BLM REA YKL 2011 Near-Term Future (2025) Landscape Condition Status in Current Distribution of Chinook Salmon in the Yukon River Lowlands - Kuskokwim Mountains - Lime Hills

The landscape condition model evaluates the degree of human impact on the landscape. Changes in land use including infrastructure, transportation, and natural resource development can result in partial or complete loss of suitable riparian habitat. Fish habitat is vulnerable to damage from current and future human modification. Human activity and disturbance such as recreation, river traffic, contaminants, and placer mining may negatively impact fish species. The current distribution of chinook salmon was converted to raster and landscape condition was extracted to the resulting dataset. The extracted landscape condition was then converted back to polyline. The majority of chinook salmon habitat is currently classified as high or very high landscape condition. Areas of low landscape condition are localized near communities and are associated with human development in these areas. Future projections of landscape condition suggest that chinook salmon habitat will remain relatively intact and in good condition. However, chinook salmon habitat along the potential Kuskokwim road development is projected to go from current high quality landscape status to relatively low quality landscape status by 2060.