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• Tree asserr. WS staff encounter trespassers who walk and ride bicycles around gates or through holes cut in the fences. Trespassers have been observed after sunset and before sunrise. WS staff have occasionally been unable to access the property due to problems with gates and locks, and there have been instances where WS personnel have found gates left open. Additionally, WS equipment has been tampered with, including occurrences of traps being closed or with bait missing that can be attributed to tampering by humans or animals. • Recommendation.: WS has recommended (1) extending fencing from the gates down into the water to exclude trespassers and dogs and (2) more generally, improving fencing to limit access to the site. Interaction with humans. Hman - related disturbance during construction or similar activities occurring during the clapper rail breeding season, if too near individual rails and nests, "could result in increased competitive interactions, territory boundary shifts, or territory abandonment," suggesting that "increased human activity and associated noise within a rail's established territory can significantly alter the normal behavioral patterns of rails during the breeding season, possibly resulting in extensive movements, lack of reproductive success, or territorial abandonment" (Medlin /USFWS, 1996). Appropriate mitigation would include working between September 1 and February 1, except during periods of extreme high tides, when heightened predator activities have been observed. Studies have found that as the level of human activity increases in sensitive areas, the width of buffer zones needs to be increased proportionally to minimize disturbance. Albertson and Evens (2000) state that human disturbance from "recreational use, utilities maintenance, and high - intensity adjacent uses can disturb rails and cause homerange abandonment with subsequent nesting failure." Another effect of increased human activity is a potential increase in the number and types of predators, drawn by increased food availability. Medlin (1996) cites the example of the clapper rail population along the Greenbrae boardwalk in the Corte Madera Ecological Preserve: four rail breeding territories were documented there in 1983; in 1993, no rail breeding territories were identified, although rail habitat conditions remained unchanged. Disappearance of breeding territories was attributed to a greater number of domestic and feral dogs and cats in the area due to an increase in the residential population. Recovery Plan. Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse and California Clapper Rail Recovery Plan. 1984. The Tidal Marsh Ecosystem Recovery Plan, which is under development, will supersede the 1984 plan. The 1984 recovery plan focused on restoration and enhancement of salt marsh habitat to benefit the rail. The plan identifies Inner Bair Island and parts of neighboring Middle and Outer Bair islands as a "Priority 1" area for restoration as habitat essential to the survival and recovery of the clapper rail (Recovery Task 1224). "Priority 1" actions "must be completed to avert an irreversible population decline or extinction of the species" (Medlin /USFWS, 1996). Bair Island is to be protected in perpetuity as part of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. In March 1999, the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), through private fund- raising, together with federal and state funds already in place, purchased 1,626 acres of Bair Island, which means that the entire 3,200 acre island can become protected habitat (POST, 1999). Recent Bird Counts In the Redwood Shores Area Clapper rail winter surveys completed annually in the Redwood Shores area between 1995 -1996 and 2000 -2001 found the following birds: 6