Res04 14606 - Laserfiche WebLink

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restored on Inner Bair, the interchange area where the slough on Inner Bair rejoins the waters of Smith Slough are rich feeding places for fish, birds and mammals. The City recognizes that there are conservation priorities that must be employed at Inner Bar Island by the NWRS. These conservation priorities include reducing predator and human intrusion. Maintaining an open entrance for predators and extending human use into the slough violate those priorities. The City believes that development of refuge user overlooks or mounts so near to the interchange area between the Inner Bair slough and Smith Slough is an unnecessary intrusion into an important area of habitat to be created under the plan. As will be seen in this report, the City prefers to relocate these overlooks away from this interchange area to reduce the impact and human intrusion in the refuge interchange zone. Inner Bair Island has, after years of diking, lost its tidal habitat features, dried and subsided. If the NWRS were to inundate the interior of the island by simply breaching the levee wall, the interior of Bair Island would "lake up." A sheet of water would cover the island attracting ducks and geese that would, in turn, be a continuing danger to aircraft landing at nearby San Carlos Airport. Instead, the NWRS will need to increase the elevation of the interior of Bair Island to allow tidal inundation without lake ponding. The NWRS plans to use dredge spoils from Redwood Creek to build the elevation of the interior of the island. This means that virtually everything a visitor today seeks at Inner Bair will be covered with a layer of dredge spoils. The area designated in the plan as the San Carlos airport Safety Zone would be permanently increased in height, above the height of the dredge spoils on Inner Bair, roughly equal to the levee top. The City agrees with the NWRS on the use of dredge spoils as an economical way to raise elevation thereby decreasing the likelihood of conflicts between commuter aircraft and refuge species. However, the City would urge the NWRS consider the utilization of Redwood Shores lagoon dredge spoils as an additional resource. The lagoons at Redwood Shores will need to be dredged in the near future. The cost of dumping dredge spoils is high in the San Francisco Bay. The City is in need of a place to dispose of dredge spoils and the refuge has more than enough need for dredge spoils to provide habitat on Inner Bair Island. 22