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4.3 – Cultural and Tribal Cultural Resources
<br />Draft Environmental Impact Report February 2021
<br />14800 W. Schulte Road Logistics Center 4.3-4
<br />and west, respectively. The valley contained freshwater lakes and rivers attractive to herds of prehistoric grazing
<br />animals, including Columbian Mammoth, camel, bison, and native horse. The fossil remains of these creatures
<br />have been found in San Joaquin County and adjacent areas. According to standards and guidelines published by
<br />the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, sedimentary rock units with a high potential for containing significant
<br />nonrenewable paleontological resources are those within which vertebrate or signi ficant invertebrate fossils have
<br />been determined by previous studies to be present or likely to be present. Significant paleontological resources are
<br />fossils or assemblages of fossils, which are unique, unusual, rare, uncommon, diagnostically or stratigraphically
<br />important, and those which add to the existing body of knowledge in specific areas, stratigraphically, taxonomically,
<br />or regionally.
<br />The vast majority of paleontological specimens from San Joaquin County have been found in rock formations in the
<br />foothills of the Diablo Mountain Range. However, remains of extinct animals such as mammoth, could be found
<br />virtually anywhere in San Joaquin County, especially along watercourses such as the San Joaquin River and its
<br />tributaries. Other formations that are known to have a modertate to high potential to bear fossils include the Neroly
<br />Formation, Moreno Shale deposits, and Panoche Formations. However, these rock formations are not considered
<br />unique geologic features.
<br />According to records on file with the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), eighty fossils have
<br />been found and recorded within San Joaquin County. The UCMP database lists several localities within the vicinity
<br />of the Project where Pleistocene vertebrate finds were made in 1948 during construction of the Delta-Mendota
<br />Canal. These fossils include mammoth/mastodon (Mammut sp.), horse (Equus sp.), pocket gopher (Thomomys sp.)
<br />and other unspecified rodents, and unidentified artiodactyl (hoofed mammal) bone.
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<br />4.3.2 Relevant Plans, Policies, and Ordinances
<br />Federal
<br />There are no federal plans or policies related to cultural or historic resources that are applicable to the Project.
<br />State
<br />The California Register of Historical Resources
<br />In California, the term “historical resource” includes “any object, building, structure, site, area, place, record, or
<br />manuscript which is historically or archaeologically significant, or is significant in the architectural, engineering,
<br />scientific, economic, agricultural, educational, social, political, military, or cultural annals of California” (PRC Section
<br />5020.1[j]). In 1992, the California legislature established the CRHR “to be used by state and local agencies, private
<br />groups, and citizens to identify the state’s historical resources and to indicate what properties are to be protected, to
<br />the extent prudent and feasible, from substantial adverse change” (PRC Section 5024.1[a]). The criteria for listing
<br />resources on the CRHR were expressly developed to be in accordance with previously established criteria developed
<br />for listing in the NRHP, enumerated below. According to PRC Section 5024.1(c)(1–4), a resource is considered
<br />historically significant if it (i) retains “substantial integrity,” and (ii) meets at least one of the following criteria:
<br />(1) Is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of California's
<br />history and cultural heritage.
<br />(2) Is associated with the lives of persons important in our past.
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