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• J.E. Stover & Associates, Inc September 3, 2007 Page 6 Closed canopy forests with significant dead and down trees provide optimum denning habitat. In areas with deep winter snow, foraging habitat must contain shrubs or small trees of sufficient height to extend above snowpack. Although CDOW considers areas within the Blue Ribbon Mine permit boundary to be potential lynx habitat (Figure 3), preferred denning and foraging habitats are lacking. Mature or old growth stands of lodgepole pine and spruce-fir (preferred denning habitats) and early-seral stage stands (foraging habitats) are not supported within the permit area. The nearest substantial areas of suitable lynx habitat lie approximately 3.5 miles west and 2 miles east of the mine boundary (Figure 3). Lynx habitat is also found at higher elevations in the Elk Mountains, and West Elk and Raggeds Wilderness Areas to the east and south of the mine permit area. One of the principal factors affecting lynx and snowshoe hare habitat in Colorado is human alteration of the abundance, species composition, and successional stages of forested habitats and the fragmentation of forested blocks.16 The effects of increased human presence and roads may also reduce habitat effectiveness. Roads fragment habitat and increase the probability of mortalities from vehicle collisions.16 Lynx are believed to be susceptible to human disturbance during the denning period and may move kittens in response to disturbance, thereby increasing the chances of mortality. Due to lack of preferred denning and foraging habitat, use of the mine permit area by lynx is expected to be limited to occasional transitory individuals. The proposed renewal of the Blue • Ribbon mine permit would not result in any losses of preferred habitat or in the fragmentation of blocks of suitable habitat for lynx. There is no effect to lynx or lynx habitat since renewal of the Blue Ribbon Mine permit would not affect the structure, composition, or distribution of existing lynx denning or forage habitat. Lynx are not expected to move into the mine area from reintroduction sites in the foreseeable future. Therefore, relative risks to individual lynx are predicted to be very low. The relative risk to population recovery in LAUs and wilderness areas to the south and east is also predicted to be very low. Boreal Toad Boreal toad (also known as mountain toad) was historically widespread and abundant throughout most of the southern Rocky Mountains, and has undergone a severe decline in distribution and abundance since the late 1970s.9 Causes for decline potentially include habitat destruction or alteration (flooding of montane wetlands to create reservoirs; road construction; water, livestock, timber, minerals, and fire management practices; predation by introduced trout; and other factors related to acidification and heavy-metals contamination of water bodies) s Only three boreal toad breeding sites were known from Delta County, near the north county line on the Grand Mesa; no documented records of boreal toad exist for Delta County since 1958.8 Boreal toad breeding habitat is still or sluggish water with emergent vegetation and shrubby willows at the gently-sloping edges of small lakes or ponds, beaver ponds, glacial kettle ponds, and sluggishly-flowing ditches or streams interspersed in subalpine forests (lodgepole pine, Englemann spruce, subalpine fir, or aspen), usually at elevations above 8,500 s Breeding success requires • '0 Koehler, G.M.and K.B. Aubry. 1994. The scientific basis for conserving forest carnivores: American marten, fisher, lynx, antl wolverine in the western United States. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. General Tech. Report RM 254. 184pp. ® Rare Earth Science, LLC