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APPENDIX I - BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES were found. However, a survey for the adults in early summer would be needed to further verify its presence or absence on the project site. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND MITIGATION MEASURES Significance Criteria Unless otherwise noted, all identified impacts are considered significant adverse impacts. The corresponding mitigation measures, unless otherwise noted,would be sufficient to reduce the impacts to a less-than-significant level. CEQA Guidelines state that a project will normally have a significant effect on the environment if the project will substantially affect a rare or endangered species of animal or plant or the habitat of the species; interfere substantially with the movement of any resident or migratory fish or wildlife species; or substantially diminish habitat for fish,wildlife or plants. The following discussion of impacts assumes a worst-case condition as mandated in the CEQA Guidelines, based upon available information. Thus, future studies during the spring and summer months would either validate or invalidate this assumption. Impact 4.7-1 Loss and disruption of nesting and foraging habitat for the Swainson's hawk. The applicant's Management Plan recognizes the biological value of the site and incorporates many recommendations for the continued preservation and conservation of the woodland community and the oak/buckeye savanna. However, the plan responds solely to the applicant's proposed project and has failed to recognize the importance of maintaining foraging habitat for the Swainson's hawk. Development of the site would result in the loss of critical nesting habitat and potential foraging habitat for this threatened species. The tree and/or brush clearing operation in 1989 resulted in the loss of 12.5 acres of the scarcest biological community in San Joaquin County and the Central Valley which is the old growth foothill/riparian woodland community. Given the documented use of Brovelli Woods by Swainson's hawks for nesting, the possibility exists that preferred nest trees or even active nests were destroyed or disturbed in 1989. Even if nest site destruction did not occur, the disruption of the greater nesting area by human activities, such as use of chain saws and bulldozing to remove stumps during the spring/summer nesting season, clearing of brush and/or trees and disking activities would likely have deterred hawks from using the nesting area in 1989. The "Habitat Conservation Plan for the Swainson's Hawk in San Joaquin County" states that approximately 99 percent of all riparian forests in the Central Valley have been destroyed, the number one limiting factor for this species. The extensive planting of crops, such as alfalfa, which produces prime rodent habitat, may have in some areas actually created better foraging conditions than those present in pristine times. However,farmers are not putting in thousands of acres of new riparian forest to replace that which their predecessors cut down. The reforestation project on the project site is 21