Riparian Program Protects Key Habitat Along Streams to Enhance Biodiversity

Riparian areas -- the rich lands along the banks of rivers and streams -- provide essential habitat for birds, fish, and wildlife. Yet they rank among the least appreciated or understood of California's natural resources. Today, less than 10 percent of the state's historic riparian areas still remain.

The California Riparian Habitat Joint Venture honored successful partners in riparian conservation at a ceremony on the Valensin Ranch. Participants included, from left, Cosumnes River Project director Mike Eaton of the Nature Conservancy, Dan Taylor, executive director of the National Audobon Society's California field office, and Doug Wheeler, Secretary for Resources.
But a group of public agencies and nonprofit conservation organizations are working together to protect these streamside ecosystems and help to reverse the trend.

A showcase for riparian attributes is the rustic Valensin Ranch on the Cosumnes River in southern Sacramento County, the last free-flowing river system from the Sierra Nevada to the Central Valley. The 4,356-acre ranch, operated a century ago as a horse ranch by Italian Count Guilio Valensin, features lush, pristine riparian forests, freshwater wetlands, and historical and archeological values rarely found so near urban centers. Its lands are home to at least 15 federal or state listed or candidate threatened and endangered species and hundreds of common species.

The state Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) has bought a 1,020-acre piece of the ranch, which is being managed by the California Department of Fish and Game, and The Nature Conservancy is working with other partners to purchase the remaining 3,336 acres. If successful, the ranch will become part of the existing 5,200-acre Cosumnes River Preserve, nearly doubling its size.

"The Cosumnes River Preserve protects key elements of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and the Valensin acquisition will greatly expand the value and diversity of the preserve," said Mike Eaton, director of the Conservancy's Cosumnes River Project, which works to acquire and preserve choice habitat along the Cosumnes.

"The Cosumnes River watershed is an ecosystem under threat of continued new development as Sacramento and adjacent counties grow and prosper," said Secretary for Resources Doug Wheeler, chair of the California Biodiversity Council. "The Cosumnes River Project doesn't begin on the banks of the river, it begins in the Sierra Nevada. As we look at a riparian habitat, we need to think of it in the context of the entire watershed and the entire river."

The Valensin Ranch parcel purchased by the WCB is part of 12,000 acres of riparian habitat that the agency has acquired, enhanced, and restored in the California Riparian Habitat Conservation Program created by Governor Wilson in 1991. Funding to purchase the remainder of the ranch was sought from CALFED, the partnership working on plans to "fix" the Bay-Delta, and through the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Enhancement Act (ISTEA).

Acquiring land along the Cosumnes River is the flagship project of the California Riparian Habitat Joint Venture (CRHJV), which has 11 public and nonprofit partners seeking to replace fragmented habitat with an extensive network of riparian forests that can support viable breeding populations of native birds. Partners Appreciated
The CRHJV chose a riparian oak forest on the Valensin Ranch for a ceremony May 28 to award certificates of appreciation to eight successful partners: the Resources Agency, Fish and Game, the WCB, Ducks Unlimited, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Sacramento County Department of Parks and Recreation, Audubon, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Dan Taylor, chairman of the CRHJV and state director of Audubon, said the effort to restore riparian habitats opens an era of protection and repair.

"This is one of those happy times -- restoring habitat before we reach a critical stage when species become listed and regulations enforced," Taylor said. "If we can do it more proactively ... our children will inherit a richer resource for birds, fish, and wildlife whose levels of decline are reversed by this good work."

Ed Hastey, state director of the BLM and a certificate recipient, said programs like the Cosumnes River Project have come about through the commitment of local, state, and federal agencies to work together with private entities to protect the watersheds, as reflected in the 1991 Agreement on Biological Diversity that created the California Biodiversity Council.

"The Cosumnes River Preserve is a good example of how people working together with a common purpose can develop these cooperative plans," Hastey said.

Report Available
Wiley Miranda, 12, left, gets a close-up look at bird banding by Mike Lynes, right, of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory. The demonstration at the Valensin Ranch showed students from Fairside Elementary School in Galt how birds are monitored to determine the quality and diversity of species in their habitat.
A WCB report, issued in May and available by calling 916-445-1072, describes major achievements of the California Riparian Habitat Conservation Program:

  • With pre-purchase help from the Trust for Public Lands and funding from the Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation Program, the WCB bought more than 270 acres of riparian habitat and natural lands at Rank Island, a forest of sycamores, cottonwoods, willows and oaks on the San Joaquin River. The property was turned over to Fish and Game to manage and protect. Work is underway to restore riparian habitat at a sand and gravel mine on the island.

  • From Humboldt County to Fresno, the WCB authorized funding for 15 projects in 11 counties to enhance and restore riparian areas by planting vegetation, stabilizing streams, and using fencing to improve grazing management. The projects cultivate and protect habitat on more than 20 miles of streams, sloughs, and lake shorelines, generate jobs, and provide educational opportunities.

  • In Glenn, Colusa, and Tehama counties, the Program initiated a partnership involving ranchers, the California Waterfowl Association, and Natural Resources Conservation Service to help restore more than 10 miles of riparian habitat, develop more than 645 acres of nesting habitat for waterfowl and ground-nesting birds, and create 13 brood ponds.

  • The WCB authorized a grant to the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust to protect, restore, and enhance 40 acres of riparian habitat on the river near Herndon, in keeping with goals of the San Joaquin River Parkway Plan.

  • Along the East Walker River in Mono County, the WCB acquired 1,366 acres for $1.7 million to protect seven miles of valuable riparian habitat, while also providing excellent angler access to one of the state's best trophy trout streams.

    Collecting Data
    The WCB is assembling a statewide data base on existing riparian habitat that will aid the management and protection of natural resources. This information will serve as a component of the California Rivers Assessment, a multi-agency data collection effort of the Resources Agency in conjunction with the National Park Service and the University of California-Davis. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Natural Heritage Institute, Departments of Fish and Game and Parks and Recreation also helped fund the project.

    The first phase of the inventory has integrated riparian and aquatic data for 13 of the state's 160 river basins and survey results of more than 1,000 river managers and scientists. The second phase is underway and has added data for 27 additional river basins.

    Satellite imagery is being used in conjunction with Governor Wilson's Wetlands Policy to classify wetland and riparian habitat, particularly in the Central Valley, Bay Area, and on the Southern California coast. The information that is received benefits resource and land use managers and enables developers to better manage and protect riparian areas.