Conservation Briefs is a compilation of short news stories of interest to Outdoor News Bulletin readers. The stories cover a number of issues that have developed in the past month or provide updates on issues that were featured in previous ONB editions. Each story includes links to online resources for more details on each topic.

This month:

• DOI Releases Landscape-Scale Mitigation Proposal
• Lesser Prairie Chicken Listed as Threatened
• Interagency Fire Strategy Released; Cost/Benefit Analysis in CA Assesses Proactive Forest Management
• FWS Study Documents Avian Mortality at Solar Plants
• Rocky Mountain Wolf Populations Stable Under State Management

DOI Releases Landscape-Scale Mitigation Proposal

On April 10, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell released the Department's vision to shift from a project-by-project approach to a broad landscape mitigation strategy. The Department's Energy and Climate Change Task Force (Task Force), which includes all Assistant Secretaries and agency heads and chaired by the Deputy Secretary, developed the strategy as a result of a secretarial order issued in October 2013. The landscape approach proposes a four-step process for mitigation: identifying landscape-scale attributes and conditions; developing landscape-scale goals and strategies; developing efficient and effective compensatory mitigation when impacts cannot be avoided or minimized; and monitoring progress to make adjustments that ensure mitigation is effective despite changing conditions. The proposal also outlines ten specific guiding principles for the policies and procedures for developing landscape-scale mitigation strategies and near-term policy deliverables that the Department will undertake.

"This report describes an advanced form of collaborative problem-solving at a time when the uncertainties of a rapidly changing climate and the imperative of an energy transformation pose challenges for sustaining the natural ecosystems that buffer us from extreme weather events and play a fundamental role in the maintenance of America's clean air, clean water, agricultural productivity, world class recreational opportunities, and economy," the report states. "This report, and the strategy it describes, is the Department's first step in building upon the innovative efforts that have been emerging across the Country to avert resource conflicts prior to development and to advance sustainable solutions that ensure the highest and best use of our natural resources."

The Western Governor's Association Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT), the regional mitigation strategy undertaken for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone in southern Nevada, the regional efforts for greater sage-grouse and lesser prairie-chicken, and Maryland's Water Resources Registry, among others, were cited as examples where these types of broad mitigation efforts are already underway.

Lesser Prairie Chicken Listed as Threatened

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially listed the Lesser Prairie Chicken as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act on March 27. The final listing decision was accompanied by a special rule meant to create assurances for the landowners and oil and gas companies that voluntarily enrolled in the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Range-wide Conservation Plan for the species. So far, energy companies had enrolled over 3.6 million acres under the WAFWA plan and agreed to pay $21 million over the next three years to support mitigation efforts. However, a number of western lawmakers and governors were not pleased with the listing decision, and energy companies expressed concern the listing would undermine the progress that had been made.

"Our member companies worked hard to commit acreage to a rangewide plan, another option which would have provided a solution to provide conservation for the species in a meaningful way, rather than listing it as threatened," said Jeff Eshelman, the Independent Petroleum Association of America's vice president for public affairs. "We will work with the Service to ensure that the effects of this listing are mitigated to the most extent possible."

Interagency Fire Strategy Released; Cost/Benefit Analysis in CA Assesses Proactive Forest Management

On April 9, the U.S Department of the Interior, U.S. Forest Service and Council on Environmental Quality released their strategy for fighting wildfires, restoring forests and protecting communities in the wildland-urban interface. The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy calls for improving initial wildfire fighting to prevent blazes from getting out of control but also calls for more fires to burn to clear dense understory. The agencies will also work proactively with homeowners to reduce the threat of fire on their property by clearing brush, trees and flammable materials around their homes. Finally, the strategy calls for region-specific strategies to reduce the number of human-caused fires.

"Through more strategic coordination with local communities, the National Cohesive Strategy will help us better protect 46 million homes in 70,000 communities from catastrophic wildfires," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "This effort, combined with the Administration's newly proposed wildland fire management funding strategy, will allow USDA and our partners to more effectively restore forested landscapes, treat forests for the increasing effects of climate change, and help avert future wildfires."

Another report released on April 9 by the U.S. Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy did a cost/benefit analysis on proactive forest management. The study analyzed the Mokelumne Watershed, north of where the 2013 Rim Fire in the Central Sierra Nevada burned nearly 257,000 acres and cost more than $127 million. The study used state-of-the-art modeling for fire, vegetation and post-fire erosion to assess the potential impacts of landscape-scale fuel treatment. The findings suggest that proactive forest management activities could save up to three times the cost of future fires and reduce the severity of fires by up to 75 percent.

"In sum, our analysis shows that it makes economic sense to invest in forest management to reduce the risk of destructive, high-severity wildfires in the upper Mokelumne watershed," the report states. "Although achieving such benefits requires a significant increase in the pace and scale of fuel treatments, the long-term cost savings far exceed the costs of the initial investment. To the extent that the Mokelumne is representative of other fire-adapted forested watersheds of the Sierra Nevada and the western United States, this report makes the economic case for significantly increasing investment in fuel treatments in western forests."

FWS Study Documents Avian Mortality at Solar Plants

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Office of Law Enforcement and Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon analyzed 233 bird mortalities at three industrial solar facilities in southern California to assess the cause of death. The report suggests that the limited carcass surveys being undertaken may be underreporting avian mortality at the sites. Of the carcasses surveyed, 141 came from the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (Ivanpah) concentrating solar tower where a field of mirrors focus light on boilers in a central tower to generate electrical power. The intense heat in the "solar flux," the region near the tower where light from the mirrors is concentrated the most, "creates such a bright light that it is brighter than the surrounding daylight. Insects were attracted to the light and could be seen actively flying the height of the tower. Birds were also observed feeding on the insects. At times birds flew into the solar flux and ignited."

Forty-seven of the 141 birds recovered from Ivanpah showed clear signs of solar flux injury. The authors believe that some of the impact traumas and predation may have been caused when singed feathers made it impossible for the bird to fly causing them to hit mirrors or become easy prey. They also hypothesize that many carcasses may not be recovered because the birds might be able to soar outside of the project area with singed feathers but would then be unable to fly upon landing causing them to starve or be predated. At the base of the tower the report notes that there was also significant insect mortality including hundreds of monarch butterflies. At all of the solar generating facilities, the reflective surfaces of the panels that reflect the sky or are misinterpreted in flight as water bodies leads to the impact trauma.

The report states: "These solar facilities appear to represent "equal opportunity" hazards for the bird species that encounter them. The remains of 71 species were identified, representing a broad range of ecological types. In body size, these ranged from hummingbirds to pelicans; in ecological type from strictly aerial feeders (swallows) to strictly aquatic feeders (grebes) to ground feeders (roadrunners) to raptors (hawks and owls). The species identified were equally divided among resident and non-resident species, and nocturnal as well as diurnal species were represented. Although not analyzed in detail, there was also significant bat and insect mortality at the Ivanpah site, including monarch butterflies. It appears that Ivanpah may act as a "mega-trap," attracting insects which in turn attract insect-eating birds, which are incapacitated by solar flux injury, thus attracting predators and creating an entire food chain vulnerable to injury and death."

Rocky Mountain Wolf Populations Stable Under State Management

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a report on April 4 that documents that gray wolf populations in the Rocky Mountain region have remained stable since management of wolves moved to the states in 2011. There were at least 1,691 wolves in 320 packs in 2013 which is comparable to the 1,674 wolves in 321 packs from 2012. The number of packs that qualify as a breeding pair was 78, down from 103 the year before. The results show that wolf populations in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon are still well above the minimum management targets of 450 wolves and 45 breeding pairs. Since states assumed management, there has been an increase in hunting and trapping in Montana and Idaho. 650 wolves were legally harvested in all of the states in 2013 and an additional 200 wolves were killed in control actions.

"By every biological measure the [northern Rockies] wolf population is fully recovered and remains secure under state management," the report said. "Resident packs have saturated suitable habitat in the core recovery areas and the population has exceeded recovery goals for 12 consecutive years."