Golden eagle’s egg halts construction near Highway 4
The eagle has landed — and work has stopped on a long-planned thoroughfare in eastern Contra Costa County.
Now, East Contra Costa County residents who have long waited for Brentwood’s Sand Creek Road to connect to Antioch and a hospital along the route will have to wait a little longer.
A golden eagle laid an egg in a nest in a eucalyptus tree near where a portion of the road would run just before work was to begin in late March. Because golden eagles are a protected species, no one will be lifting a shovel for several months now.
When completed, the east-west thoroughfare linking southeast Antioch with Brentwood is expected to shave at least 10 minutes off a trip to the nearest hospital — Kaiser Permanente Antioch Medical Center — and relieve traffic on the heavily used Lone Tree Way to the north.
Heather Beeler, migratory bird biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said biologists working in the area first discovered the nest in 2018, but it has not always been active. The active nest was discovered in the Antioch area of the three-mile road project just before the construction was to begin on March 28. Last year, no eggs were laid, she said.
Golden eagle populations are not stable, especially in the northern Diablo Range (eastern San Francisco Bay area to the Salinas Valley), Beeler said. The wildlife service works with project applicants to reduce impacts on eagles and their territories and habitat while helping projects meet the legal requirements under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, she said.
“They (eagles) are steadily losing their foraging habitat and territories as a result of encroaching development,” Beeler said. “That’s why each active nest is important for golden eagles, and collaboration with all stakeholders to protect active eagle nests and habitat is so critical.”
Allen Baquilar, Brentwood interim city engineer, is overseeing the stretch of the road project from State Route 4 in Brentwood to the Antioch border at Heidorn Ranch Road. He said that though he didn’t know how rare the discovery of the eagles’ active nest was, the conditions were ripe for encountering such bird nests.
“It is hard to comment on the rarity; however, there is a higher chance for construction projects to encounter active eagle nests, burrowing owls or other protected wildlife close to creeks or previously undeveloped land, which is the case for this project,” he said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services is also working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and with companies carrying out projects to balance wildlife protections and construction project progress while meeting the appropriate requirements, policies and laws, according to Beeler.
Several laws and policies protect golden eagles and guide development around eagle nests and habitat, she said. The Eagle Act is the primary federal law in this case; however, bald and golden eagles are also protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Golden eagles are also fully protected under the state’s fish and game code.
In East Contra Costa County, there’s also a Habitat Conservation Plan//Natural Community Conservation Plan to protect listed and sensitive wildlife species, including golden eagles, Beeler said.
The Habitat Conservation Plan/Natural Community Conservation Plan, which this project is part of, requires a half-mile buffer around active golden eagle nests to protect the birds, according to Melissa Farinha, California Department of Fish and Wildlife environmental program manager.
Beeler said that the wildlife specialists are working under the Eagle Act with the city of Brentwood, Contra Costa County and the project proponent “to find a solution and ensure that the eagles and their young are protected until the young are old enough to fly on their own.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ policy is to wait a month after the nestlings take their first flight, Beeler said, explaining that the young eaglets don’t become self-sufficient until a few months after hatching.
The four-lane Sand Creek Road extension was recently bumped up the priority list by the East Contra Costa Regional Fee and Finance Authority, the agency charged with funding regional transportation improvement projects in eastern Contra Costa County. The entire project from State Route 4 in Brentwood to Deer Valley Road in Antioch is expected to cost some $35 million, with much of it paid by impact fees and developer agreements.
Brentwood Mayor Joel Bryant said at a recent council meeting that for many years, one of the city’s top priorities was to find a way to get Sand Creek Road to connect with Deer Valley Road “as a life-saving measure at least and to help alleviate some of the traffic” between western Brentwood and southeastern Antioch.
The delay with Sand Creek construction should not be too long, though, according to Baquilar. He said construction could likely proceed as soon as August and be completed by spring 2024. He added that a proposed nearby Costco, tentatively scheduled for Planning Commission review on June 20, is not expected to be delayed as a result of the Sand Creek Road extension project.
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