2011-12-22_PERMIT FILE - X201123500 (2)

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Vegetation and Wildlife Baseline Survey Report Line Energy Little Snake River Project Noxious and invasive species known to occur outside, but adjacent to the project area, include houndstongue (Cvnoglossum officinale), salt cedar (Tamarix spp.), and spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe). 4.3 Threatened and Endangered Plant Species The USFWS maintains a list of federal Endangered, Threatened, Proposed, and Candidate Species that occur in or may be affected by projects in Moffat County, Colorado (http: / /www.fws.gov /mountain - prairie /co.html). The USFWS updates this species list annually or sooner if any listing changes occur. According to this USFWS list (November 2011) one federally listed plant species may occur in or may be affected by projects in Moffat County: • Ute ladies'- tresses orchid (Spiranthes diluvialis - Threatened Species). Because the project is entirely on state surface and state mineral there will be no federal action or decision and therefore no Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 7 consultation will occur. 4.3.1 Ute Ladies' - tresses Ute ladies'- tresses, a member of the orchid family, was listed under the ESA by the USFWS as threatened on January 17, 1992. At the time of listing, Ute ladies' - tresses was only known from Colorado, Utah, and extreme eastern Nevada. The nearest known population of Ute ladies" - tresses to the Little Snake River exploration area is west of the project area in Utah, along the Green River in Browns Park in Daggett County, and in the Cub Creek drainage in Dinosaur National Monument in Uintah County. There is no designated critical habitat for the species in Moffat County. The Ute ladies'- tresses preferred habitat typically occurs in moist valley bottoms where perennial rivers and streams are fed by groundwater (USFWS 1995). The species occurs primarily on low, flat floodplain terraces or abandoned oxbows within 2 to 150 feet of small perennial streams or rivers. These terraces are subirrigated, often seasonally flooded, and remain moist throughout most of the growing season. It typically occurs in stable wetland and seepy areas within historical floodplains of major rivers, as well as in wetlands and seeps near freshwater lakes or springs. Nearly all occupied sites have a high water table (usually within 5 to 18 inches of the surface) augmented by seasonal flooding, snowmelt, runoff and irrigation (USFWS 2009). Ute ladies'- tresses seem to require "permanent sub - irrigation," indicating a close affinity with floodplain areas where the water table is near the surface throughout the growing season and into the late summer and early autumn (USFWS 1995a). The species seems to prefer well drained, sandy to silty loam soils derived from alluvial deposits with a slightly basic pH (Heidel, et. al.2008). It is not found in heavy or tight clay soils or in extremely saline or alkaline (pH greater than 8) soils (USFWS 2009). Surveys conducted since 1992 have expanded the number of vegetation and hydrology types occupied by Ute ladies'- tresses to include subirrigated or spring -fed abandoned stream channels and valleys, and lakeshores. Populations have also been discovered along irrigation canals, berms, irrigated meadows, excavated gravel pits, roadside borrow pits, and other human - modified wetlands. The orchid is well adapted to disturbances from stream movement within Habitat Management, Inc. Page 6 December 2011