DENVER – The U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday amended its environmental impact statement for the southern Rockies Canada lynx to include White River National Forest.
The amendment modifies eight forest plans with an eye to conserve the threatened lynx on national forests in Colorado and southern Wyoming, according to Bob Vaught, the Forest Service’s renewable resources director.
The conservation measures would maintain connected stands of dense, young trees that support snowshoe hares (the lynx’s main prey) and limit expansion of over-the-snow trails that compact snow and give competing predators access to lynx habitat in the winter.
The Forest Service will take comments for 90 days, until Feb. 17. A final environmental impact statement and decision are expected in the fall of 2007.
