Environment

When we began planning the River Road project, we challenged our environmental consultants to help us design a mining plan that would protect existing habitat and actually improve the wildlife habitat on the 550 acres. They've met that challenge by avoiding existing riparian areas along the river and streams, enhancing existing wildlife habitat and converting low quality agricultural habitat to high quality habitat which will support native vegetation, wildlife and fish.

Our plan for the River Road site covers a wide variety of environmental issues: everything from endangered and threatened species to wetlands and riparian zones.

Spring Creek
Spring Creek meanders through the proposed operation areas. The buffer that currently exists between the creek and farmland will be maintained and even expanded in size and diversity during operation. At closure, the existing buffer area will more than double in size. Nesting habitat for the western pond turtle will be created along the creek, something that doesn't exist now.

Willamette River Protection
Our mining plan is designed to maintain and enhance the Willamette River and the Greenway. Gravel excavation will be set back a minimum of 600 feet and up to 1,500 feet from the river's edge.

Gravel and Wildlife
Birds and other wildlife are frequent visitors to our current site off Delta Road. Bird use is documented each year by the Audubon Society, which comes to our current location for part of its Christmas bird count. Last year, in two days, they identified 44 different species including grebes, heron, cormorant, mallards, gadwall, scaup, Canada geese, bald eagle, kestrel, peregrine falcon, coots, killdeer, and the list goes on and on. The Audubon count leader wrote, "The variety and quality of the habitats on the Eugene Sand and Gravel properties are in stark contrast to the agricultural areas within my count area."

Mammals observed on the active mining site include beaver, red fox, skunks, squirrels, deer, coyote and a variety of small mammals. These wildlife sightings document use of active mine sites, especially those areas where reclamation has been initiated. Areas such as our former mining sites at Delta Ponds support an even greater diversity of wildlife and are highly valued by our local citizens. Delta Ponds are now being studied for an off-channel salmon restoration project.

Endangered Species
Fish and wildlife biologists as well as botanists have conducted many surveys of the entire River Road site over the course of a full calendar year. For example, biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife sampled Spring Creek for the Oregon chub, an endangered fish. No endangered species have been found on the proposed site.

Threatened Species
Bald eagles nest in the riparian zone between our proposed operation and the Willamette River. We like having eagles on the site, and we have carefully designed the mining plan to accommodate the eagle nest and foraging habitat along the river. We are working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to avoid disturbing the bald eagle during its nesting season. Bald eagles are frequent visitors at our current site.

Wetlands
The proposed gravel operation preserves 234 acres of riparian habitat on the site. The four acres of wetland in the mine area are currently farmed and provide low quality habitat for fish and wildlife. Mitigation, i.e., replacement, for this wetland loss, planned by Eugene Sand & Gravel, far exceeds state guidelines.