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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 199 / Tuesday, October 19, 2021 / Proposed Rules
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the species. This unit is the only unit not on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada; is located on the Kern Plateau, which supports unique environmental conditions compared to the rest of the fishers range due to differences in climate, geology, and vegetation; and has a complex mosaic of mixed-age forest stands intermixed with open areas and shrublands Spencer et al. 2015, p.
44. Additionally, fishers in this unit occupy higher elevations than in other units, likely due to the lesser accumulation of snow on the Kern Plateau Spencer et al. 2015, p. 44. The unique environmental conditions of this unit provide important redundancy and representation for the DPS.
Threats identified within this unit include wildfire and wildfire suppression; climate change; tree mortality from drought, disease, and insect infestation; vegetation management; exposure to toxicants; and potential for effects associated with small population size. Special management considerations or protection measures to reduce or alleviate the threats may include: 1
Implementing forest management practices, especially the use of prescribed fire, that reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and improve habitat resiliency in and adjacent to fisher habitat; 2 minimizing habitat disturbance, fragmentation, and destruction at the stand scale, homerange scale, and landscape scale from vegetation management activities through the use of conservation measures; and 3 preventing, locating, and remediating trespass marijuana grow sites and other sources of toxicants. Federal lands in this unit are managed under the Land Management Plan for the Inyo National Forest USFS
2019, entire and the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment USFS 2004, entire.
Unit 2: South Sequoia Unit 2 consists of 115,637 ac 46,797
ha of lands in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Kern and Tulare Counties, California. This unit extends northward from the southwestern tip of the Sierra Nevada and Greenhorn Mountains until it abuts Subunit 3A to the north, where there is evidence of genetic discontinuity between the two subpopulations in the area of Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest Mountain Home Tucker et al. 2014, pp. 129131. Bear Creek in the Tule River Watershed serves as the northern boundary of Unit 2 from the western edge of the unit to a wildland-urban interface WUI associated with Mountain Home. The boundary follows
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the northern border of this WUI and then continues to the northeast until the eastern edge of the unit. The unit lies north and west of the Kern River and east of Springville and California Hot Springs. Lands within this unit include approximately 92,924 ac 37,605 ha; 80
percent managed by USFS Sequoia National Forest, Giant Sequoia National Monument and 182 ac 74 ha; less than 1 percent managed by the Bureau of Land Management BLM. Also, there are 2,147 ac 869 ha; 2 percent in State ownership Cal Fire and State Lands Commission, 16,246 ac 6,574 ha; 14
percent that are Tribal lands i.e., the Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation, California, and 4,138
ac 1,674 ha; 4 percent in private ownership. We are considering excluding the 16,246 ac 6,575 ha of the Tule River Reservation based on the Tribes long history of managing natural resources on the Reservation. General land use within this unit includes forest management e.g., timber harvest, fuels reduction, hazard tree management, forest restoration, prescribed fire, grazing, recreation, residential development, and management for protection of natural resources.
Unit 2 is occupied by the fisher and contains the physical and biological feature essential to the conservation of the species. This unit is important for the resiliency, redundancy, and representation of the DPS because it supports the highest recorded fisher occupancy rates Tucker 2020, pers.
comm., the highest predicted average habitat quality Spencer et al. 2015, p.
46, and the highest genetic diversity Tucker et al. 2014, entire in the DPS.
This unit supports habitat features and conditions that are optimal for successful denning, such as scattered giant sequoia groves and relatively abundant old-growth mixed-conifer forest with large sugar pines, high basal areas, high diversity of tree diameter classes, and dense canopy cover greater than 70 percent Spencer et al. 2015, p.
46.
Threats identified within this unit include wildfire and wildfire suppression; climate change; tree mortality from drought, disease, and insect infestation; vegetation management; exposure to toxicants;
potential for effects associated with small population size; disease and predation; and vehicle collisions.
Special management considerations or protection measures to reduce or alleviate the threats may include: 1
Implementing forest management practices, especially the use of prescribed fire, that reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and improve
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habitat resiliency in and adjacent to fisher habitat; 2 minimizing habitat disturbance, fragmentation, and destruction at the stand scale, homerange scale, and landscape scale from vegetation management activities through the use of conservation measures; 3 preventing, locating, and remediating trespass marijuana grow sites and other sources of toxicants; and 4 improving the efficacy of existing road-crossing structures and installing new wildlife road crossings on major roadways. Federal lands in this unit are managed under the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment USFS 2004, entire, the Giant Sequoia National Monument Management Plan USFS 2012, entire, and the Approved Resource Management Plan for the Bakersfield Field Office BLM 2014, entire.
Unit 3: North Sequoia Unit 3 consists of 112,676 ac 45,597
ha of lands in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Tulare and Fresno Counties, California. Unit 3 is composed of three subunits.
Subunit 3A: Dillonwood Grove Subunit 3A consists of 15,225 ac 6,161 ha of lands in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Tulare County, California.
This subunit is located west of Moses Mountain, east of Battle Mountain, and south of Homes Nose, and it abuts Unit 2 to the south see the boundary description for Unit 2, above. Lands within this subunit include approximately 7,337 ac 2,969 ha; 48
percent managed by USFS Giant Sequoia National Monument and Sequoia National Forest and 5,606 ac 2,269 ha; 37 percent managed by NPS
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Also, there are 1,315 ac 532 ha;
9 percent in State ownership Cal Fire and 967 ac 391 ha; 6 percent in private ownership. General land use within this subunit includes forest management e.g., timber harvest, fuels reduction, hazard tree management, forest restoration, prescribed fire, grazing, recreation, and management for protection of natural resources.
Subunit 3A is occupied by the fisher and contains the physical and biological feature essential to the conservation of the species. This subunit supports high fisher occupancy rates Tucker 2020, pers. comm., suggesting it supports relatively high population densities Spencer et al. 2015, p. 46 compared to other areas within its range, which provides resiliency for the DPS. This subunit has high predicted habitat value due to mature forest conditions and numerous giant sequoia groves and other mixed-coniferous forests with
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