Volume 2: Draft Gorst Planned Action Environmental Impact Statement

GORST PLANNED ACTION EIS | AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT, SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS, AND MITIGATION MEASURESChum and Coho Salmon. Chum and Coho salmon ESUs within the watershed are candidates for listing at the statelevel. Both species occur in Gorst Creek, Heins Creek, Parish Creek, Jarstad Creek, and Unnamed Stream1226919475271. Gorst Creek and Heins Creek provide spawning habitat for chum and coho salmon, and ParishCreek provides spawning habitat for coho salmon.Rockfish. Rockfishes are bottom and mid-water dwelling fish that occur in various coastal water habitats. Bocaccio,yelloweye rockfish, and canary rockfish have all been federally listed under ESA. Bocaccio are very rare in PugetSound, and are most frequently found in areas lacking hard substrates. In the past, they were most commonlycaught in the South Puget Sound. Yelloweye rockfish often occur in areas with high relief and complex rockyhabitats. They are distributed throughout the Strait of Georgia, but are less frequently observed in Puget Sound.Canary rockfish are associated with the various rocky and coarse habitats throughout Puget Sound (NMFS 2009).All three of these species could potentially make their way into Sinclair Inlet.Pacific and River Lamprey. Pacific lampreys occur in most large rivers and streams along the coast and the Strait ofJuan de Fuca, through Puget Sound, with a distribution similar to that of salmon and steelhead. River lampreysoccur in rivers and streams along the coast from the mouth of the Columbia River to the mouth of the Hoh River,throughout Puget Sound, and in the Lake Washington Basin. Both species use riffle and side channel habitats forspawning and rearing, and good water quality is essential for rearing (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2013).Gorst UGAFreshwater Habitats – Freshwater habitats in the UGA include Gorst Creek and two unnamed tributaries, as well astwo unnamed streams that drain to the Sinclair Inlet. A discussion of Gorst Creek and its tributaries is provided inthe discussion for the watershed. The freshwater habitats in the Gorst UGA have been degraded by urbandevelopment in this area, and four fish passage barriers have been identified, one culvert on Gorst Creek, andthree culverts on an unnamed tributary stream.Terrestrial Habitats – Based on USGS land cover data and as shown in Table 3.4-1 Land Cover Types within theGorst Creek Watershed and the Gorst UGA, roughly two thirds of the land area within the UGA is developed and athird is undeveloped. The majority of the Gorst UGA supports residential, commercial, and industrial land uses, andis therefore assumed to have little to no habitat value for native species. These areas may support landscapedareas, native and non-native trees, shrubs and forbs, grass, and various other plants commonly found in urbanareas. It is expected that these areas would support some common urban wildlife species, such as black rat,Norway rat, house mouse, raccoon, opossum, European starling, glaucous-winged gull, house finch, housesparrow, and rock dove.A portion of the area within the UGA that currently supports mineral resource extraction is undeveloped openspace, including deciduous forests with connections to high value habitats to the north. These areas are likely to beused by a variety of forest-dwelling species.Wetlands – The only mapped wetlands within the Gorst UGA are those associated with the estuarine/marinewetland complex at the Sinclair Inlet, and the manmade open water habitat between SR 3 and the Navy railroad.Marine Nearshore Habitat – The marine nearshore habitats in and adjacent to the Gorst UGA and their associatedwildlife species were discussed previously for the Gorst Creek watershed.Priority Habitats and Special Status SpeciesPlantsBased on data from the Washington Natural Heritage Program, no historical or current occurrences of rare plantspecies populations or endangered ecosystems have been mapped within the Gorst UGA (Washington NaturalHeritage Program 2013).Draft | June 2013 3-63