Vegetation of the Hixon Columbian sharp-tailed grouse habitat management plan area, Washington County, Idaho

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Abstract:

The Hixon Columbian sharp-tailed grouse habitat management plan area supports the largest and one of the last known populations of Columbian sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus columbianus) in western Idaho. The BLM manages the 27,740 acre area cooperatively with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and The Nature Conservancy. The need for a vegetation map of the area to help land managers had been previously identified. Our primary objective was to inventory, classify, and map the distribution of plant communities of the management area. We identified 24 plant community types, several of which are either poorly or undescribed in regional classifications. Classification of the vegetation map is based on 13 cover types grouped into six habitat classes - sagebrush, grassland, scabland, mountain shrub, conifer forest, and riparian. The most common cover type is xeric sagebrush, covering roughly 34% of the project area. It is followed by the rock buckwheat (24%), bluebunch wheatgrass (17%), mountain shrub (9%), and bulbous bluegrass (7%) cover types. Each of the other eight cover types provide less than 5% coverage. We also assigned ecological ranks to selected cover types. The map is comprised of 154 polygons, ranging in size from about 1,879 to 8 acres, with an average size of 177 acres. The map is in both a GIS and non-GIS format at a scale of 1:24,000. Two populations of squawapple (Peraphyllum ramosissimum), a BLM Sensitive plant species were revisited and information about them updated. No new populations were discovered. We also updated vegetation information and assessed the conservation status of Buckwheat Flats Research Natural Area (RNA).

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Reference Code: U97MAN02IDUS

Full Citation: Mancuso, M., and R. Moseley. 1997. Vegetation of the Hixon Columbian sharp-tailed grouse habitat management plan area, Washington County, Idaho. Idaho Bureau of Land Management Tech. Bull. No. 97-8. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Lower Snake River District, Cascade Resource Area. 40 pp. plus appendices.

Location: SITE FILE: HIXON SHARPTAIL; EF - ZOOLOGY: BIRDS; ANIMAL EF: TYMPANUCHUS PHASIANELLUS COLUMBIANUS