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Redwood Shores has been developed into a high quality residential development on the San Francisco Bay. The housing development is protected from flooding by a levee wall. At the top of the levee wall a pedestrian path allowed foot and bicycle traffic in conformance with the recommendations of the Bay Trail Committee for San Francisco Bay access and transportation. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) determined that a levee height increase was necessary to protect the existing Redwood shores development from inter-tidal San Francisco Bay inundation. The Corps, as the designated action agency on the project, determined that the levee height increase "may affect" the habitat of the California clapper rail and the salt marsh harvest mouse pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (ESA or "the Act"). The Corps sought informal consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) under Section 7 of the ESA. At issue was the protection of endangered California clapper rails and the salt marsh harvest mouse on Bi�d Island which lies off of the shores of Redwood - Shores. Bi�d Island is a salt marsh habitat for clapper rails. During a period of high tide, the rail seeks refuge in elevations above high tide. The rail forages on Bird °` "- Island but nests on pickleweed, a native plant, elevated on a platform of stems without a canopy. The fear of the FWS * ��j was that as a result of the raised elevations Bird Island at Redwood Shores. of the levees there would be less usable habitat available for refugia. Without sufficient institutional controls one of the main predators of the clapper rail, domestic pets, would be able to access and extirpate the rails foraging on Bi�d Island. After a period of failed negotiations with the City, all pedestrian access to the levee trail at the eastern border of Redwood Shores was prohibited as a condition of a biological opinion issued by the FWS to the Corps. No similar restrictions had been placed on any California clapper habitat in the past and no such restriction has been instituted since. The California clapper rail was reclassified as a � geographically distinct species in 1880. The clapper rail (Kallus , obsoletus� is one of the largest species of the genus that extends , � to South America. The rail has a hen-like appearance, strong Figure 2- California legs with long toes, a long slighdy decurved bill, and white ongpostRslobsoletus) undertail feathers. Rails typically occur in salt water marshes 24