Survey & Manage Species Review (Wildlife)

1

st 48 project

Mad River Ranger District

Six Rivers National Forest

February 21, 2018

This project is in compliance with the Survey and Manage program requirements in the 2001

Record of Decision and Standards and Guidelines for Amendments to Survey and Manage,

Protection Buffer, and other Mitigation Measure Standards and Guidelines (USDA and USDI

2001), the April 25, 2013 9th Circuit Court Order in Conservation Northwest [and others] v.

Sherman, No. 11-35729 No. 08-1067-JCC (W.D. Wash) and the February 18, 2014 District Court

Order in Conservation Northwest [and others] v. Robert Bonnie [and others], No. C08-1067-JCC

(W.D. Wash.). The 9th Circuit Court reversed the District Court's approval of the 2011 Settlement 

Agreement and reinstated the January 2001 ROD standards and guidelines and the December 2003 

species list, except for the red tree vole which remains as Category C across its range, and/or the four 

categories of projects exempt from the Survey and Manage standards and guidelines as stipulated by 

Judge Pechman (October 11, 2006, “Pechman exemptions”.) 

The Survey and Manage Standards and Guidelines (USDA/USDI 2001) were developed to benefit species 

closely associated with late-successional and old-growth forests. Species include plant (vascular and nonvascular), fungi, terrestrial mollusk, aquatic mollusk, and vertebrate species. The Survey and Manage 

provision for each species would apply to the range (or portion of the range) of that species, to the 

particular habitats where concerns exists for species’ persistence, and where management activities are 

considered “habitat-disturbing” for that species (USDA/USDI 2001). 

The “Pechman exemptions” are provisions ordered by the court in Northwest Ecosystem Alliance et al. v. 

Mark E. Rey et al., No. 04-844P, (W.D. Wash. October 10, 2006). These provisions remain intact under 

the most recent order by the court Conservation Northwest v. Sherman Case No. 11-35729 No. 08-CV1067-JCC (W.D. Wash. April 25, 2013). 

A. Thinning projects in stands younger than 80 years old;

B. Replacing culverts on roads that are in use and part of the road system, and removing culverts if 

the road is temporary or to be decommissioned;

C. Riparian and stream improvement projects where the riparian work is riparian planting, obtaining 

material for placing in-stream, and road or trail decommissioning; and where the stream 

improvement work is the placement of large wood, channel and floodplain reconstruction, or 

removal of channel diversions; and

D. The portions of projects involving hazardous fuel treatments where prescribed fire is applied. 

Any portion of a hazardous fuel treatment project involving commercial logging will remain 

subject to the survey and manage requirements except for thinning of stands younger than 80 

years old under subparagraph a. of this paragraph. 

No survey and manage mollusk or vertebrate species within categories A, B, or C (requiring pre-project 

surveys) are within the Mad River Ranger District; therefore, no pre-project surveys are required. 
Krista Smith

Wildlife Biologist

Mad River Ranger District