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can he determined, the Southern Rockies is given "provisional" status as a core area for purposed <br />of species recovery. Focusing lynx conservation efforts on these core areas a-i11 ensure the <br />continued persistence of ivnz in the contiguous United States by addressinLT fundamental principles <br />of conser,,atlun biology: <br />1. representation by conserving the breadth of ecological settings of the DPS; <br />?. redundancy b\ retaining a sufficient number of populations to provide a mar?ain of safet<< to <br />withstand catastrophic events:. and <br />resiliencv by maintaining,, sufficient numbers of animals in each population to withstand <br />randomly occurring events and prey population dynamics. <br />The outline provides 4 preliminary recovery objectives, which are accompanied by recovery <br />actions needed to attain objectives. Recoverv action 6.2 states: Identify the risk to lynx <br />populations posed by forest management techniques and human-induced mortality from factors <br />such as roads, trapping and hunting. These factors are to be addressed as necessary to ensure the <br />long;-teen persistence of lynx populations in core areas. <br />Threats in Colorado <br />In the Southern Rockies, urban expansion and development has further frag=mented an already <br />patchy distribution of lynx habitat. Valley floor development continually erodes the amount of <br />non-forest habitats. The expansion of homes and some municipal facilities up mountain slopes, <br />into forests of aspen, lodvaepole pine, and to a lesser degree spruce-fir, adds to the fragmentation <br />of a naturally fragmented landscape. The cumulative effect of private land development and <br />expansion of recreational facilities in and adjacent to lynx habitat may reduce the ability of lynx <br />to move throughout their home range, or interact with other individuals in the larger <br />subpopulation (Ruediger et al. 2000): <br />As ski areas are developed, they add to the overall fragmentation of the landscape in the <br />Southern Rockies. If these developed areas occur jointly with (back to back ski areas) or abut <br />the expansion occurring on private land, then there is a higher likelihood that lynx will have a <br />more difficult time moving across these portions of the Southern Rockies landscape. Although <br />lynx have been documented inhabiting ski areas in Canada (Roe et al. 1999), most observations <br />have been within forest cover and away from base area developments and parking facilities (Roe <br />et al. 1999). As noted by Buskirk et al. (2000x), lynx and snowshoe hare habitats are more prone <br />to a metapopulation structure in western forests due to fragmented landscapes and heterogeneous <br />distribution of topographic, climatic and vegetative conditions. This condition is further <br />exacerbated by the presumably greater human caused fragmentation of lynx habitat in the south <br />(Buskirk et al. 2000x. What little is known about lynx populations in the contiguous United <br />States indicates that the subpopulations are not large. Until more is know about the current <br />distribution and size of these small subpopulations, it is unwise to assume they can be reduced or <br />further isolated without increasing the risk of loss of viability (McKelvey el al. 2000x. <br />High?,vavs and their continued expansion into mountain towns and resorts increase the amount of <br />frag-inentation occurring in these long. linear landscapes. This fragmentation effect further <br />erodes the potential for 1<<nx to effectively cross some of these potential barriers (Ruediger et al. <br />1000). <br />1_?