12-09-2024 Council Meeting Agenda Packet

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Ecological land units for the project area have been mapped and defined in the Ecological Classification System (ECS), which has been adopted by the Minnesota DNR. The project location occurs in the St. Paul Baldwin Plains and Moraines subsection (222Md). The St. Paul Baldwin Plains and Moraines subsection largely consists of the eastern half of Twin Cities metropolitan area and is dominated by urban land use. The Project site itself largely consists of agricultural and wetland areas. Wetlands comprise approximately 44 acres of the site. This includes multiple wetland plant communities including Type 1 —Seasonally Flooded Basin, Type 2 — Fresh (wet) Meadow, Type 3 —Shallow Marsh, and Type 6—Shrub- carr. b. Describe rare features such as state -listed (endangered, threatened or special concern) species, native plant communities, Minnesota Biological Survey Sites of Biodiversity Significance, and other sensitive ecological resources on or within close proximity to the site. Provide the license agreement number (LA- ) and/or correspondence number (MCE ) from which the data were obtained and attach the Natural Heritage Review letter from the DNR. Indicate if any additional habitat or species survey work has been conducted within the site and describe the results. There were no mapped Minnesota County Biological Survey (MCBS) Sites of Biodiversity Significance or native plant communities located within the Project site. MCBS Sites of Biodiversity Significance and native plant communities are present adjacent to the Project site within Wilkinson Lake. This included the North Oaks Natural Area MCBS site which has biodiversity significance rating of Outstanding. Within this MCBS site were two MnDNR mapped native plant communities, a Marsh system and a Wet Meadow/Carr system. These were mapped approximately 80' to the south of the Project site. MBS sites and Native Plant Communities are illustrated on Appendix A — Figure 12. Natural Heritage Information System (NHIS) data for Anoka County has been obtained by ISG via a license agreement with the Minnesota DNR (2023-018). A review of the database identified 1 rare feature within the Project site that could have the potential to be adversely affected by the proposed project. This rare feature was the Blanding's Turtle. The were two mapped element occurrences of the Blanding's Turtle that overlapped with the Project site. An official NHIS Review of the project was completed (MCE-2024-00460). A copy of the review letter is included within Appendix C. In addition to the Blanding's Turtle this letter identified the Forster's tern and tricolored bat in the vicinity of the Project site. A U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Official Species List for the Project site, generated from the Information for Planning and Consultation (IPaC)2, listed one federally listed endangered species, the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee (RPBB). There was one species, the Salamander Mussel, listed as Proposed Endangered, one species, the Western Regal Fritillary, listed as Proposed Threatened, as well a one Candidate species, the Monarch Butterfly. There was one additional species listed, the Whooping Crane, which had a designation of Non -essential Experimental Population. There were no critical habitats mapped within the project site. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Official Species List can be seen in Exhibit C. Z https://ipac.ecosphere.fws.gov/ Page 21