Land Protection Plan - Wyoming Toad Conservation Area/Summary

by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service

Summary

Sarah Armstrong/FWS

The action would protect habitat that is important for the future of the Wyoming toad.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is establishing a conservation area in the Laramie basin of southern Wyoming to protect the Wyoming toad. The Wyoming Toad Conservation Area project is located in south-central Albany County, Wyoming, and would encompass three existing National Wildlife Refuges: Bamforth, Hutton Lake, and Mortenson Lake. The Service will work with private landowners to protect up to 43,299 acres, mainly through conservation easements, and up to 10,000 acres in fee-title land purchased from willing sellers only. Successful implementation of the Wyoming Toad Conservation Area will depend on numerous partnerships, including partnerships with The Nature Conservancy, Audubon Society chapters, State agencies, Laramie Rivers Conservation District, tribes, and other Federal agencies. We will also work with the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative as part of our landscape-scale conservation efforts.

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service policy, both an environmental assessment and a land protection plan have been prepared to analyze the potential effects of establishing the Wyoming Toad Conservation Area in southeastern Wyoming. Both documents are contained within this volume.

The land protection plan describes the important resources and gives direction for evaluating potential habitat conservation areas. The Service has set priorities for land protection based on the needs of the endangered Wyoming toad. The Wyoming Toad Conservation Area would focus on the protection of wetland, floodplain, riparian, and upland areas that provide the year-around habitat required by the toad. The Service has defined highest conservation value areas based on scientific modeling results for the Wyoming toad to establish priorities for where to pursue easements and fee-title acquisition from willing sellers.

The Project Area

Laramie Plains is a cold desert basin located at an elevation of approximately 8,000 feet between two mountain ranges, the Snowy Range and the Laramie Range. Habitats include wetlands, riparian corridors, shrublands, and shortgrass and mixed-grass prairie. In addition to providing essential habitat for the Wyoming toad, the Laramie basin also is important for other federal trust species, including populations of migratory shorebirds, waterfowl, and neotropical songbirds. The region provides resident, nesting, and migration habitat for over 146 species of birds and over 320 species of plants. Bamforth, Hutton Lake, and Mortenson Lake National Wildlife Refuges are important stopovers for migrating birds and breeding sites for species such as the American white pelican, American bittern, white-faced ibis, and black-crowned night-heron. The National Audubon Society has designated the Laramie Plains Lakes Complex as an Important Bird Area because of the diversity of birds found within the basin.

Conservation through Easements and Fee-Title Lands

To protect habitat, the Service recognizes that it is essential to work with private landowners on conservation matters of mutual interest. The project will use voluntary conservation easements and, on a limited basis, fee-title land throughout the Wyoming Toad Conservation Area to protect wetland, upland, and agricultural land from conversion to other uses. As a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and the Service, an easement is a perpetual conservation agreement that the Service will purchase from willing landowners.

• A conservation easement typically contains habitat protection measures that prohibit subdivision but allow for the continuation of traditional activities such as livestock grazing and haying.

• Alteration of the natural topography and conversion of uplands or wetlands to cropland will be prohibited on a conservation easement.

• Conservation easement land will remain in private ownership, and property tax and land management, including invasive weed control, will remain the responsibility of the landowner.

• Public access to a conservation easement will remain under the control of the landowner.

The Service will purchase conservation easements and fee-title lands mainly with money generated by the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965. These funds are derived from oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf, motorboat fuel tax revenues, and sale of surplus federal property. The U.S. Congress appropriates money for a specific project, such as the Wyoming Toad Conservation Area. Easement and fee-title land prices offered to willing sellers will be determined by an appraisal completed by an appraiser familiar with the local market. Service staff from the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge Complex will administer and monitor the conservation easement and fee-title program.

The Service would seek to strategically buy conservation easements or fee-title lands from willing sellers that provide potentially valuable habitat for the Wyoming toad. These areas would also provide perpetual protection of valuable wildlife habitat for threatened and endangered species and migratory birds by restricting some types of development.