Chapters 1 - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Environmental Consequences
interference. Assets can be real property, physical assets, or intangible property rights, such as a
lease, or right to use something. ITAs cannot be sold, leased or otherwise alienated without the
United States’ approval. Trust assets may include lands, minerals, and natural resources, as well
as hunting, fishing, and water rights. Indian reservations, Rancherias, and public domain
allotments are examples of lands that are often considered trust assets. In some cases, ITAs
assets may be located off trust land.
The Service shares the responsibility with all other agencies of the Executive Branch to protect
and maintain ITAs reserved by or granted to Indian tribes, or Indian individuals by treaty, statute,
or Executive Order.
There are no known tribes possessing legal property interests held in trust by the United States in
the lands or natural resources addressed in the alternatives for this CCP.
5.9 Cumulative Effects
Cumulative effects can result from the incremental effects of a project when added to other past,
present, and reasonably foreseeable future projects in the area. Cumulative impacts can result
from individually minor but cumulatively significant actions over a period of time. Such impacts
can be difficult to quantify, as this would require speculative estimates of impacts such as the
geographic diversity of impacts (i.e., impacts associated with various developments may affect
different areas), variations in timing of impacts (i.e., impacts from the various proposals would
likely occur at different times, particularly in the case of temporary construction impacts),
complete data are not available for all future development, and data for future development may
change following subsequent approvals. Despite these limitations, a qualitative cumulative impact
analysis is presented that describes the combined effect of, and relationship between projects in
the general vicinity of the Seal Beach NWR.
In conducting this analysis, the interaction of activities at Seal Beach NWR with other actions
occurring over a larger spatial reference and a temporal reference of about 15 years (the intended
life of this CCP) has been considered. For purposes of this analysis, a list of recently approved,
currently proposed, and reasonably foreseeable future projects within a ten mile radius of the
Refuge have been compiled and are presented below.
Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach
The purpose of the INRMP is to provide NWSSB with a viable framework for future
management of natural resources on lands it owns or controls. When completed, the INRMP,
a five-year, ecosystem-based plan to be developed in cooperation with the Service and the
California Department of Fish and Game, will facilitate compliance with natural resource
protection laws, integrating the military mission of the NWS with the natural resource
component of existing plans for NWSSB. The proposals in the INRMP cover all of NWSSB,
including the Refuge, and the INRMP proposals for the Refuge are consistent with the
proposals in the draft CCP. In addition to the proposals described for the Refuge, the INRMP
also includes a number of conceptual restoration proposals for areas of the station located
beyond the Refuge boundary. These include the restoration of high to mid-marsh habitat at
the southeast corner of the station, coastal grassland enhancement, and bluff and beach dune
special status species enhancement.
Draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan 5-81