The Trouble with a Focus on Killing Rocky Mt Goats and Selling Hunting Tags MARY O BRIEN GRAND CANYON TRUST JULY 23, 2013

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1 The Trouble with a Focus on Killing Rocky Mt Goats and Selling Hunting Tags MARY O BRIEN GRAND CANYON TRUST JULY 23, 2013

2 Wrong animal Not native to Utah Digs up long-lived plants Eats mosses, lichens, grasses, wildflowers (forbs), and shrubs Makes dust wallows Has been aggressive/ dangerous to hikers

3 Wrong animal What ISN T suitable habitat for a mountain goat? Alpine Ibex mountain goats on Cingino Dam in Italy

4 Southeastern Utah

5 Wrong Place Above 12,000 Sparse vegetation July 6, 2013

6 Wrong Place Above 12,000 Dry, cracking moss July 6, 2013

7 above 11,000 feet Sparse, low-growing vegetation

8 Above 11,000 feet Erosive soils, Sparse vegetation

9 Sparse vegetation

10 Above 10,00 feet Brumley Ridge Cattle Allotment Dandelion and bare soil in a meadow

11 In the middle of livestock allotments

12 La Sal Mountains UDWR Proposed Management Plan: Manage for a population of healthy animals capable of providing a broad range of recreational opportunities, including hunting and viewing. UDWR employee : They re putting them in there to kill them.

13 La Sal Mountains need another recreational opportunity? Hiking Backpacking Auto touring (Native) wildlife viewing Native plants viewing (aspen, flowers) Running Photography Mountain climbing Horseback riding Hunting Bear Elk Deer Cougar Fishing Mountain biking Off-road vehicle riding Camping Visiting (mostly) second homes in private inholdings on top of: Cattle grazing Domestic sheep grazing Fencing for cattle grazing Diversion of creeks and springs into pipes for alfalfa and other irrigation;;drinking water for visitors, residents, and downstream communities; cattle troughs and ponds; sheep watering Predator removal Mechanical treatments for fire Mechanical treatments to protect private inholdings Roads to service all of the above All on a small island mountain range, in aridk southeastern Utah, amid increasing drought, increasing heat, increasing fire,

14 Mt Peale Research Natural Area The La Sal Mountains are one of only three areas where you can see true alpine tundra communities in the Colorado Plateau. --Forest Service website on Mt. Peale Rsearch Natural Area

15 Mt Peale Research Natural Area Forest Service Manual Policy. Research Natural Areas may be used only for research, study, observation, monitoring, and those educational activities that maintain unmodified conditions.

16 Research Natural Areas - FS Manual The objectives of establishing Research Natural Areas are to: 1. Maintain a wide spectrum of high quality representative areas that represent the major forms of variability found in forest, shrubland, grassland, alpine, and natural situations that have scientific interest and importance that, in combination, form a national network of ecological areas for research, education, and maintenance of biological diversity. 2. Preserve and maintain genetic diversity, including threatened, endangered, and sensitive species. 3. Protect against human-caused environmental disruptions. 4. Serve as reference areas for the study of natural ecological processes including disturbance. 5. Provide onsite and extension educational activities. 6. Serve as baseline areas for measuring long-term ecological changes. 7. Serve as control areas for comparing results from manipulative research. 8. Monitor effects of resource management techniques and practices.

17 Erigeron mancus as a gauge for climate change After finding the La Sal daisy population, Dr. James Fowler of the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Flagstaff became excited about the opportunity to do an elevation density gradient study as a way to monitor climate change impacts to alpine plants... The work will measure the change in density of the La Sal daisy along an elevation gradient on a ridge in the middle group.... All vascular plant species will be recorded within each sampling frame... This data set will then form a basis for detection of climate change effects with future sampling at 5 to 10 year intervals.

18 Erigeron mancus as a FS Sensitive Species Sensitive Species Management. Sensitive species of native plant and animal species must receive special management emphasis to ensure their viability and to preclude trends toward endangerment that would result in the need for Federal listing. There must be no impacts to sensitive species without an analysis of the significance of adverse effects on the populations, its habitat, and on the viability of the species as a whole.

19 Wrong Time Alpine areas are heating up

20 Wrong Time Climate Change and pika Continued surface warming may alter alpine ecosystems to conditions that do not support the American pika, possibly resulting in individual mortality, population extirpations, and range contraction. US Fish and Wildlife Service 2009 Finding on Petition to List American Pika under the Endangered Species Act

21 Some questions we have Should the FS be doing NEPA for allowance of Rocky Mt Goat impacts on Erigeron mancus, pika, and the Mt. Peale RNA? Can the FS really allow an exotic bovid to graze Mt. Peale RNA? Will inserting Rocky Mt Goats prompt a petition for listing under ESA of Erigeron mancus and/or La Sal pika? Will the Forest Service exercise full responsibility for habitat, or does planting exotic wildlife by the appointed RACs/Wildlife Board trump protection of national forest habitat? Will UDWR refuse reductions/elimination of Rocky Mt Goats if there are drought, species declines, or other adverse outcomes? Will the FS be expected to pick up monitoring now if an exotic bovid is inserted into the alpine area? How is climate change less snow, more heat, less water being analyzed by either the FS or UDWR for the public to judge?

22 What options do we have to prevent insertion of Rocky Mt Goats in the La Sal alpine area? 1. Write s (cc: all relevant people) to UDWR, Forest Service ASAP See a downloadable list of s at Explain what you know/ have observed/have experienced/have read. 2. Testify at SE Resource Advisory Council on July 31 in Green River. SE RAC meets at John Wesley Powell Museum Green River, Utah at 6:30 p.m. Carpool at Moab Information Center parking lot at 5:30 p.m. 3. Sign up to be on an list for use through this process.to remain connected with this process.