Northern bog lemming survey 1993 A Report to: USDA Forest Service Kootenai National Forest 506 U.S. Highway 2 West Libby, MT 59923 Flathead National Forest 1935 Third Avenue East Kalispell, MT 59901 and Rocky Mountain Ranger District Lewis and Clark National Forest 1102 Main Ave. NW Box 340 Choteau, MT 59422 Submitted by: James D. Reichel and Stan G. Beckstrom February 1994 Montana Natural Heritage Program 1515 E. 6th Avenue P.O. Box 201800 Helena, MT 59620-1800 © 1994 Montana Natural Heritage Program This document should be cited as follows: Reichel, J.D. and S.G. Beckstrom. 1994. Northern bog lemming survey: 1993. Montana Natural Heritage Program. Helena, MT. 87 pp. ABSTRACT During the 1993 field season we surveyed for small mammals at 30 sites, catching northern bog lemmings at 5 new sites. One site, Wood Creek on the Rocky Mountain Ranger District, Lewis and Clark National Forest, is the eastern-most site known in Montana and 90 km from the nearest previously known site. Three sites on the Kootenai National Forest were in the Sunday Creek drainage, 1-6 km from the site discovered there in 1992. The last new site, also in the Kootenai National Forest, was found at Cody Lake, 32 km from the nearest known site. Despite surveys at 5 sites with apparently good-excellent habitat on the Flathead National Forest, no new lemming sites were found there. The total number of known bog lemming sites in Montana is 17, the most sites in any of the lower 48 states. All sites found during 1993 had moss mats at or near the trap location. Known sites in Montana range in size from 1 to approximately 340 acres. The best habitat predictor for potential northern bog lemmings sites in Montana is the presence of large, thick moss mats, particularly sphagnum moss. More sites with apparently good quality habitat were trapped unsuccessfully in 1993 than 1992; whether lemmings are actually present at some or all of those sites is unknown. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 METHODS AND MATERIALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 RESULTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Trapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Site Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 DISCUSSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Habitat Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Research Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESEARCH NEEDS . . . . . . . . . . 34 LITURATURE CITED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 APPENDIX 1. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 APPENDIX 2. SITES WHICH SHOULD BE TRAPPED IN THE FUTURE . . . 58 APPENDIX 3. PLANT COMMUNITY SURVEYS AT NORTHERN BOG LEMMING SITES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 APPENDIX 4. OCCURRENCE RECORDS OF NOTHERN BOG LEMMINGS TRAPPED IN 1993 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 ii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1. Sites trapped during 1993 nothern bog lemming surveys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Table 2. Sites examined for bog lemming habitat, but found only marginally or not suitable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Table 3. Sites for which only air photos were examined for bog lemming surveys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Table 4. Results of snap trapping during 1993 northern bog lemming surveys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Table 5. Success of two baits used in snap traps at sites where northern bog lemmings were found in 1992 and 1993. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Table 6. Northern bog lemmings captured during 1993. . . . . . . 20 Table 7. Plant communities present at 6 northern bog lemming sites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Table 8. Plant species present, percent coverage of each species, and number of habitats surveyed at 7 northern bog lemming sites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Table 9. Characteristics of known bog lemming sites, plus several additional sites in the Sunday Creek complex, in Montana. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Figure 1. Map of northern bog lemming sites in Montana. . . . . . 8 Figure 2. Map of Sunday Creek bog lemming complex showing potential and known habitat patches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank Bob Summerfield, Nancy Warren, and Seth Diamond for their help throughout the study. D.E. Pearson provided access to his invaluable unpublished information. S.W. Chadde, S.V. Cooper, J.C. Elliott, and B.L. Heidel identified plants and plant communities. Help with field work, location of possible trapping sites, and other logistical support was provided by G. Altman, J. Berglund, A. Bratkovich, C. Castren, P. Finnegan, C.E. Hidy, G. Heinz, P. I. Jelinek, L. Johnson, W. Johnson, R.L. Krepps, L.J. Kuennen, D. Roemer, and many other Forest Service personnel. D.L. Genter helped with all phases of the project. S.W. Chadde, P. Lesica, and J.S. Shelly gave advice on fen locations. M. Beer, C. Craig, and C. Jones helped with database applications and mapping in the preparation of the report. Financial support for the project came from the Kootenai National Forest, Flathead National Forest, Rocky Mountain Ranger District of the Lewis and Clark National Forest (U.S. Forest Service), Montana Department of Transportation, and the Montana Natural Heritage Program (Montana State Library). iv INTRODUCTION The northern bog lemming (Synaptomys borealis) is a small, grayish brown, vole-like microtine, related to the true arctic lemmings (Lemmus). Nine poorly differentiated subspecies are currently recognized. The northern bog lemming has a total length of 118-140 mm including its very short tail (19-27 mm) (Banfield 1974, Hall 1981). The combination of a tail less than 28 mm and a longitudinal groove in the upper incisors distinguish the northern bog lemming from all other mice found in Montana. Little is known about northern bog lemming life history. Litter sizes vary from 3-8, with 2 (or more?) litters per year. It has been suggested some animals breed the same year they are born (60-90 days old?). This information is scattered throughout the literature. All literature on specific to northern bog lemmings is essentially distributional in nature; other publications mention bog lemmings as a sideline to the main publication (Appendix 1). The northern bog lemming is boreal in distribution, occurring in North America from near treeline in the north, south to Washington, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, and New England. It typically inhabits sphagnum bogs and fens, but is also occasionally found in other habitats including mossy forests, wet sub-alpine meadows, and alpine tundra. One subspecies (S.b. artemisiae) lives on sagebrush hillsides in eastern British Columbia (Anderson 1932). Southern bog lemmings (S. cooperi) also inhabit a wide variety of habitats, all of which are marginal for Microtus; bog lemmings may be competitively excluded from better quality habitats by Microtus (Doutt et al. 1973, Linzey 1981). The northern bog lemming is rarely trapped and is one of the least known mice in North America. A few relict populations occur in the lower 48 states; the subspecies chapmani occurs in Montana, Idaho, and northeast Washington (Hall 1981). Bog lemmings are known from 4 locations in Idaho and 8 in Washington, all from within 80 km of the Canadian border (Johnson and Cheney 1953, Wilson et al. 1980, Reichel 1984, Groves and Yensen 1989, D. Johnson pers. comm.). The reasons for the disjunct nature of the populations may include: 1) the localized nature of its primary habitat; and 2) the currently patchy distribution of a boreal species that was more widely distributed during the Pleistocene (a glacial relict). Prior to 1992, evidence of bog lemmings in Montana included: 1) 6 locations on the west side of Glacier National Park (Wright 1950, Weckwerth and Hawley 1962, Hoffmann et al. 1969, Pearson 1991); 2) Shoofly Meadows in the Rattlesnake drainage north of Missoula (Adelman 1979), and 3) a single skull recovered from a Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus) pellet west of Wisdom (J. Jones pers. comm.); where the owl captured the lemming was unknown. In 1992 we trapped 21 riparian areas finding five new populations of northern bog lemmings (Reichel and Beckstrom 1993). These included: 1) Sunday 1 Creek drainage, Lincoln Co.; 2) a fen along Bowen Creek, Lincoln Co.; 3) around a pond in upper South Fork Hawkins Creek, Lincoln Co.; 4) meadows along Meadow Creek, Ravalli Co.; and 5) Maybee Meadows, Beaverhead Co. The Maybee Meadows site was the southern-most known population of the species outside of New England and the only Montana population from east of the Continental Divide. All five sites found in 1992 were associated with thick mats of sphagnum moss. The U.S. Forest Service, Region 1, lists the northern bog lemming as Sensitive. It is listed as a Species of Special Concern by the Idaho and Montana Natural Heritage Programs (Moseley and Groves 1990, Genter 1992). We began a multi-year study of northern bog lemmings in Montana in 1992. Objectives during 1993 included: 1) surveying at least 16 sites with potential habitat for bog lemmings in northwest Montana, concentrating on the Kootenai National Forest, Flathead National Forests, and Rocky Mountain District of the Lewis and Clark National Forest; 2) determining efficient and effective survey techniques; 3) describing habitat where bog lemmings were found; and 4) preparing an annotated bibliography of literature on northern bog lemmings. 2 METHODS AND MATERIALS We visited 103 sites in western Montana, examining riparian habitats to determine if they appeared suitable for northern bog lemmings; 30 of these sites were trapped (Tables 1). Sites were examined but not trapped (Table 2) included: very small riparian areas; standing water with only very narrow fen border; homogeneous vegetation (such as all sedges) lacking moss mats; entire area with thick brush such as alder; cattail marshes; or small ponds surrounded by dry meadows. Lack of moss mats did not exclude a site from trapping, however sites trapped without a moss mat were generally large, diverse, wetland complexes with at least some spaghnum present. We examined air photos of 21 additional sites; 4 may be suitable habitat but were not visited due to their locations being far from roads, while 17 appeared unsuitable on the photo (Table 3). Most sites examined were suggested by botanists, plant ecologists, biologists and others from the U.S. Forest Service and Montana Natural Heritage Program (MTHP). Several were identified while in the field or by examining maps of the general areas we were to visit. From 15 June - 5 September 1993 we used Museum Special snap-traps to sample 30 sites in western Montana (Table 1). Traps were baited with a combination of peanut butter and rolled oats, either alone or with E.J. Dailey’s muskrat lure. Relative success of baits used was examined using the G test (Sokal and Rohlf 1969). Two traps with different baits were placed within 2 m of each other at each station. We placed each trap at a station to maximize success (runway, burrow, etc.). Stations were placed 5-20 m apart. At sites where northern bog lemmings were not caught, trapping effort ranged from 109 to 280 trap-nights over 1-4 nights. A trap- night is equivalent to one trap set for one 24-hour period (traps sprung and empty, or completely missing, are not counted). All traps were removed immediately following the first bog lemming capture. Lemming habitat patch sizes in the Sunday Creek complex were determined via GIS following digitization from the USGS 7.5' quad map. For other known lemmings sites, patches were measured using dot overlays on USGS 7.5' maps. Habitat patches for sites we have visited were drawn on the maps and represent suitable moss mat habitat. Habitat patches for sites we have not visited were drawn on the maps in the area shown as wetlands on the maps. We have found that these are likely to be overestimates. Some habitat in the forest may be suitable but is not shown on the maps, however the area shown as wetlands typically includes sedge meadows or other habitat types not suitable for lemmings. Distances to the nearest potential patch were measured either to 1) patches we have visited and know to be suitable, or 2) patches which D.E. Pearson or P. Lesica have indicated to us are suitable. Bonnie Heidel, Steve Cooper, and Steve Chadde of the MTHP conducted botanical surveys at 2 bog lemming locations discovered 3 during 1993 and 3 sites discovered in 1992 (Appendix 3). Joe Elliott identified mosses collected at those sites. ECODATA methodology was used for botanical surveys (DeVelice 1991). 4