Cold-blooded vertebrates at the proposed Reference Repository Location in southeastern Washington

Abstract

The information in this interim report will be used to design future environmental monitoring plans and assess impacts related to Basalt Waste Isolation Project (BWIP) activities. New reports will be issued as more data become available. Five study locations were established to study cold-blooded vertebrates in the vicinity of the proposed Reference Repository Location. Four study sites were in shrub-dominated stands of vegetation; the other site was devoid of shrubs because of a range fire in 1984. The side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana), trapped in four of the five plots, was the only lizard species captured. It was not trapped in the one plot dominated by spiny hopsage (Grayia spinosa) shrubs. It is uncertain whether the side-blotched lizard is absent from this particular vegetation type, or if the population is too low to have been detected in the relatively short time span of the investigation. Two species of snakes were captured, gopher snakes (Pituophis melanoleucus) and green racers (Coluber constrictor mormon). The number of snakes captured was too small to detect any distributional pattern in space or time. Studies are continuing. 4 refs., 9 figs., 3 tabs.