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<br />"1\ <br /> <br />'. <br /> <br />o <br />o <br />00 <br />-J <br /> <br />To protect the pipeline and promote compatible use of overlying land, a design team would <br />coordinated designs for the pipelines with affected landowners. <br /> <br />3. Management of habitat replacement lands for wildlife purposes would be coordinated with <br />affected interests to avoid conflicts with adjacent land uses. <br /> <br />4. No significant changes in use of water and irrigation patterns would be expected. A new <br />contract with the UVWUA would limit lands served to the acreage already irrigated. <br />Construction would be scheduled to minimize disroption of services to local residences and <br />avoid interroption of irrigation water service. Candidate habitat replacement lands would be <br />screened and appropriate measures taken within State. water law to ensure adequate water <br />supplies are available to support habitat development and maintenance needs. <br /> <br />5. The most significant impact would be the lo.ss of wildlife habitat on about 416 acres of <br />seepage-dependent wetlands and 123 acres of open-water and vegetated banks along the <br />laterals. Losses have been quantified for each lateral system. Reclamation would <br />concurrently replace lost values, totalling about 212 habitat units, through a program to <br />acquire, develop and manage up to l,370 acres of habitat replacement lands. Lands should <br />be located along the Uncompahgre and Gunnison River corridors. About 750 isolated and <br />mature cottonwood trees along the laterals also would be lost. These losses would eventually <br />be replaced by a program to transplant about 2,250 saplings within the project area. <br /> <br />6. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has concluded that the project would not affect any <br />threatened or endangered species, provided that: <br />(a) construction contracts include clauses restricting work if any listed species are <br />identified in the work area that might be affected by constroction; <br />(b) surveys for the endangered clay loving buckwheat and associated candidate plant <br />species are completed prior to construction and result in avoidance of any located plants; <br />(c) if it is likely ferrets or the southwestern willow flycatcher may occur, surveys for <br />the endangered species are conducted prior to disturbance by constroction activities; and <br />(d) if listed species are found to occur, Reclamation will reinitiate consultation with <br />FWS to determine appropriate protection measures. <br /> <br />7. Habitat replacement areas would be evaluated for opportunities to conserve species listed, <br />or candidates for listing, as threatened or endangered. Examples include restoring floodplain <br />habitat for razorback suckers and the southwestern willow flycatcher. Replacement areas <br />also would be located and managed to avoid increasing potential selenium contamination <br />problems to fish and wildlife. <br /> <br />8. Constroction of funded proposals under cooperative agreement(s) between Reclamation <br />and the UVWUA would save costs and provide a slight increase in employment of local <br />residents. This increase would not place a strain on any services such as schools or <br />transportation that would affect the local economy. <br /> <br />27 <br />