1997-06-13_REPORT - M1981302 (11)

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include identifying areas for acquisition or special management designations, applying integrated weed control and vegetation management, assuring that hydrologic requirements are met and that proposed projects will not compromise them, managing grazing to avoid impacts during sensitive times of the year (during flowering and fruit set) , and managing recreation and other activities to avoid trampling, compaction, and other adverse impacts to habitat. Some type of population and habitat monitoring should be initiated in each watershed until such time as a complete monitoring plan is designed and implemented. 3. Identify, protect, and manage populations in disjunct habitats. Watershed ID Teams will be focusing their attention on recovery of the orchid in habitats created and maintained by natural hydrologic systems. However, occurrences of the orchid outside of those areas must be protected and managed as well . Recovery actions should include acquisition, special land management designations, and management agreements to manage habitat, securing water rights or negotiating quantities and timing of flow (e.g. , from irrigation systems) , and vegetation, grazing, and recreation management. Population and habitat monitoring should also be conducted. 4. Develop orchid population and habitat recovery goals and delisting criteria. Watershed ID Teams will make recommendations for orchid population sizes and distribution and habitat conditions that should be attained within the watershed for recovery and delisting of the orchid. These recommended recovery goals for each watershed will need to be integrated with each other and incorporated into overall recovery goals and delisting criteria for the orchid throughout its range. 5. Inventory remaining potential habitat. Recent discoveries of the orchid have extended its known range northward to include the North Platte River drainage in Wyoming and areas between there and Colorado Springs along the Front Range of Colorado (See Figure 1 for locations of known and historical occurrences) . Recovery of the orchid cannot be complete until the full range and habitat preferences of the orchid are understood and the genetic and ecological relationships within and between populations elucidated. Priority areas for additional inventory include: the headwaters of the North Platte River, the Laramie Basin, and the upper Green River and its tributaries in Wyoming; drainages along the Front Range north of Boulder, Colorado, including within the Pawnee National Grasslands; along the Green River and its tributaries between Brown's Park (in Colorado and Utah) and Jensen, Utah; and portions of the Colorado River and its tributaries in Colorado and Utah. Drainages, seeps, and springs in the eastern Great Basin of Utah and Nevada should also be inventoried, especially since an historical location at Willow Springs in far western Utah was recently reconfirmed. 6. Conduct genetic, life history, ecology, and habitat management studies. In order to assess and maintain the full genetic variability inherent in this species, know how to establish and maintain minimum viable populations, and understand how to assess and manage orchid habitat, genetic, population biology, ecology, and habitat management studies are necessary. 31