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61 <br />3.3.7 Potential Impacts to American Badgers <br />Impact. Areas that would be impacted by the project currently provide very marginal habitat for <br />badgers due to the lack of a significant small mammal prey base (as a result of longterm <br />abatement of ground squirrels and other small mammals on the site) and no badgers or potential <br />badger dens have been observed in these areas. However, should conditions change on the site in <br />the future prior to project implementation, badgers potentially could occur on the site and <br />establish dens. The project already includes the preservation of approximately 81 acres of open <br />space with a habitat management plan that provides potential foraging, denning and breeding <br />habitat for this species which would more than compensate for a loss of approximately 28 to 30 <br />acres of such potential habitat and result in a less than significant impact on badger habitat. <br />However, should badgers occur on the site during project implementation, this may result in <br />harm or mortality to individual badgers, and this would be considered a significant impact under <br />CEQA. <br />Mitigation. Implementation of the following mitigation measures would reduce impacts to <br />individual American badgers to a less-than-significant level. <br />Avoidance. Pre-construction surveys that will be conducted for burrowing owls will also be used <br />to determine the presence or absence of badgers in the development and slope stabilization <br />footprint, as well as within 300 feet of these areas. <br />If an active badger den is identified during pre-construction surveys within or immediately <br />adjacent to any impacted areas, a construction-free buffer of up to 300 ft. (or distance specified <br />by the resource agencies, i.e., CDFW) will be established around the den. Because badgers are <br />known to use multiple burrows in a breeding burrow complex, a biological monitor should be <br />present on the site during project development activities to ensure the buffer is adequate to avoid <br />direct impact to individuals or den abandonment. The monitor would be necessary on the site <br />until it is determined that young are of an independent age and project development activities <br />would not harm individual badgers. <br />Once it has been determined that badgers have vacated the site, the burrows can be collapsed or <br />excavated, and ground disturbance can proceed.