Inyo County has a large network of approximately 1,100 miles of mostly rural roads that require ongoing maintenance. In 2017, TEAM was tapped to help develop a sustainable Routine Maintenance Agreement between Inyo County and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) under their Lake and Streambed Alteration Permitting (1600 Permit) Program.

To begin, TEAM prepared an Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MBD) for the project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This involved mapping every intersection of county roads and streams using GIS technology in order to determine CDFW jurisdiction. To support the IS/MND, TEAM biologists, environmental scientists, and archaeologists conducted environmental impact analysis of routine road maintenance activities. This was used to identify any mitigation measures needed to comply with CDFW’s environmental regulations and to establish a long-term agreement that would enable Inyo County to continue essential road maintenance services.

In 2020, in addition to supporting Inyo County Road Department with the CDFW Streambed Alteration Permitting, TEAM conducted an environmental analysis of a subset of Inyo County Road segments on Inyo National Forest Lands which were proposed for easements to allow continued road maintenance. TEAM conducted biological and archaeological resource surveys for the proposed roads, as required by the United States Forest Service under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as well as concurrently meeting CEQA requirements by Inyo County Planning Department. This work resulted in National Forest Road and Trails Act Easements for Two National Forest Road Segments which formalized Inyo County’s authorization to perform maintenance along the road segments.