Resource Conservation District
of Monterey County Wildlife,
Botanical, and Cultural Surveys

SummitWest was hired by the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County to conduct sensitive status wildlife, rare plant species, and cultural resource surveys in support of the maintenance and construction of a permanent fuel break under the Los Padres National Forest (LPNF) Strategic Community Fuelbreak Improvement Project.

The Resource Conservation District of Monterey County is working to establish a long-term firebreak in the Los Padres National Forest to offset future risks of devastating fires to the surrounding community. SummitWest has joined this effort, providing two years of pre-construction endangered species surveys and construction monitoring support for species including the California spotted owl, marbled murrelet, California tiger salamander, California red-legged frog, and foothill yellow-legged frog. With a team of permitted biologists and expert botanists, SummitWest has conducted, among the other protocol level surveys, extensive rare plant surveys aimed at determining presence of the critically endangered Smith’s blue butterfly. SummitWest’s partnership with Stantec has enabled in depth cultural resource surveys to verify that all future construction activities avoid anthropological resources hidden on site. SummitWest will prepare a series of agency technical memoranda, mitigation strategy reports, and GIS rendered survey maps for the Resource Conservation District in order to provide the full scope of biological and cultural support necessary for responsible project completion.

Client: Resource Conservation District of Monterey County
Date: 2022-current
Location: Monterey County, CA
Size: 92.8 miles; 400 acres

California Endangered Species Act Compliance
Threatened and Endangered Species Section 10(A) Recovery Permits
Sensitive Species Inventories and Desktop Reviews
Study Design and GIS Analysis
Nesting Bird Surveys
Protocol Threatened, Endangered, and Sensitive Species Surveys
General Botanical and Rare Plant Surveys
Biological Resource Construction Monitoring
Resource Agency Coordination
Mitigation Summary Report
Program Management, Development, and Implementation
Program Coordination and Scheduling
Technical Report and Environmental Document Preparation
GIS Database Creation and Analysis
Natural Resource Mapping
Cultural Resource Surveys