Environmental Impact Statement - Sonoma Land Trust

California Department of Fish and Game
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Section 3.5. Biological Resources
via water qualitycontamination of food sources and thus this is discussed in the
water quality analysis.
Thresholds of Significance
Criteria used for determining the significance of an impact on biological
resources are based on the State CEQA Guidelines and professional standards
and practices. Impacts were considered significant if an alternative would cause:
• long-term degradation of a sensitive plant community because of substantial
alteration of land form or site conditions, including a decrease in the acreage
of intertidal and subtidal aquatic habitats or tidal or nontidal wetlands;
• substantial loss of a plant community and associated wildlife habitat,
including a substantial decrease in the acreage or quality of waterfowl
breeding or wintering habitat or migrant and wintering shorebird habitat;
• fragmentation or isolation of wildlife habitats;
• substantial disturbance of wildlife resulting from human activities;
• avoidance by wildlife of biologically important habitat for substantial
periods, which may increase mortality or reduce reproductive success;
• disruption of natural wildlife movement corridors; or
• substantial reduction in local population size attributable to direct mortality
or habitat loss, lowered reproductive success, or habitat fragmentation of:
species that are federally or state listed or proposed for listing as
threatened or endangered;
portions of local populations that are candidates for federal or state
listing and federal and state species of concern; or
species qualifying as rare and endangered under CEQA.
The following were also considered in determining whether an impact on a
biological resource would be significant:
• federal or state legal protection of the resource;
• federal, state, and local agency regulations and policies regarding the
resource;
• documented local or regional scarcity and sensitivity of the resource; and
• local and regional distribution and extent of the resource.
An alternative was considered to have a beneficial impact if it would result in a
substantial increase in the quantity or quality of aquatic, wetland, and grassland
communities or of habitat for wintering waterfowl, migrant and wintering
shorebirds, or other special-status species.
Sears Point Wetland and Watershed Restoration
Project Final Environmental Impact
Report/Environmental Impact Statement
3.5-28
April 2012