SOLANO COUNTY WATER AGENCY

1. SOLANO COUNTY WATER AGENCY F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 7

2. Section 1 - Introduction • Addition of two new Plan Participants: • Dixon Resource Conservation District (RCD) • Dixon Regional Watershed JPA • Change in the Plan Area Boundary • 7,670 acres of Yolo County

3. Section 2 – Project Description/Covered Activities • Update of land use conditions • Section 2.2: Updated the project descriptions and proposed land conversion maps (Figures 2-2 - 2-8). • Total Planned Development dropped from 20,260 to 16,910 acres (See Table 2-8). • New Development Projects • Development Agreements • Development in Travis Reserve Area removed as a Covered Activity. • Updated Covered Activities Zones • Zone 1: changes to urban limit lines for Dixon and Suisun • Zone 2: now includes SID potential annexation areas and service areas of new Plan Participants.

4. Section 3 – Environmental Setting/Biological Resources • Update Covered Species list (went from 77 to 71 Covered Species). Species removed from the list were: • Ray less Ragwort (VP) • Streamside Daisy (ICR) • Brewer's Western flax (ICR) • Cooper’s Hawk (ICR) • Sharp-shinned Hawk (ICR) • Golden Eagle (ICR) • Added discussion of the Collinsville-Montezuma Hills Wind Resource Area to the Risk Analysis (Section 3.6)

5. Section 4 – Conservation Analysis • Old Section 4 split into two sections: Conservation Analysis and Conservation Strategy. • Added flow diagram to provide an overview of the Conservation Analysis (Figure 4-1) • Moved Background Information and Conceptual Models to Appendix B. • Section previously known as the conservation approach for each NC was divided into 3 sections: • Key Conservation Elements (used in landscape level conservation analysis Section 4.4) • Conservation Areas (used in Section 5.0) • Reserve Design and Conservation Approach (Section 4.6)

6. Section 4 – Conservation Analysis • Landscape Level Conservation Analysis. Changes to and additions of key conservation elements: • Major ridgelines connecting known Johnny jump-up and callippe silverspot butterfly occurrences buffered by 300 feet (Figure 4-13). • Burrowing owl records buffered by 1/3 of a mile. • We buffered the Swainson’s hawk nest records by a 1/4 of a mile instead of 2 miles to reflect nesting territories. • Removed the analysis combining the Risk Analysis (Section 3.0) and the Landscape Level Conservation Analysis (Section 4.4) (AKA: Priority Areas for Future Protection)

7. Section 4 – Conservation Analysis • We expanded the Conservation Targets section (Section 4.5) and moved it to the end of the chapter. • Expanded the Reserve Design Section (Section 4.6): • Includes a more thorough discussion for each Natural Community • Outlines reserve design criteria specific to each natural community or Covered Species • Discussion of how the results of the Conservation Analysis are used to develop the Conservation Strategy (Section 5.0).

8. Section 5 – Conservation Strategy • Section 5.1.1 Mitigation Standards • Provides more thorough definition of “Maximum Extent Practicable” and examples of how this working definition can be applied. • Provides a list of some of the standards and comparables for mitigation requirements. • Explanation of how the conservation and mitigation measures in the Solano HCP were derived by balancing the biological and conservation needs (i.e. from information in Appendix B and Section 4.0) with cost (when available), logistical, technological, and equity considerations from the Solano HCP MEP definition.

9. Section 5 – Conservation Strategy • Goals and Objectives: • For each NC there are 2 goals, • 1st goal deals with preserving the general NC and contain a series of sub-goals, followed by objectives. • 2nd goal deals specifically with maintaining and protecting populations of the Covered Species and is followed by species specific objectives. • For Individual Species Sections (ex. CRLF or SWHA) • One main goal: to protect and maintain the ecological integrity of suitable habitats and promote the continued existence and expansion of the species within the Plan Area. • Followed by a series of Sub-Goals and Objectives.

10. Section 5 – Conservation Strategy • Throughout Section 5.0 we have tried to consistently link the goals, objectives and conservation measures back to Section 4.0. Specifically to: • Reserve Design Criteria (Section 4.2) • Conservation Areas identified in Section (4.3) • Conservation Targets (Section 4.5) • Reserve Design and Conservation Approach (Section 4.6) • Summary Tables • Short summary tables at the end of each goals and objectives section, linking the goals with the reserve design principles, other conservation criteria from Section 4.0, objectives and conservation measures. • Long summary tables at end of Section 5.0 linking goals, objectives and conservation measures to: • Conservation Analysis (Section 4.0) • Adaptive Management and Monitoring Program (Section 6.0) • Plan Implementation (Section 9.0).

11. Section 5 – Conservation Strategy Valley Floor Grassland and Vernal Pools • Anticipated preserve area dropped from between 11,000 to 15,000 acres to between 8,700 to 9,400 acres. (from decrease in planned development (See Sections 2.0 and 7.0). • Re-defined the species occurrences based on the definition in the Vernal Pool Recovery Plan, buffered by ¼ mile (this resulted in a decrease in the total number of occurrences for each species). • Revised and clarified High, Medium and Low Value Conservation Areas

12. Section 5 – Conservation Strategy Valley Floor Grassland and Vernal Pools • We revised Conservation Measure VPG 8, Habitat Mitigation, to more closely reflect the Vernal Pool Recovery Plan. Key changes include: • Subareas 1A – 1F and 1I – 1L: 9:1 (mitigation: impact) preservation • Subareas 1G and 1H: 5.7:1 preservation (this decrease is a reflection of the 85% recovery goal for the Suisun Marsh Core Area). • 1:1 restoration in all categories (decreased from 2:1 in high value areas). This was based on cost considerations.

13. Section 5 – Conservation Strategy Valley Floor Grassland and Vernal Pools • Modified Conservation Measure VPG 15: • Outlines Development Criteria for Core Contra Costa Goldfield Population Areas versus specific acreage limits as in version 2.1. • Added Conservation Measure VPG 16: • Adds additional restoration requirements to impacts to extant stands of Contra Costa Goldfields within Core Population Areas.

14. Section 5 – Conservation Strategy • Inner Coast Range • Goals and objectives were left in, but are now optional • Conservation Measures were removed • Riparian, Stream and Freshwater Marsh Section: • More detailed avoidance and minimization measures. • Refinement of mitigation requirements (Conservation Measure RSM 11) based on the identification and refinement of Conservation Areas outlined in Section 4.0 • Additional Species-Specific objectives and conservation measures were added. • Giant Garter Snake • Habitat mitigation was added for certain areas within Rio Vista (Conservation Measure GGS 5), (required by USFWS for a recent project in Rio Vista) • Coastal Marsh • more detailed avoidance and minimization measures • more species-specific conservation measures.

15. Section 5 – Conservation Strategy • Swainson’s Hawks: • Changes were made to the acceptable reserve areas (i.e. exclusion of the Collinsville-Montezuma Hills Wind Resource Area) • Removed the Tree Removal Conservation Measure and replaced it with a straight per acre impact fee to cover the cost of planting and protecting 1 potential nest tree for each acre of habitat lost. • Burrowing Owl • Updated reserve design criteria for agricultural areas: 1 acre of habitat per 80 acres of reserve land devoted to providing suitable nesting and cover habitat with at least 2 maintained burrow complexes.

16. Section 6.0 - Adaptive Management and Monitoring • Added Section 6.3 and Figure 6-2 • Provides more detail on the structure of the adaptive management and monitoring program. • The portion to be implemented by SCWA over the entire Plan Area. • The portion to be implemented on individual reserves as a responsibility of mitigation banks and private project specific mitigation lands.

17. Section 7.0 – Impact Assessment • Actual anticipated habitat loss from development dropped from approximately 18,000 acres to 13,000 acres. The decrease was due to: • New development projects • Development agreements • Removal of potential development within Travis Reserve. • The summary tables were divided into separate tables for each Natural Community to make them easier to read.

18. Section 9.0 – Plan Implementation • Added more detail and clarification on Plan Governance and the Roles and Responsibilities of involved parties (Section 9.2) • Expanded the section on the development of the reserve system: • added more detail on reserve design criteria and reserve management. • The incorporation of pre-approved projects into the plan was added to the list of minor amendments.

19. Appendix A - Routine Operational and Maintenance Activities • More detail was added to the type, location and frequency of operations and maintenance activities • Updated list of specific maintenance locations • Summary of facilities maintained by Plan Participants • Tables summarizing the Routine Operations and Maintenance Activities for each Plan Participant

20. Appendix B - Natural Community and Species Accounts • Added Natural Community Accounts • Contain information on the background, distribution and associated Covered Species • The narrative conceptual models were incorporated into these accounts from the old version of Section 4.0. • The species accounts were reorganized based on their primary Natural Community association.

21. Happy Reading!