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Show facilities, if needed. So far, the potential lessees of the Black Rock commercial marina are willing to open that facility, when built, to recreational use if requested by DPR. 8.2 Navigability on GSL. Limited recreational and commercial boating access into the north arm from the south arm is available through the northern railroad causeway breach near Lakeside. Any effort to breach the northern railroad causeway to facilitate full navigational access between the south and north arms would be very costly. Full navigational access can be accomplished in one of two ways: 1) breach the causeway and construct a bridge that will accommodate high vessel passage; or 2) breach the causeway and abandon railroad traffic across it. Any breach in the causeway designed to fully accommodate navigational access without disrupting railroad traffic will need to occur in water depths sufficient for deep keel boat passage. The bridge system spanning the breach must not only allow railroad traffic across the causeway, but also have sufficient height or mobility to allow passage of sailboats with tall masts. The geology of the lake bed in the deeper waters is such that engineering and constructing a bridge will be extremely expensive, if not impossible. The second scenario for full navigational access circumvents the geologic and engineering impediments associated with constructing a bridge, but requires the railroad to abandon the causeway and reroute the displaced train traffic. This alternative is obviously very damaging and costly to the railroad and those who use rail transport. Although the causeway acts to restrict, through size limitation, the number of vessels capable of navigating into the north arm, sensitive ecological interests are buffered by the reduced access. The small islands located in the north arm provide critical habitat and nesting grounds for American white pelicans and other shorebirds. Gunnison Island hosts one of the three largest nesting colonies of American white pelicans in North America. The pelicans and other shorebirds rely heavily upon the habitat provided on these isolated islands during the annual nesting season, and even minimal human presence has shown to disrupt them to the point that they move off the island to less productive habitat. 9.1 Develop opportunities on sovereign land for off- highway vehicles. A public planning process conducted by the ad hoc West Box Elder Access Team under the auspices of Box Elder County identified sovereign land in TUN, R11W as suitable for OHV use. This is consistent with OHV designations for adjacent upland. Some DNR divisions participated on the team. Box Elder County has passed the ordinance that deals with implementing the access team's recommendation. It is appropriate that DNR now follow through on its obligation to implement the access management plan. The preferred alternative does this. Monitoring and enforcement are part of OHV management in the area. If monitoring shows unacceptable resource damage, OHV use on this sovereign land may be modified or terminated. The Box Elder plan addressed OHV problems related to resource damage on public and private land at Monument Point and Salt Wells areas. Opening sovereign land in TUN, RUE, as part of a multi- jurisdictional plan, is a reasonable tradeoff against the difficult enforcement problems on sovereign land elsewhere in west Box Elder County. 241 |