTS FROM PROPOSED MANAGEMENT ACTIONS Impacts Crom WildliCe Habitat Management. Sufficient forage would be available to support BLM's portion of CDOW's long-term elk and deer herd goals. Land treatment projects in pronghorn summer range would increase the quantity of forbs and would help to achieve sufficient habitat to support 50 animals yearlong. Reducing wildlife utilization of mountain mahogany by 50% on those public lands in GMU 64 northeast of Cimarron would improve vigor and annual production of mountain mahogany. Impacts from Locatable Minerals Management. Road construction, surface disturbance, and increased human activity accompanying locatable mineral ~ctivity would eliminate habitat, alter use patterns, mcrease stress and disrupt nesting and breeding seas?ns of a wide variety of game and non-game speCies.. These effects would potentially be greatest where bIghorn sheep habitat, crucial elk winter range and sage grouse lek areas occur on lands with a high likelihood for the occurrence of locatable minerals. Impacts . Crom Saleable Minerals Management. Surface disturbance from disposal of mineral materials within .sage grouse strutting grounds, or leks, would potentIally totally eliminate these areas. Impacts from Soil and Water Resources Management. Increasing ground cover in the sage.brush vegetation type would improve hiding and nes~g cover for sage grouse and other non-game specICs. Land treatment projects which result in decreasing sagebrush cover below 25% would pre<:iude these areas from being used for sage grouse nesting and would decrease sage grouse wintering habitat. I~p~cts Crom Riparian Zones Management. Moving eXIStIng watering facilities out of riparian zones would imp~ove these areas Cor sage grouse brooding and nestmg. Impacts Crom Uvestock Grazing Management. Domestic sheep grazing on bighorn sheep ranges would create the possibility of disease transfer between the two sheep species and would decrease forage availability for bighorn sheep due to dietary overlap. Limiting total forage utilization, including that by livestock, in all riparian areas would improve sage grouse brood rearing habitat by indirectly increasing the quantity of insects available to young birds during their first twelve weeks of life. Land treatment projects designed to increase livestock forage would result in a decrease in elk and deer browse forage and would increase big game utilization on the remaining plants. Land treatment projects which reduce sagebrush cover to less than 25% would preclude these areas from being used by sage grouse for nesting habitat. Impacts from Forest Management. Allowing commercial timber harvests from May 1 through June 30 in elk calving areas would result in these animals being forced into other, less desirable areas over the short-term. Removal of snag trees would eliminate perch sites for numerous raptor species. Timber harvests and associated activities, such as road and staging area construction in riparian zones would reduce vegetation diversity and the quality of habitat for non-game species. Harvest of ponderosa pine and Douglas f11' based on sustained yield would decrease elk and deer thermal and hiding cover by 100-150 acres per year. 4-32