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3.3 Natural Resources This Section Describes the Plants and Animals That Occur, Or Are Likely to Occur Within the CIP Study Area

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3.3 Natural Resources This Section Describes the Plants and Animals That Occur, Or Are Likely to Occur Within the CIP Study Area 3.3 Natural Resources This section describes the plants and animals that occur, or are likely to occur within the CIP study area. It also describes critical areas, shorelines, and their current and proposed regulations. Impacts of the alternatives (No Action Alternative, Action Alternative 1, and Action Alternative 2) are analyzed at a programmatic level. All regulations and mitigation requirements pertaining to the management of biota would apply to specific development projects under all alternatives. Because a large proportion of the CIP study area is either currently developed, or protected through existing regulations, changes in natural resources would be modest under either alternative. However, redevelopment could result in higher building density and greater impervious surface area under either action alternative. Impervious surface area would be highest under Action Alternative 2. However, stormwater management would limit the effects of impervious surface area on stream habitat and water quality. Riparian buffers would be maintained under all alternatives, and the wildlife habitat and migration corridors that they support would continue under all alternatives. 3.3.1 Affected Environment 3.3.1.1 Fish and Wildlife Habitat Environmental Conditions The CIP study area (Figure 3.3‐1) is largely developed with a high proportion of impervious land cover in the form of buildings, roadways, and parking. Vegetation in the CIP study area includes ornamental landscaping in parks and planting strips, and natural vegetation primarily in remnant wetlands, riparian areas, and on the margins of stormwater ponds. The City has prepared some localized tree canopy information by zone and planning subareas within the City. Localized tree canopy estimates are shown in Table 3.3‐1. Results generally show that the subareas encompassing the Central Issaquah area contain are 30% treed; the possible plantable area is also about 30%. However, on a zone basis, the commercial zones that make up most of the CIP study area range in percentage of trees by 14% to 35% and have much more opportunity for tree plantings at 31% to 46%. The locations of known wetlands are shown generally on Figure 3.3‐1.1 Wetlands in the CIP study area include forested, emergent, and scrub‐shrub wetlands along Issaquah Creek and Tibbetts Creek. Forested wetlands in the City are typically dominated by willows (Salix sp.), red alder (Alnus rubra), black cottonwood (Populus balsamifera var. trichocarpa), and western red cedar (Thuja plicata) (Parametrix 2003). Scrub‐shrub wetlands are typically dominated by willows, red osier dogwood, salmonberry, and lady fern (Athyrium felix­femina) (Parametrix 2003). Emergent wetlands throughout the City are typically dominated by nonnative species such as reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) and creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens) (Parametrix 2003). These wetlands perform important functions in maintaining stream habitat quality, such as detaining 1 This information is based on City geographic information system data and the Hyla Crossing and Rowley Properties Project Environmental Impact Statement. The presence of critical areas would be verified at a project level of review; critical areas are determined on the basis of ordinance definitions and maps are only considered a guide. Central Issaquah Subarea Plan March 2012 3.3‐1 Draft Environmental Impact Statement ICF 00363.11 Chapter 3. Affected Environment, Significant Impacts, City of Issaquah and Mitigation Measures stormwater runoff, filtering pollutants, and providing wildlife cover, foraging and migration corridor habitat. Table 3.3‐1. Tree Canopy Estimates Estimated by City Comprehensive Planning Subareas Encompassing Central Issaquah Subarea Total Possible Acres Urban Tree Total Possible Plantable Acres Comprehensive (excluding Canopy Percent Plantable Percent of Total Planning Subareas water) of Total Acres Acres Acres North Issaquah 11,007 39% 3,529 32% Gilman 4,467 31% 1,326 30% Newport 5,960 36% 1,803 30% I‐90 3,044 30% 1,056 35% Estimated by Commercial Zones Found in CIP Study Area Zone (citywide) Subarea Total Urban Tree Total Possible Possible Acres Canopy Percent Plantable Plantable Acres (excluding of Total Acres Acres Percent of Total water) Acres Intensive Commercial 1,218 14% 381 31% Retail 4,107 21% 1,935 47% Professional Office 2,115 35% 979 46% Source: Hanou pers. comm. As identified on Figure 3.3‐1, streams in the CIP study area include Issaquah Creek, North Fork Issaquah Creek, East Fork Issaquah Creek, Schneider Creek, and Tibbetts Creek. Of these, the mainstem and East Fork Issaquah Creek are designated as a shorelines of the state (Type 1 stream; identified as Class 1 in Issaquah’s critical area regulations), and the others are Type 2 salmon‐bearing streams (called Class 2 in critical area regulations). Table 3.3‐1 lists the salmonid fish species with a documented presence in these streams and their major tributaries in the CIP study area. Two of these species (Puget Sound Chinook salmon and Puget Sound steelhead trout) are listed as Threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). In addition to salmonids, these streams likely also support western brook lamprey (Lampetra richardsonii), three‐spine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), sculpins (Cottus sp.), river lamprey (Lampetra ayersi), peamouth (Mylocheilus caurinus), largescale sucker (Catostomus macrocheilus), and mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni). Issaquah Creek reportedly supports several nonnative fish such as brown bull head (Ameiurus nebulosus), black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus), pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus), largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), and smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu), but likely only below I‐90 in the lower 1 to 2 miles of the stream (Parametrix 2003). Central Issaquah Subarea Plan March 2012 3.3‐2 Draft Environmental Impact Statement ICF 00363.11 Streams Wetlands Core Growth Center Boundary (Action Alternative 2) Lake Sammamish Central Issaquah Subarea Plan Boundary City Limits I ss aq u ah T C T S r 51S ee SE k 0 1,000 2,000 2 2 Feet 0 T ± H A V E S E W NW SAMMAMISH RD SE 56TH ST N W P i N c E 2 k V 2 e E 1 r A V in S g A T H D T P i H t 1 L c T h 1 2 S E 1 S chne ider C reek E A S T L A ek N K re E E h C W S qua P A sa O M Is R 0 M ork T 0 h F W 9 A rt - M No A R Y W 4 I S 0 S 1 T N N / 7 H W 0 H E T P W r i A K V b N W u V A t a Y E ry E H S V N T E A W 2 1 H NW N T T W 7 S GI 1 NW MAPLE ST LE LM AP AN M BL VD N T S T N O R R F A ST I NW JUNIPER N I E R B L V D N T i b b I s e s t t a s q 2 1 C u 0 a 2 r / e h 2 e 1 / C k 3 r 0 e E a : e s d t k F e o s i rk v I e ss R a q - u a S h I C G r / ee 1 k 1 . 3 6 3 0 0 Figure 3.3-1 Streams and Wetlands Central Issaquah Subarea Plan EIS Chapter 3. Affected Environment, Significant Impacts, City of Issaquah and Mitigation Measures In addition to in‐stream habitat, stream riparian corridors also provide narrow migration corridors for a variety of wildlife species. These riparian corridors connect a series of open space areas in City parks that make up a “green necklace” of habitat within the City, and connect this habitat with larger areas of wildlife habitat that surround the City, including Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, Squak Mountain State Park Natural Area, Tiger Mountain State Forest, Lake Sammamish State Park, and privately owned land (see Appendix D for a map of the Issaquah Basin Wildlife Network). Maintaining functional wildlife corridors through protection of stream and wetland buffers, and by appropriate landscaping in parks continues to be an important component of planning efforts in the City. Table 3.3‐2. Salmonid Fish Species and Type of Habitat in the CIP Study Area Tributary to East Fork North Fork Common Schneider Tibbetts Tibbetts Issaquah Issaquah Issaquah Name Creek Creek Creek Creek Creek Creek Cutthroat Occurrence Occurrence/ Occurrence Occurrenc Occurrence Occurrence/ trout migration e/ migration migration Steelhead Spawning/ Spawning Occurrence Spawning trout rearing Chinook Spawning Spawning Occurrence/ salmon migration Sockeye Presence Spawning Spawning Spawning salmon Kokanee Occurrence/ Occurrenc Potential salmon migration e/ migration migration and spawning Coho Suspected Spawning Occurrence/ Spawning Spawning Spawning salmon downstrea migration m of I‐90 Sources: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2011; Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 2011a, 2011b; Watershed Company 2011 An inventory of streams in the City identified habitat conditions in the mainstem of Issaquah Creek that were not properly functioning regarding sediment load, hydrologic disturbance, lack of channel complexity, and riparian vegetation. Peak flows have increased steadily since 1965, and there has been a decreasing trend in annual minimum flows since 1972 (Parametrix 2003). High temperatures during the kokanee and Chinook salmon incubation have been recorded, and large wood recruitment are lacking in the portion of Issaquah Creek that passes through the CIP study area. Pool infilling with fine sediment limit the depth of pools in Issaquah Creek. Streambank modification was found to be fairly frequent along Issaquah Creek in the CIP study area, reducing habitat quality. North Fork Issaquah Creek has also experienced hydrologic disturbance with diminished summer base flow (Parametrix 2003). In 2003, heavy sediment load, loss of channel complexity, and low frequency of large wood limited stream habitat quality in Tibbetts Creek.
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