Draft EIS/EIR for the San Luis Reservoir SRA Resource ...

5. Environmental Analysis
greater than from the other alternatives. As described for Alternatives 2
and 3, project-level documents will address potential site-specific wildlife
impacts and location- and species-specific BMPs and measures such as
those described in Section 5.4.3.4 to minimize and avoid those impacts.
Minor residual impacts could remain.
Camping, Boat Use, and Day Use All of the alternatives would continue
recreational uses in the Plan Area. The action alternatives would allow for some
expansion of facilities that would accommodate increased visitation and
recreation uses. Increased recreation could have a range of direct and indirect
effects to biological resources from the following mechanisms:
• Reduction in habitat quality caused by human disturbance, including
increased presence, noise, and light
• Disturbance to vegetation that provides habitat for special-status species
• Introduction of invasive species, including invasive mussels
With all alternatives, visitor use of the Plan Area can be expected to increase as a
result of population growth in Merced County and other nearby counties over the
Plan horizon (Section 2.12). In general, effects would be concentrated in the
vicinity of visitor-serving facilities. The degree of those effects would depend on
the proximity of campsites, day use areas, interpretive facilities, and shoreline
areas to sensitive biological resources.
With all alternatives, the potential exists for wildlife to forage on human food at
camping and picnic facilities as a result of improper storage or disposal. Human
food may attract and support raccoons or striped skunks in mesic areas such as
Basalt and Los Banos Creek use areas. These animals can carry rabies and pose
an epidemiological threat to wildlife such as San Joaquin kit fox. Availability of
human food may also alter the behavior of kit fox, which are adept at changing
foraging patterns in urban areas to scavenge for food (USFWS 1998). Access to
human food may also support feral cats, feral dogs, and red fox, a competitor of
San Joaquin kit fox for food and dens.
Noise and light associated with RV traffic, generators, and large groups of people
(50 or more) in group picnic or camping facilities, especially during the dusk
through dawn hours, have the potential to degrade habitat quality for animals such
as San Joaquin kit fox and potentially nesting birds. Boating has the potential to
introduce noise disturbance and human presence to shoreline areas and result in
potential disturbance to waterfowl.
Finally, with all alternatives, boating and other water-based recreation could result
in the introduction of invasive quagga mussels (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis)
or zebra mussels (D. polymorpha) (Section 2.6.6.1). Invasive mussels can
multiply quickly and clog waterways and infrastructure (e.g. pipelines), affect
lake ecosystems, and create costly maintenance issues. The mussels consume
large amounts of phytoplankton in water, which can lead to a reduction in
zooplankton, some crustaceans, and fish (California Science Advisory Panel
San Luis Reservoir SRA 5-31
Draft RMP/GP and Draft EIS/EIR