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Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 10/23/2008 01:31 PM
Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 10/23/2008 09:46 PM
Expires: 01/01/2013 12:00 AM
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Keep It Rural, Calaveras responds to Trinitas press release : “Ridge at Trinitas receives State Fish and Game Permit”~By the Mayhews of KIRC
Valley Springs, CA...Keep It Rural, Calaveras spokesman Lew Mayhew responded with skepticism to the Trinitas press release regarding receipt of a permit from the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to install two fish screens to prevent grass-eating carp from entering the surrounding waterways.....
“This seems like just another public relations ploy to buy support for the project”, he said. “DFG has taken a very clear position on mitigation measures for both prior impacts on fish and wildlife habitat and future development of the site.”
A September 18, 2008 letter from DFG’s Environmental Program Manager Kent Smith to the County calls the RDEIR’s wildlife habitat mitigations inadequate and unresponsive to the Department’s August 2007 DEIR comments. It restates their prior requirement for minimum habitat replacement of 3 acres to 1, including a financial commitment for in perpetuity management of those resources in a conservation easement in close proximity to the project. His letter also calls for the assessment of fees.
Smith wrote last year: “The Department will not issue [a Lake and Streambed Alteration] Agreement under Section 1600 ‘after-the-fact’ for work previously completed in violation of the provisions of this Section of Fish and Game Code.”
KIRC says the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife Service told the County last May that: “on-site remediation should take place immediately…such as the removal of rock cobble and dams from streams in the project site. …In addition, other restoration measures that could serve to restore habitat or minimize the effects of unauthorized construction activities to federally-listed species habitat should take place as soon as possible.” (Deputy Assistant Field Supervisor Peter A. Cross, NOP comment letter 5.28.08)
“DFG giving them a permit to put grass carp in the Trinitas ponds to eat the vegetation isn’t the same as recognizing ‘environmental stewardship’, says Mayhew. “Using the fish is a golf course pond management technique that is closely monitored, because, as DFG’s website says: “the threat that grass carp pose to aquatic habitat may outweigh its benefits.”
KIRC believes the RDEIR says something similar about Trinitas: “…the operation of the golf course and related facilities and special events is not compatible with the rural scattered quiet residential nature of the surrounding uses.” (page 3.8-10)
“Perhaps the best resolution to this proposed project,” concludes Mayhew “is to withdraw the application for an out-of-place golf course, motel/spa, clubhouse/bar, gated community and event facility and turn the golf course into olive orchards.”
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