BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
IN RURAL CALIFORNIA

While state and federal environmental protection agencies often draw the most attention in the public eye, local governments every day make innumerable decisions with significant implications for California∍s protection of biodiversity. The land use planning authority of local governments makes them key players in deciding whether to enhance, maintain, or lessen the quality of our natural environment.

Together, federal, state, and local governments share a complex web of interacting authorities and responsibilities for the protection of our natural environment. From the outset, it has been a goal of the California Biodiversity Council (CBC) to acknowledge these complexities and to ensure that this web is not an impediment to effective resource management. Through the associations of county supervisors, regional associations of governments, or the Regional Council of Rural Counties (RCRC), every county is represented on the Council. The CBC has worked to strengthen ties with local government by providing discussion forums, coordination, and technical assistance in the development of local and regional strategies to conserve biodiversity.

This fall, the CBC held its quarterly meeting jointly with the RCRC annual conference in Redding. This meeting provided an opportunity for Council members to interact with all of the county supervisors represented by RCRC. We learned that much progress has been made by rural local governments in promoting biodiversity conservation and rural economic development.

Restoration of salmonid habitat has become a critical issue on many coastal and Central Valley rivers and streams. The condition of salmonid habitat is affected by decisions made at the local level. Del Norte County Supervisor Clyde Eller described a regional initiative led by the county supervisors in Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties to produce a five counties salmon conservation plan. The five county plan lays out a coordinated strategy to protect and restore habitat through each county's general plan process. The state has supported this effort by providing $100,000 in direct funding and in-kind departmental staff assistance. Actions already underway across the five county region include:

• hiring of a regional county coordinator based in Trinity county;
• reviewing and assessing all relevant county ordinances;
• evaluating county road and facilities management practices;
• developing new fish-friendly policies, incentives, and land use practices;
• prioritizing watersheds for restoration grant funding; and
• developing grant sources for restoration activities on county roads and other lands.

This summer, the six central coastal counties--Mendocino, Sonoma, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Monterey--initiated a similar salmonid conservation planning effort with the support of the Resources Agency and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

In the Sierra, Council leaders Richard Wilson (Director, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection), Lynn Sprague (Regional Forester, USDA Forest Service), and Al Wright (Deputy State Director, USDI Bureau of Land Management), recently met with the American River Watershed Group to offer Council support for the group's efforts. The American River Watershed Group includes local, state, and federal agencies, landowners, and local organizations. Rich Gresham, Placer County Resource Conservation District, described how this unstructured, but highly effective group came together in response to high fuel loads in this watershed. This spring, the group received a major boost in the form of a million-dollar Proposition 204 grant for watershed enhancement activities. Placer County serves as the fiscal agency for the implementation of this grant. In implementing the grant, the American River Watershed Group will reduce catastrophic wildland fire hazards, conduct water quality monitoring, initiate a centralized geographic information system, implement stream and riparian restoration projects, establish an education and outreach program, and study biomass utilization opportunities.

Within the same planning area, Placer county is leading an effort to develop an open space implementation plan which may result in a natural community conservation plan for the county. This is the first county in the state to proactively initiate a conservation plan that is not driven by the listing of a threatened species. As explained by Loren Clark, Placer county planner, “To be proactive can ensure economic development, enhance resources, and provide a high quality of life”. After hearing Loren’s presentation in Redding, I met with the county’s citizens advisory committee to offer state support of their ambitious program The county has displayed remarkable foresight in anticipating the need to protect open space and species diversity as it continues to grow and develop.

Lastly, the joint state and federal CALFED Bay-Delta program has responded to the call from rural counties to recognize the counties’ importance in protecting watershed functions critical to the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem restoration goals of CALFED. The CALFED program responded with the development of an integral watershed management program, an interagency watershed advisory team composed of state and federal agency representatives, and a watershed work group composed of representative watershed stakeholders, including supervisors from Plumas, Butte, and Lake Counties. CALFED-related grant funding has so far directed millions of dollars toward the improvement of rural, upper watersheds.

Our joint CBC-RCRC meeting in Redding brought to light these and other illustrations of how the Council and its members work with willing local governments, landowners, and organizations to support rural biodiversity conservation efforts. As more local governments take a lead in conservation planning in their counties and with their neighboring counties, they and we will realize the economic benefits and enhancements to the quality of life that are provided through the protection of our rural environments.