Bulldozers can’t begin moving dirt until Caltrans and the Napa Valley Transportation Authority satisfy the state Department of Fish and Wildlife over hawk mitigation requirements. Work is underway to do just that.
A Swaison's hawk nesting tree and foraging habitat exist near the planned project Soscol junction project in Napa County. California Department of Fish and Wildlife require measures to be taken to mitigate the land to be lost to the project. Wirestock.
Napa must help hawks to build Soscol Junction
Jan 25, 2022 at 11:15am
Transportation officials are finding ways to resolve Swainson's hawk issues to keep the $64 million Soscol Junction traffic relief project along Highway 29 on-track for a May start.
A hawk nesting tree and suitable foraging habitat exist near the planned project at Highway 29/Highway 221 just south of the city of Napa. The hawk is listed as "threatened" under state endangered species laws.
On Jan. 19, the Napa Valley Transportation Authority (NVTA) Board of Directors voted to spend $175,000 to buy a Swainson’s hawk nesting tree credit at the Bullock Bend Mitigation Bank in Yolo County. The preservation area is located along the Sacramento River.
“This nesting tree credit has been extremely difficult to find,” said Danielle Schmitz of the NVTA. “This one is the last one in California.”
California allows developers to buy credits at mitigation banks as opposed to finding and preserving habitat on their own.
Buying the nesting tree credit at the Bullock Bend Mitigation Bank will save time and effort. An alternative is to identify, buy, restore and protect land that satisfies Fish and Wildlife, which could prove costly and delay Soscol Junction construction, an NVTA report said.
A Fish and Wildlife map doesn't show an active hawk nesting tree within the 50-acre Soscol Junction construction footprint. But one is located about 500 feet away and two historic nesting trees are about a quarter mile away.
To build Soscol Junction, the NVTA and Caltrans must compensate for the “loss or abandonment” of a Swainson’s hawk nest, a Fish and Wildlife report said.
There’s more Swainson’s hawk spending to come. Fish and Wildlife says the Soscol Junction project will disturb 17 acres of hawk foraging habitat.
Continue reading the article from the Napa Valley Register here.