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-0 Biological Resources, MONK &ASSOCIATES Impacts and Mitigations Tracy Facility Expansion Site 14. IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND PROPOSED MITIGATION This impact assessment presents the potential impacts to plant communities,wildlife habitats, i special-status species, and`waters of the United.States"from development of the project site.. ! After a discussion of each potential impact is a mitigation measure that could offset the impact to 'E reduce its effect on the environment. The mitigation measures prescribed below were coordinated with the resource agencies(Le., CDFG,USFWS, and the Corps) either at the time this report was prepared, or in the recent past(1997-1998) for use on other projects in the San Joaquin Valley. Therefore,the mitigations prescribed below are consistent with mitigations recommended/required by these agencies. However, as always,prior to implementing any mitigation prescription detailed below,Granite should coordinate its mitigation with the appropriate resource agency. 3.4.1 Impact Number 1. Nan-Native Annual Grassland. Implementation of the project as proposed could result in impacts.to non-native annual grassland. Approximately 137 acres of non-native annual grassland habitat would be impacted by the project. Impacts include removal of herbaceous species and top soil in order to extract sand and gravel. Since the plants that would be impacted are common species, and most of them are not native to California,these impacts would be less than significant. Therefore,mitigation would not be required for impacts to non-native annual grassland. However, since the cumulative loss of non-native annual grassland may be significant on a state-wide basis,recommendations are provided below to offset impacts to this plant community. 14.2 Mitigation Measure 1 -Non-Native Annual Grassland Habitat Implementation of the following mitigation should offset impacts to non-native annual grassland habitat to a level considered less than significant. To offset impacts to non-native annual grassland habitat,reclamation of the project site after closure of the mining facility would include restoration of this plant community. Restoration would include seeding native California grass and forb species on all reclaimed surfaces at the end of each phase of mining. For complete details on the goals of project site reclamation, please see Section 6.0. Since project site excavation and subsequent reclamation will occur in phases, final reclamation of the project site would not be completed until the year 2006. In addition to reclamation,mitigation lands dedicated in perpetuity to offset impacts to San Joaquin kit fox habitat(see Section 14.19)would also compensate for loss of grassland habitat. This mitigation measure would reduce impacts to non-native annual grassland habitat to a level considered less than significant. a 27