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BACKGROUND The acreage in the area north of the the junction of Interstate Highways 5 and 580 in southwestern San Joaquin County is rapidly becoming the most studieD area for determining the status of the San Joaquin kit fox (SJKF) in Northern California. An initial survey in the early 1970's by Morrell produced sightings of this species west of I-580 between Lone Tree and Hospital Creeks and in the lower Lone Tree Creek Valley. Two decades later in 1991, EIP 'Associates, San Francisco, installed eight track board and/or automatic camera stations over a 3 .8 mile area of the Hospital Creek Canyon west of I-580, another five stations - on the Brown {._ Sand & Gravel quarry and orchard sites east of this highway, and a final four stations in a large fallow area which flanks the Hospital Creek drainage east of this area. None of these sites produced tracks or photos of the SJKF. Surveys for SJKF dens and night spotlight searches throughout the area also produced negative results. The above work in the I-5/1-580 junction area was preceded in 1990 by a study by Jones & Stokes Associates, Inc. , centered on Teichert Aggregates' Lone Tree Gravel Extraction Site immediately north of Brown Sand & Gravel project site. This survey was conducted using the California Department of Fish & Game (CDFG) Region 4 methodology (Rempel & Presley, 1990) . Once again, no sightings , tracks , confirmed dens , or other signs of SJKF presence were found. In evaluating the potential of the Teichert Aggregates's site to support the SJKF, their report concludes: 4 "Only 1% of the acreage at the site supports suitable habitat, and most of this is fragmented, occurring as narrow strips of unsuitable orchard habitat. " During the summer of 1992, I was retained by Teichert Aggregates (° to conduct a second survey for the SJKF on their project site. My work also followed the CDFG Region 4 survey protocol , and as with the Jones & Stokes survey, the night spotlight search area covered outlying acreage surrounding both the Teichert Aggregates and Brown Sand & Gravel properties. once again, no evidence of any kind which may indicate past or present SJKF presence was found. However, this study did reveal the presence of both the introduced eastern red fox and the coyote along the California Aqueduct right-of-way land which borders the Teichert Aggregates site on the east. In April, 1993 , the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) published a new SJKF protocol which follows the methodology of Rempel & Presley, 1990, but requires two complete surveys, separated by a minimum of two months. The purpose of this current work, therefore, was to conduct a second survey of the Brown Sand & Gravel project site, using the new 1993 USFWS -.' protocol. Because none of the preceding SJKF surveys in this area addressed other special status animal and plant species, this work also included a search for any such species whose geographic range includes or comes close to this project site. 2 �� a