Page:Land Protection Plan - Wyoming Toad Conservation Area.pdf/11

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A prairie dog colony in the uplands at Hutton Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

The Environmental Assessment (EA) (see appendix A) that was completed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service or USFWS) during the planning process considered several alternatives, and two of them were selected for further analysis. Alternative A, the no-action alternative, considers the consequences of not doing anything beyond current actions at Bamforth, Mortenson Lake, and Hutton Lake National Wildlife Refuges. Alternative B considers the potential positive and negative consequences of purchasing limited fee-title land and conservation easements and establishing the Wyoming Toad Conservation Area (WTCA) (see figure LPP–1 for a map of the project area). The regional director found that establishing the Wyoming Toad Conservation Area (alternative B of the EA) would have no significant impact (refer to “Appendix C, Environmental Compliance”).

The Laramie Plains is an isolated mountain basin once covered by wetlands, riparian corridors, meadows, shrublands, and native prairie. In the spring, snow melt would fill streams and waterways as well as many shallow depressions scattered throughout the valley. These wetlands provided an oasis of food and rest for thousands of waterfowl and shorebirds making their northward migration to their breeding grounds. Linear riparian corridors bordered the Big and Little Laramie Rivers and their tributaries, supporting scattered woodlands of cottonwoods and willows. The relatively fine soils and low annual precipitation kept the uplands in short mixed-grass prairie with scattered patches of shrubland. The Wyoming toad, a species endemic to the Laramie Plains, was once a common sight. Waterfowl, shorebirds, and grassland birds would dominate the skies, with raptors following the migration. Many mammals that depended heavily on white-tailed prairie dogs for prey and burrow habitats also lived in the area, including the swift fox and the black-footed ferret. Big game herds, including the American bison, once occupied almost all parts of the basin. (See appendix E for a list of species found in the area).

Today, the landscape has changed. Some wetlands have been filled or drained, others have been altered, and new wetlands in the form of flood-irrigated fields have been created. Only 4 percent of existing wetlands within the Laramie Plains are protected (Copeland et al. 2010a). Much of the water in the area is managed to support various human needs such as