Highlights from Chapter 5:

Natural Resources

Commitment to Natural Resources: The California High-Speed Rail Authority prioritizes the protection of California’s unique natural systems and landscapes. Our goal is to build a high-speed rail system with minimal environmental impact.
Animal-Friendly Infrastructure: The project incorporates wildlife corridors into its structure designs, preserving biodiversity by allowing animals to safely cross under the rail tracks. We have built more than 250 wildlife crossings in addition to the bridges, overpasses, and viaducts that allow wildlife to pass under and through our tracks. We are also incorporating design elements to help larger birds perch safely.
Habitat Conservation: Large-scale projects are underway to protect and restore natural habitats affected by the construction of the high-speed rail. The Authority has restored more than 4,400 acres of degraded lands, including 151 acres of wetlands.
Agricultural Conservation: We have protected 3,190 acres of agricultural land. Based on 2023 estimates, 1,654 acres would have been subject to development risk. Since 2019, the cumulative emissions avoided from extinguished development rights from the agricultural easements is 348,700 MTCO2e.
Water Conservation: The Authority implements measures to conserve water during construction and operation. The Authority’s water use for construction increased by just more than 20 percent in 2023, while construction activity increased by more than 26 percent in the same period. Ninety percent of the water used was non-potable.

High-Speed Rail Mitigation Measures

Graphic displaying the numbers for preserved habitat, conserved acres, grants for tree planting, and non-potable water usage on the high-speed rail project.

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Protecting Vulnerable Wildlife Habitats

A graphic image of a high-speed rail train crossing a viaduct structure in a natural habitat. The image outlines how dedicated crossings have been constructed underneath structures to allow native California species like the San Joaquin antelope squirrel, Tipton kangaroo rat, San Joaquin kit fox, and Buena Vista ornate shrew to cross the high-speed rail alignment. It also features a description of how overpass bridges and grade separations will not only connect roads and streets, they will also serve as larger wildlife undercrossings. The image shows how viaducts will carry high-speed trains over creeks and rivers, allowing for uninterrupted hydrologic connections and aquatic and riparian habitat for vulnerable and endangered aquatic species such as the vernal pool fairy shrimp, vernal pool tadpole shrimp, and California tiger salamander. The image also features four descriptions of species. The San Joaquin kit fox is on the federally endangered and state threatened species lists. They live in arid valley and foothill grasslands, sparsely vegetated scrub habitats, and some agricultural and urban areas. The inch-long vernal pool fairy shrimp lives only in seasonal pools that form when winter rains fill shallow depressions. It was federally listed as threatened in September 1994. The Tipton kangaroo rat, one of three subspecies of the San Joaquin kangaroo rat, was listed as a federally endangered species in July 1998. The California tiger salamander is a large terrestrial salamander with a distinct population in Central California. It is on the federal and state threatened species list.

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More Information

Learn more about the California High-Speed Rail program at https://hsr.ca.gov/ and the Sustainability Report at https://hsr.ca.gov/sustainability-report.

Download the Report

The California High-Speed Rail Authority makes every effort to ensure the website and its contents meet mandated ADA requirements as per the California State mandated Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Level AA standard. If you are looking for a particular document not located on the California High-Speed Rail Authority website, you may make a request for the document under the Public Records Act through the Public Records Act page. If you have any questions about the website or its contents, please contact the Authority at info@hsr.ca.gov.