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PC: 3-18-93 SA-92-41 Response to Appeal Statement: Sherry Teresa, president of the Center for Natural Lands Management, Inc., stated in a letter of November 11, 1992, that Mr. Hooper may have misunderstood the participating scientists, and perhaps as a result, the letter misrepresents those discussions.' Mr. Teresa states: 'The population of Swainson's hawks was 10 times larger when the entire Central Valley was'fallow fields.' Certainly,the hawks are opportunistic when harvesting equipment make prey more available. On all other occasions, hawks hunt as normal on fallow and ruderal fields, grasslands, or cropland with low growing vegetation. Mr. Hooper is clearly mistaken when he says on page 5 that 'There were no incidents of hawks foraging in fallow fields...' In fact, recent telemetry work has shown fallow and ruderal fields to be a preferred foraging area. 'Finally,' Ms. Teresa cautions, 'aquatic amphibians are not a significant food source for the Swainson's hawk. Swainson's hawks do not use ponds as foraging areas.' In a letter of November 24, 1992, A. Sidney England of the University of California, Davis, reviews Mr. Hooper's comments in his letter of October 21, 1992. '1 am extremely troubled by what Mr. Hooper states in the two paragraphs that refer to our study. In both instances, the statements are either untrue or misrepresent the information presented.' In a letter of December 11, 1992, James Estep of Jones and Stokes Associates, Inc., states: 11 am responding to Mr. Hooper's letter because it contains several inaccuracies in regard to Swainson's hawk ecology and because the basis for arguments developed in the letter at least partially came from information gathered at one of the Swainson's hawk working group confabs.' In a letter of January 25, 1992, Curtis E.Alling and and Keith W. Babcock of Michael Brandman Associates state: It is MBA's opinion that Mr. Hooper's letter does not accurately represent the information that was shared by MBA at the Swainson's Hawk Technical Working Group meeting.' Appeal_ Stent: een the impact and this mitigation measure, it cannot legally 'Unless staff establishes the nexus betw we request that this condition be removed.' require it. Because this nexus is lacking, Response to Appeal Statement The impact is the loss of foraging habitat for the candidate hawk, which r listed as 'threatened' under the California Endangered Species Act and is a candidate for 'endangered' status under the Federal Endangered Species Act. The mitigation is the replacement of such habitat and the assurance through a habitat management plan that the land will remain suitable as habitat. -17-