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APPENDICES
<br />City of Redwood City, Public Works Division Initial Study & Mitigated Negative Declaration
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<br /> 2 Blankinship & Associates, Inc.
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<br />Approach
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<br />A Habitat Assessment of the City of Redwood City project site, the Redwood Shores Lagoon (“Lagoon”), was
<br />conducted by Blankinship & Associates, Inc. staff to characterize the habitats present on-site and the likelihood
<br />of special status species occurring on the project site.
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<br />A list of these special species was compiled using a records search of the California Natural Diversity Database
<br />(CNDDB), and current species information from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Sacramento
<br />Office website. Location specific species data is available from both of these sources, and organized
<br />geographically into 7.5 minute U.S.G.S. quads. The CNDDB database was queried using the boundary map for
<br />the Department, and selecting the two quads that in which the Lagoon is located. In addition, a buffer area
<br />made up of the outlying quads adjacent to the original 2 quads was selected for the query, resulting in a total of
<br />12 quads. This approach was used to identify species that might be located in the surrounding areas, but not
<br />necessarily reported to CNDDB as a sighting event within the Lagoon boundaries.
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<br />Habitat requirements of each of the species were reviewed to determine whether habitat existed within the
<br />project area that would meet that species’ needs. Table 1 of the Initial Study & Mitigated Negative Declaration
<br />(IS/MND) shows a comprehensive list of species’ considered, their conservation status, and whether or not they
<br />were considered for evaluation of potential impacts. The life history, including breeding and/or foraging
<br />habitat(s) of non-plant species, and the habitat requirements of plant species are described below. Based on
<br />Table 1 of the IS/MND text, if a species’ potential habitat was present in the project area, a brief summary of
<br />that species is presented below.
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<br />Amphibians
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<br />The Lagoon is not suitable habitat for any of the amphibians found in the CNDDB query. As such, project
<br />activities will not adversely impact any amphibians.
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<br />Birds
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<br />Tricolored Blackbird (Agelaius tricolor)
<br />Breeding habitat of tricolored blackbirds includes large marshes (Payne 1969 in Beedy and Hamilton 1999).
<br />Nesting colonies are generally in emergent aquatic vegetation, but may also be found in trees along streams,
<br />weed patches, and grain and alfalfa fields, mustard, safflower, thistle, along an irrigation ditch, or in trees along
<br />a river (Orians 1960, 1961). In the Central Valley of California, breeding colonies were described where nests
<br />were placed in cattail-bulrush in dry and irrigated pasture; cattail in dry grassland, along a creek, rice and wheat
<br />fields, or dry and irrigated pasture; and in blackberry in dry grassland and along a creek (Crase and DeHaven
<br />1977). Tricolored blackbirds forage in cultivated row crops, orchards, vineyards, and heavily grazed
<br />rangelands, but these are considered low-quality forage habitats. High quality forage areas included irrigated
<br />pastureland, lightly grazed rangeland, dry seasonal pools, mowed alfalfa fields, feedlots, and dairies (Beedy and
<br />Hamilton 1997 in Beedy and Hamilton 1999). In the Central Valley of California, nestling tricolored blackbirds
<br />were fed 86% animal matter on a volumetric basis, 11.2% plant matter, and 2.7% grit. The animal matter was
<br />primarily insects (79% of total diet) with the majority being beetles (61% of total diet). Plant matter was split
<br />evenly between cultivated grains such as oats, wheat and miscellaneous plant matter (Crase and DeHaven
<br />1977). Since tricolored blackbirds are unlikely to feed directly from the Lagoon the risk posed by copper-
<br />containing algaecides and/or aquatic herbicides applied to the Lagoon is insignificant.
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<br />Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus)
<br />Short-eared owls inhabit wetlands, bogs, fens, grasslands, and croplands (NatureServe 2014). They typically
<br />nest and forage in broad expanses of open land with low vegetation. Their diet consists primarily of rodents, but
<br />they are also known to regularly prey on small mammals, small birds, and insects. Because they prey mostly on
<br />6.3.A. - Page 71
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