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Vantage to Pomona Heights Chapter 4 230 kV Transmission Line Project FEIS Environmental Consequences PAGE 4-32 Project construction, operation, and maintenance activities could impact individuals or habitat (moderate impact), but will not contribute a trend toward federal listing. Pauper Milkvetch Pauper milkvetch is a BLM Sensitive and Washington Sensitive species. It is an endemic to Washington and currently occurs in Klickitat, Yakima, Kittitas, and Douglas counties. Eleven populations, occupying 11,491 acres, are known to occur. One extensive occurrence of pauper milkvetch was documented during special status plants surveys. This occurrence consisted of approximately 1,800 individuals scattered across 34.6 acres. As only the ROW was surveyed, it is likely that this occurrence extends beyond the ROW. Due to route adjustments made following the special status plant surveys, approximately 11.9 acres of occupied habitat remains within the ROW. Approximately 4.1 acres of long-term disturbance and 7.9 acres of short-term disturbance are anticipated to occur where pauper milkvetch was documented; 0.1 percent of the known occupied habitat of pauper milkvetch in the region. In addition, WNHP data indicate pauper milkvetch occurrences intersect Route Segment NNR-3 for an additional 0.1 mile; however, these locations include large buffers, so it is uncertain whether additional occurrences intersect the ROW corridor. Since not all federal and state lands were surveyed, there may be additional occupied habitat for pauper milkvetch in the disturbance footprint that would be identified during pre-construction surveys. Direct impacts and RDFs that would be implemented to minimize impacts to potential occurrences of pauper milkvetch are similar to those described above for Nuttall’s sandwort. With the implementation of RDFs described above and the assumption that any occurrences found during pre-construction surveys would be spanned and avoided, Project construction, operation, and maintenance activities could impact individuals or habitat (moderate impact), but would not contribute toward the need for federal listing. Snowball Cactus Refer to Route Segment 1b for information on snowball cactus. One occurrence of snowball cactus was documented during the special status plant survey along Route Segment NNR-3. This occurrence consisted of approximately 34 live individuals scattered across approximately 4.6 acres. Approximately 1.6 acres of long-term disturbance and 3.0 acres of short-term disturbance are anticipated to occur where snowball cactus was documented, less than 0.1 percent of the known occupied habitat of snowball cactus in the region. WNHP data indicate that snowball cactus intersects Route Segment NNR-3 for an additional 0.6 miles. These locations include large buffers; therefore, it is difficult to accurately determine whether these occurrences truly intersect the ROW corridor. Since not all federal and state lands were surveyed, there may be additional occupied habitat for snowball cactus in the disturbance footprint that would be identified during pre-construction surveys. For the proposed Project, it was assumed that these occurrences would be spanned and construction activities would avoid these occurrences. With the implementation of RDFs described above and the assumption that occurrences would be spanned and avoided, Project construction, operation, and maintenance activities could impact individuals or habitat (moderate impact), but would not contribute toward the need for federal listing. 4.2.4.13 Route Segment NNR-4o/NNR-4u General Vegetation Overhead Design Option Long-term disturbance to approximately 20.6 acres of land (Table 4.2-4) would occur with the construction of Route Segment NNR-4o. Long-term disturbance would occur in 9.2 acres of sagebrush annual grassland, 10.8 acres of sagebrush/perennial grassland, 0.2 acre of annual grassland and noxious weeds, 0.3 acre of bitterbrush perennial grassland, and 0.1 acre of perennial grassland. Approximately 2.3 acres of vegetation would be disturbed on a short-term basis for Route Segment NNR-4o. General vegetation impacts and RDFs designed to reduce impacts are similar to those described above for Impacts