Type: report

Article abstract: The County is required to account for the amount of habitat lost (take), and gained (preservation), on a yearly basis. The Subarea Plan covers approximately 252,248 acres of land. The overall preservation goal of the County's Subarea Plan is expected to cover approximately 101,268 acres of land. Prior to March 17, 1998, there were approximately 62,550.67 acres (Baseline Preserve Area), of this preservation land that was included in the Subarea Plant (Figure 1). This land includes all land acquisition within the Subarea either by Federal, State, or Local jurisdictions or land that was negotiated to be preserved by private landowners within the Lake Hodges and South County Segments. Table 1 provides information, by vegetation type, of the amount of each type of vegetation prior to implementation of the Subarea Plan. Based on this information, the County, along with its public and private partners, will be required to obtain approximately 38,717.33 acres of land to meet the preservation goal of 101,268 acres. This report accounts for habitat loss and conservation within the Subarea Plan associated with the following types of developments projects between march 17, 1998 and December 31, 1998: Private Projects (TM/TPM's) that have Final map Approval, Projects that have been issued Grading Permits, Building Permits exempt from the Biological Mitigation Ordinance, Land acquired by the County of other governmental agency for Preservation Purposes, and Approved Mitigation Bank Lands with at least one credit utilized and Non-approved Mitigation Banks. The overall amount of take and preservation that occurred during the 1998 accounting period was 884.49 acres and 10,022.51 acres respectively. These totals include both urban/developed and disturbed habitat types. Subtracting 302.81 and 171.79 acres of urban/developed and disturbed habitat from the above totals results in an overall take of 581.68 acres and preservation of 9850.72 acres (Table 2) Table 2 also identifies area that are considered as neither take nor preserve. This includes 136.12 acres of land that were identifies as non-biological open space or areas outside of take associated with building permits and agricultural clearing.