Steele Peak Inaugural Trail

Steele Peak Inaugural Trail

Riverside County Habitat Conservation Agency (RCHCA) proposes to create a 1/2-mile sustainable trail loop with associated fencing and signage for the public to enjoy while also preserving and restoring disturbed areas outside the proposed trail. The trail will utilize existing roads that are 10-12 feet wide within the Steele Peak Reserve of the Stephens' Kangaroo Rat Habitat Conservation Plan (SKR HCP) to 6-feet wide with fencing on both sides of trail. Narrowing of the existing trails will help prevent unauthorized off-highway vehicle use and dumping of trash that occurs within the Reserve. Narrowing the roads to fenced trails will also help keep users on the designated trail and allow for approx. 0.48-0.73 acre of area to re-vegetate to become viable SKR habitat. Parking for up to 10 cars would be established outside the Reserve on a portion of a landfill site owned by the Riverside County Department of Waster Resources which would be leased to the RCHCA. The proposed trail would only be open to hikers. Other amenities are minimal and would include basic wayfinding, interpretive signage, seating boulders, and trash receptacles. The gate to the parking area would be locked outside of hours of operation/daylight hours. Day-to-day operations would be handled by a full-time patrol that would be present during the hours of operation to encourage appropriate use of the trail and amenities and discourage unauthorized/ illegal use.

communities of Good Hope and Gavilan Hills, Perris

Riverside

Southern California, Unincorporated

California Air Resources Board (ARB), California Department of Conservation (DOC), California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), California Department of Parks and Recreation, California Department of Transportation, District 8 (DOT), California Department of Water Resources (DWR), California Highway Patrol (CHP), California Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC), California Natural Resources Agency, California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Santa Ana Region 8 (RWQCB), Office of Historic Preservation, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Inland Deserts Region 6 (CDFW)

California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Inland Deserts Region 6 (CDFW)

Recreational (1.2-mile sustainable trail loop on existing dirt roads)

Approval

Aesthetics, Agriculture and Forestry Resources, Air Quality, Biological Resources, Cultural Resources, Cumulative Effects, Drainage/Absorption, Energy, Flood Plain/Flooding, Geology/Soils, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Hazards & Hazardous Materials, Hydrology/Water Quality, Land Use/Planning, Mandatory Findings of Significance, Mineral Resources, Noise, Population/Housing, Public Services, Recreation, Schools/Universities, Septic System, Solid Waste, Transportation, Tribal Cultural Resources, Utilities/Service Systems, Vegetation, Wetland/Riparian, Wildfire