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. located in habitat improvement areas tevo and three. As with [he other transects, these were <br />trapped for three consecutive nights in the spring of 1976. These transects were conducted to <br />collect data on small mammal response to the removal of cover in the habitat improvement <br />areas. <br />The rodent trapping grids were sampled during the fall of 1975 and spring of 1976. For the <br />fall of 1975, grid 1 (in sage-grass habitat type) averaged 36.7 rodentslacre, 99% of which. <br />were deer mice. Grid 2 (in sage grass -serviceberry habitat type) was in poor condition <br />(shrubs were sprayed in the past to improve grazing) and produced an average of 25 rodents <br />per acre. on grid 2, 96+% of the rodents captured were deer mice. During the spring of 1976, <br />grid I produced an average of 25.4 rodentslacre, and grid 2 produced an average of 20 <br />rodents/acre. Trapping success for grids I and 2 were 30% and 23%, respectively. <br />Total numbers of rodents captured and density per acre were higher in the fall than in the <br />spring. This is a function ofpost-reproduction versus pre-reproduction numbers. <br />Data from the trapping transects located adjacent to the browse transects was collected only <br />to determine rodent species diversity within the habitat types. Table 9, Rodent <br />Species/Habitat Type, shows the habitat types and the species captured. <br />The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also conducted a nine day small mammal sampling <br />program in 1915. Five traps were used on a 5-acre grid in a mark-recapture effort for six <br />days. Afrer the 6th day, a transect line (20 stations, 3 traps per station) was used to sample the <br />area for three days and nights. Results of the small mammal sampling are shown in Table 10, <br />USFWS - Small Mammal Transects. Additional information concerning the USFWS <br />sampling program is found in Exhibit 11, Wildlife Information. <br />Data collected for 1975 and 1976 show that, (1) rodent densities on the site were high <br />compared to those of other areas of the west; (2) total numbers of rodents were affected by <br />condition of the habitat; (3) habitat type also affected the diversity and numbers of rodents; <br />and d(4) rodents were not drastically affected by cover removal of the habitat improvement <br />areas. <br />• <br />2.04.1 I -z I <br />