San Luis Valley Regional Habitat Conservation Plan Draft for Public Review

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4.1Summary of Estimated Impacts

Each of the covered activities was analyzed to determine and quantify, where possible, the impact each activity would have on the covered species and their habitat during the life of this HCP. The impact analysis is described in detail in Section 3 and in Appendix A. In general, most of the covered activities will result in temporary impacts to small areas of habitat as part of the Valley’s historic “rotating matrix” of localized impacts. However, individual, localized impacts still have the potential to result in the take of individual birds or their nesting habitat.

The anticipated average annual and total impacts of the covered activities are summarized in Table 6. As described below, most of the impacts are anticipated to be small or negligible, when measured on an individual basis. The Applicants’ commitments to further reduce these already insignificant impacts are described in Section 5.

Table 6. Summary of impacts.

Covered Activity Type

Annual Temporary Impacts
(acres/year)

Permanent Impacts (acres/year)

Maximum Permanent Impacts over 30 years (acres)

Routine Agriculture

33 - 247

0 – 0.24

7.2

Community Infrastructure

4 - 21

0 – 0.9

27

Conservation and Restoration

0 – 2

None

None

Maximum Total Impact

270

1.1

34.2

Percent of Habitat^*

1.8%

0.01%

0.2%

^* Based on 15,128 acres or willow/cottonwood riparian habitat on State and private lands mapped for this HCP.

The impacts of the covered activities summarized in this section are the average estimated impacts to riparian habitat in any given year during the 30-year term of this HCP. Other important notes and assumptions include:

Due to the temporary, rotating nature of these impacts and subsequent regeneration of impacted areas, most of the estimated annual impacts of the covered activities will be temporary and will not accumulate over multiple years (i.e., the temporary impacts are not additive over the life of the HCP).
While the impact analysis found a range of potential temporary impacts in any given year (between 37 and 270 acres), the Applicants will mitigate at the high end of the range.
The total impact from the covered activities to be mitigated = [total temporary impacts (maximum rotating impacts in any given year)] + [total permanent impacts (footprint of constructed facilities)]: 270 + 34.2 = 304.2 acres over 30-year permit term
Many of the impacts are believed to occur to habitat patches that are too small to support the covered species (0.25 acre for the flycatcher); those impacts are still counted and mitigated by this HCP.

4.2Routine Agriculture

Routine agricultural activities and the irrigation practices that support those activities have been conducted in the Valley for more than a century and have resulted in a pattern of land use and the rotating matrix of impacts and regeneration that is consistent with the conservation of the covered species and their habitat. This riparian habitat is dependent on a complex and interrelated system of surface water, ground water, and irrigation systems that sustain and promote the ecological functions and values of riparian habitat within the Valley. Routine agriculture activities and their anticipated impacts are shown in Table 7.

Table 7. Anticipated impacts of routine agriculture.

Covered Activity	Type of Impact ○ = Temporary ● = Permanent	Range of Anticipated Annual Impacts (acres/year)	Maximum Percent of Total Habitat
Routine Agriculture
Upland and riparian grazing	○	0 – 59	0.4%
Fence construction and maintenance	○	Negligible	
Ditch clearing and maintenance	○	33 – 162	1.1%
Water facility maintenance/operations	○	0.3 – 15.9	0.1%
New water facility construction	●	0 – 0.24	< 0.01%
Water diversions, reservoir operations, and flow management	○	Negligible	
Contingency	○	< 10	0.03%
Subtotal Temporary Impacts	○	33 – 247	1.7%
Subtotal Permanent Impacts	●	0 – 0.24	< 0.01%

Routine agriculture activities in the Valley, not including new water facility construction, may temporarily impact up to 248 acres (or about 1.6 percent) of the riparian habitat each year. Most of these temporary impacts would come from riparian grazing, ditch clearing, and maintenance. These impacts would occur on a revolving basis and would be focused primarily in marginal habitat and along the outer edges of some buffer habitat areas (see riparian habitat descriptions in Chapter 2). The construction of new water facilities is anticipated to impact up to 0.24 acre of riparian habitat each year, which would amount to about 7.2 acres during the 30-year life of this HCP.

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