Environmental Impact Statement - Sonoma Land Trust

California Department of Fish and Game
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Chapter 2. Alternatives
North of Highway 37—California Red-Legged Frog Habitat
Enhancement and Other Upland Areas
The operations and maintenance activities for the California red-legged frog
habitat and grazing areas would be the same as for the Project.
Long-Term Monitoring and Adaptive Management
A comprehensive monitoring and site security. Maintenance and policing will be
the responsibility of the managing entity. As needed, Maintenance activities
associatedwith the trail would include:adaptive management plan for the project
is currently being developed and will be based on the Monitoring and Adaptive
Management Plans for the Napa Plant Site and Cullinan Ranch Restoration
projects, and approved by regulatory agencies issuing permits for the project. The
focus of the monitoring effort for the Sears Point WWRP would be tidal marsh
evolution (i.e., monitoring of physical processes and vegetation establishment),
water quality in the restored tidal area, and bird and wildlife use of the restored
habitat areas, and as otherwise required by the regulatory agencies.
PavementAdaptive Management
Adaptive management is an approach to resource management in which
management goals remain the same, but management objectives and techniques
may be modified in response to feedback (such as monitoring results) from the
system being managed. Adaptive management recognizes that human knowledge
regarding biological and physical systems is limited and that these systems may
not always behave as expected. When a management or restoration project is to
be implemented but there is some uncertainty regarding the response of the
system to particular actions, adaptive management provides a way for
management actions to respond to feedback from the system being managed. For
example, the capacity for the site to accrete sediments relative to the rate of sea
level rise is a key uncertainty, and could influence marsh development as well as
capacity for developed marsh to keep pace with rising sea level. Adaptive
management would be implemented if it appears that actual conditions would
diverge far enough from intended conditions to threaten the achievement of
overall project goals. Should the development of the site fail to meet restoration
targets, action would be undertaken to correct these concerns if such action could
reasonably be expected to assist in the achievement of these goals. Corrective
action could include construction of Breaches 3 and 4 to Tolay Creek, additional
levee lowering, vegetation management, predator management, modifications to
pumps, or other activities to support the health of the tidal marsh, other wetlands,
and other areas of the project.
Sears Point Wetland and Watershed Restoration
Project Final Environmental Impact
Report/Environmental Impact Statement
2-45
April 2012