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Biological Assessment for DMG Permit Renewals McClane Canyon & Munger Canyon Mines 6. Great Basin spadefoot (Spea intermontanus) - S 7. Longnose leopard lizard (Gambelia wislizeni~) - S, SC 8. Midget-faded rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis concolor) - S, SC 9. Milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum) - S 10. Northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens) - S, SC 11. Northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) - SC 12. Parachute beardtongue (Penstemon debilis) - C 13. Spotted bat (Euderma maculatum) - S 14. Townsend's big-eared bat (Plecotus townsendi~) - S, SC 15. Yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) - C 16. Yuma myotis (Myotis yumanensis) - S This BA also addresses potential effects to designated critical habitat for the four endangered fishes, designated critical habitat for Mexican spotted owl, and proposed critical habitat for Canada lynx. Neither of the proposed actions will take place within designated or proposed critical habitat for any species. However, the proposed actions addressed by this BA potentially affect, through water depletions from a source tributary to the Colorado River, designated critical habitat for bonytail, Colorado pikeminnow, humpback chub, and razorback sucker. 2 CONSULTATION TO DATE Four formal Section 7 Consultations have been conducted to consider impacts of McClane Canyon Mine permit renewals or technical revisions on federally-listed threatened or endangered species, resulting in the issuance of the following four U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Biological Opinions (BOs): • File ES/SLC: 6-5-86-F-003 (March 3, 1986) • File FWS/GJ 6-CO-92-F-007 (April 16, 1992) • File ES-6-RO-95-F-001-GJ291 (January 11, 2000) • File ES-6-RO-95-F-001-GJ316 (January 10, 2002) The first two BOs considered the impacts of water depletions on the Colorado River endangered fishes. The water depletions from East Salt Creek (a Colorado River tributary) resulted from McClane Canyon mine operations, including operation of the continuous miner unit, belts; dust control underground, on surface roads, and for conveyor transfers; and sediment pond evaporation. The BOs found the average annual water depletions (1.5 acre-feet beginning in 1986, and an additional 3.5 acre-feet beginning in 1992) "not likely to jeopardize the continued existence" of the endangered fishes provided that the conservation measures described in the BO were implemented-payment of depletion fees to the Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fishes of the Upper Colorado River Basin. The mine operator paid the required fees. In July 1997 the USFWS issued an intra-Service programmatic BO determining that the depletion fee for depletions of 100 acre-feet or less were no longer required because the Recovery Program had made "sufficient progress to be the reasonable and prudent alternative to avoid the likelihood of jeopardy to the endangered fishes and to avoid destruction or adverse modification of their critical habitat by depletions of 100 acre-feet or less." A January 11, 2000 USFWS letter to the Office of Surface, Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement (File ES-6-RO- 95-F-001-GJ291) regarding McClane Canyon Mine Permit Technical Revision (TR) No. 10 March 27, 2006 2 Rare Earth