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THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES <br />Of the federally listed species, Canada lynx (threatened) is the only Threatened or Endangered, <br />species that could potentially occur in this portion of the Gunnison National Forest during the <br />winter. <br />LYNX <br />Potential lynx wintering habitat is extremely limited in the project area. Studies conducted by <br />Squires ( Squires 2007) have shown that snowshoe hares are the primary prey of wintering lynx. <br />His studies showed that approximately 95% of the lynx diet in the winter is snowshoe hares. <br />Other mammals and birds comprise very little of their winter diet. During surveys conducted in <br />the winter of 2007-2008 snow shoe hare numbers were found to be very low in the E-Seam <br />project area except in Spruce-fir habitat along the Deep Creek drainage from the Dry Fork of <br />Minnesota Creek crossing to a point up drainage from Long Draw. There were a few <br />encountered in spruce/fir/aspen habitat in the upper Lick Creek drainage, but this is a small area <br />with total numbers of snowshoe hares being low. Both of these areas are on the edges of where <br />disturbance will occur which will reduce the amount of habitat for snowshoe hares that will be <br />affected. Total liner transect distance in spruce-fir habitat within the project area was <br />approximately 3 miles. In addition, these are narrow bands of trees along the drainage bottoms. <br />Location of areas to be disturbed in the E-Seam project area during road and pad construction are <br />primarily in oak/mountain shrub vegetation which covers the largest portion of the project area. <br />At total of approximately 221 miles of transect were run in this habitat type. In this habitat type <br />there were snowshoe hares, but numbers were only 0.53 animals per mile of transect (Table 1). <br />Further, within this type there were areas where tracks were rarely encountered and other areas <br />where numbers were only somewhat higher. In no area were there enough hares to support more <br />than possibly one lynx and then not for any extended period of time. This would further reduce <br />the chances of lynx occurring in the area. <br />Total numbers of hare tracks were low in stands of aspen and riparian habitat. Of all habitat <br />types, number of hare tracks observed per mile was lowest where there was aspen with very little <br />or no understory. A total approximately 8 miles of transects were run in this habitat type. The <br />average was 0.38 tracks per mile of transect. This is lower than the average number of tracks <br />observed in mountain/shrub habitat. Number of hare tracks per mile were higher in riparian areas <br />where it was a short distance to mountain shrub habitat. A total of approximately 18 miles of <br />transects were run in this habitat type with an average of 0.61 hare tracks per mile. <br />Areas outside the project area were also checked for snowshoe hare numbers and to see if any <br />lynx tracks might be encountered. The Coal Creek and Raven Mesa areas were checked for <br />15