Sustainable Community: Habitat Management Plan

Habitat Management Plan

The objective of the Habitat Management Plan (HMP) for the Silo Ridge Resort is to address specific concerns regarding the project's potential effects upon on-site habitats and the resident or transient wildlife species that utilize these habitats. The Chazen Companies (TCC) developed the HMP to address potential risks to habitat quality and to describe the measures to be taken to mitigate these potential risks. A concurrent objective of the HMP is to address specific efforts to provide quality habitat for populations and assemblages of animal species that utilize the Site for critical habitat throughout all, or a portion of their annual life cycle.

APPROACH
The development of the HMP utilized information that was gathered during early Site investigations to prepare the DEIS. This information included on-site field investigations, input from federal and state agencies, and local conservation groups. Later efforts included additional site visits and a more expansive investigation of the applicable scientific literature.

Brief summaries of the approaches that TCC took to characterize the existing habitats and resident flora and fauna within the Site are presented below. To characterize/inventory the existing habitats and wildlife resources, TCC completed a Habitat Assessment in 2005. In total, seven field visits and 126 man-hours were dedicated to characterizing the existing Site conditions. It should be noted that many of these studies were focused on a specific task (e.g., delineating wetland boundaries), and not all of the time spent on-Site was concentrated on inventorying existing habitats and wildlife resources. However, these studies were valuable for characterizing the vegetative communities and noteworthy observations of flora and fauna species were recorded during these efforts. TCC completed several intensive data collection efforts to inventory the existing habitats and wildlife resources on the Site during supplementary studies conducted in 2007. A total of 16 days and 244 man-hours were logged on-site during these supplementary studies. These supplementary studies primarily focused on determining the presence/absence of endangered, threatened, and/or rare and special concern (ETR) species at the Site. Focused ecological surveys conducted at the Site included an amphibian and reptile survey (including a timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) survey), breeding bird survey, botanical survey, Phase I and II bog turtle (Clemmys muhlenbergii) surveys, and an Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) survey. TCC completed additional visits to the Site in the spring of 2008 to review current Site conditions and assess habitat quality in support of the management plans proposed.

Investigations to identify management methods and habitat enhancement options (e.g., planting palettes) included reviews of the applicable scientific literature and technical reports focusing on best management techniques for varied habitats and species. The HMP for the Site utilizes the following multi-step approach to address habitat quality for wildlife populations at the Site:

1. Characterize and Inventory Existing Habitats.
2. Identify Critical and Sensitive Habitat and Wildlife Resources.
   Critical habitats for wildlife populations of special management concern.
   Sensitive habitats that may be degraded by development at the Site.
3. Conserve Existing High Quality and Critical Habitat.
4. Restore Damaged Habitats to Restore Ecological Services.
5. Enhance Existing Habitats Affected or Potentially Affected by Development.
6. Mitigate Effects of Site Development (where possible)
   Conservation Buffer
   Water Quality Buffer
   Mitigation Structures
   Terrestrial Habitat Enhancements
   Aquatic Habitat Enhancements
7. Protect Sensitive and Productive Habitats During Operations and Activities at the Site.

The HMP will address both habitat/species viability issues (including habitat enhancements) and buffer management issues (buffer creation and maintenance). These objectives are intertwined but not indistinguishable. Good buffers provide protections against, and mitigation of, the potentially damaging effects of sedimentation, thermal inputs, and nutrient and contaminant loadings associated with storm water flow, irrigation runoff, and general habitat disturbances (Fischer and Fischenich 2000). Habitats benefit from energy inputs, in the form of labile carbon in leaf litter, to support more productive aquatic food webs (Kominoski et al. 2007). Cooler waters also contain greater concentrations of oxygen for aquatic organisms. Good buffers also provide, in many instances, good terrestrial and aquatic edge habitat. However, good buffers require a certain degree of attenuation capability to be truly effective for the purposes expected of them. To that end, minimum requirements of width and vegetation type are identified for the two classes of buffers identified in the Buffer Management Plan (BMP).

Good habitat will provide ecological services to wildlife. Habitat-related ecological services are geared toward providing essential nesting, foraging and shelter areas for particular species of animals or assemblages of interrelated species. Good habitat may function as an effective buffer if there is sufficient area and attenuation capability. In certain instances, narrow strips of vegetation (e.g., hedgerows) provide valuable habitat for certain species of wildlife, in the absence of any water quality buffering capabilities. Contrary to performance criteria for buffers, minimal enhancements of existing habitat can result in a measurable increase in ecological services to a few dependent or transient individuals or an isolated subpopulation of animals.

This HMP and its accompanying BMP have been designed to provide sustainable habitat services to resident wildlife species on the Site. Maintenance schedules for mowing will be effective at maintaining grassland functionality. Forest management directives will be effective at preserving the integrity of sensitive riparian, wetland and vernal pool habitats contained within. The establishment of transitional grasslands with tree and shrub plantings in areas adjacent to tall grass will allow for the perpetual maintenance of a heterogeneous, irregular and soft edge between grasslands and forests thereby minimizing the damaging actions of nest predators and maximizing the benefits that a productive edge habitat can provide for both woodland and grassland species (Gillihan 2000). On the golf course, modified turf maintenance activities described in the IPM will protect the sustained productivity of riparian and aquatic edge buffers and habitat enhancement areas.

(Note:All bibliographic references in the text can be located in the Habitat Management Plan submitted with the Final Environmental Impact Statement dated September, 16 2009)