DOE/EIS-0332; McNary-John Day Transmission Line Project Draft ...

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Affected Environment, Environmental
Consequences, and Mitigation
(Shaw and Campbell 1974), habitats that are relatively common in the project vicinity.
Potential impacts would include the temporary abandonment of suitable habitat as a result
of disturbance, and/or the permanent loss of habitat due to the road and/or tower
placement. Approximately 38 acres of potentially suitable habitat (9 acres of grassland
and 29 acres of grazed shrub-steppe scabland and shrub-dominated shrub-steppe) would
be permanently converted to roads or towers (Table 3-12).
Most dry rocky canyons would be spanned, which would limit the habitat loss for
northern sagebrush lizard, a federal candidate species.
Impacts to Habitats
The habitats along the corridor are the same as the vegetation communities discussed in
the section on Vegetation: agriculture, grasslands, grazed shrub-steppe, riparian,
scabland/lithosol, and shrub-dominated shrub-steppe. Cliffs and trees are included as
subcategories to those habitats.
With the exception of the cottonwood farm west of Glade Creek, existing vegetation
communities along the corridor are compatible with transmission line clearance
requirements. The project will require the construction of approximately 3 miles of new
access road and 270 short (each approximately 250 feet in length) spur roads, which
would remove vegetation and wildlife habitat. The habitats that would be permanently
impacted include agriculture, grasslands, grazed shrub-steppe, scablands, shrubdominated
shrub-steppe, and trees.
Between 31 and 39 acres of agricultural lands would be temporarily disturbed as a result
of road and tower construction. Clearing of agricultural lands such as corn, alfalfa, and
undisturbed patches between crop circles for roads and towers may result in some
temporary impact to waterfowl and small mammals using the agricultural lands.
Cliffs
Cliffs, considered priority habitats by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife,
would not be directly altered during or after construction. Cliffs located within 0.25 mile
of the project corridor occur at corridor miles 3, 55, 56, 57, 72, and 73.
Riparian
Riparian corridor, also considered Priority Habitat by Washington Department of Fish
and Wildlife, would be spanned by the proposed project, thereby would not be impacted.
As previously mentioned, some vegetation in dry washes (not considered riparian
vegetation by WDFW definition) would be impacted by road construction; however,
these areas do not represent sensitive wildlife habitat.
BPA McNary-John Day Transmission Project
Draft EIS
February 2002