Council Meets Challenge of Communicating with Local Groups in State's Diverse Regions

Council members believe that communicating the objectives of biodiversity conservation with local communities, and sharing their opinions, ideas, and concerns, is most effective face-to-face, in the regions where programs and policies are implemented.

"Conserving biodiversity within the context of a healthy economy, the mission of the California Biodiversity Council, is accomplished in the forests, rivers and streams, deserts and wetlands, not the halls of government," Council Chair Douglas P. Wheeler said. "The policies that shape our natural resources are created by building partnerships with communities."

Forum presentations benefit local communities, council members, and agency staff. "Working with local groups is one of the basic underpinnings of this council," said Ed Hastey, state director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). "The strength of what we do lies in having strong local government input. If we're going to be a good neighbor, we must work with local government."

A local group forum in Eureka Sept. 21 moderated by Kim Rodrigues of the University of California Extension and facilitated by Mark Nechodom, director of natural resources policy programs for UC Extension in Davis, produced recommendations for closer working relationships between federal and state agencies and local government to improve mutual understanding about mandates, abilities, and constraints. "Success occurs when agencies go where the people are and actually take part, whether it's bioregional groups, chambers of commerce, boards of supervisors, or city councils," Trinity County Supervisor Arnold Whitridge said. "Where people exchange ideas, progress is made."

Local groups asked that agencies ensure that staffers are knowledgeable about agency procedures, obligations, and limits, and are empowered to make decisions on the agencies' behalf.

They also urged greater emphasis on educational programs, such as Adopt-A-Watershed, which teaches students K-12 a sense of stewardship with hands-on watershed projects, such as erosion control and wildlife enhancement.

"As children go through the school system, they see that little things they do each year make a large positive difference through time," said Kim Stokely, who initiated the statewide Adopt-A-Watershed program in Trinity County. Stokely told the council that schools, community organizations, and resource professionals must work together as partners for the program to be effective.

Recommendations

• Working with counties and local planning agencies to integrate fire and fuels management planning with the county general plan and acquire and develop baseline data at the appropriate scales, such as the parcel level.
• Putting more information on-line, assisting rural areas in developing on-line access, and providing on-line access and training for local agency personnel.
• Supporting cooperative data endeavors, such as CERES, the on-line information system of the California Resources Agency, and ensuring that publicly funded data development remains in the public domain.
• Creating more situations where local landowners can address their interests, and increasing private sector buy-in by allowing the private sector to "drive" the process.
• Planning and implementing more projects using non-profits, which tend to be trusted by local people, are more fiscally effective, less tangled in red tape, and able to provide tax incentives for private contributors.
• In financing conservation programs, making sure tax and fee structures create incentives, rather than disincentives, to improve land use practices or undertake resource restoration for public benefit.
• Encouraging agencies to engage in demonstration projects that get private sector "buy-in," build trust, and provide examples for others.

Collaboration

"The Biodiversity Council realizes that we need to foster and support the kind of locally based solutions that work with cooperation and collaboration," said Assistant Secretary for Resources John Amodio, chair of the Executive Committee, the council's administrative arm. "We want to carry out our responsibilities in a way that's based in the community as much as possible."

Local group forums have been held in Redding, El Portal near Yosemite National Park, San Diego, Napa, Elk Grove near Sacramento, and Eureka.

Trinity Bioregion Group

The CRMP, designed to help restore Trinity River fisheries diminished by sediment from roads, logging, and erosion, has assisted two dozen landowners in restorative measures, such as fencing livestock, planting trees, and improving water quality.

Dunlap, a forester with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF), described the community effort to secure participation of 35 property owners in the fuels reduction program involving 50 homes and buildings in a 160-acre Weaverville neighborhood. A public education campaign involving the Trinity Bioregion Group, Trinity County Resource Conservation District, CDF, Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Forest Service, UC Cooperative Extension and Trinity County schools, is preparing video presentations.

"Landowners know each and every tree around their homes, and they hate to part with any of them," Dunlap said. "People say if the trees were gone, they wouldn't want to live there anymore. But when they see a video of the 1992 Fountain Fire, and we tell them it's a guarantee that eventually fire is going to come through, they change their minds."

Fish and Watersheds

"A lot of people who live in the Eel River basin have ideas about how the problems can be remedied, and they shared those ideas in Eelswap," Fuller said.

Downie said the DFG has trained more than a dozen fishermen idled by the flagging North Coast salmon industry in stream restoration, helping to improve streams that supply the salmon and steelhead fisheries.

"The idea is to make watersheds more stream friendly and streams more fish friendly," Downie said.

Promoting Communication

> Tom Weseloh, president of the non-profit Humboldt Fish Action Council, and Rich Bettis of Pacific Lumber Company, led a field trip stop at Graham Gulch, where logging crews had removed debris to help restore salmon and steelhead access to a spawning stream that had been choked by a small landslide.

A visit to a native plants nursery showed how seeds are collected and processed to grow native plants for restoring wetlands and riparian areas. At the Arcata marsh, field trip-goers got a look at a former landfill that was transformed into a highly diverse wildlife habitat with the use of water from a sanitation plant.

"Most people think it's a park and recreation area; they're not aware it's sanitation treatment," Humboldt County Supervisor Julie Fulkerson said.