(Editor’s note: Beginning with this issue, news briefs contributed by area representatives from the Council will be a regular feature of the California Biodiversity News.)

People of the Modoc Plateau in northeastern California have a long history of working together to resolve issues and affect positive change on public lands. Currently, federal, state, and local governments, tribes, and public interest groups are involved in a unique project that focuses on restoring riparian areas and enhancing rangeland and forest stands on the 350,000 acre Warner Mountain Ranger District of the Modoc National Forest. The Warner Mountain Range Project will result in NEPA-sufficient documentation for new grazing decisions on 26 range allotments, and provisions for riparian restoration and upland vegetation.

Sanctioned through the Modoc-Washoe Experimental Stewardship Program (ESP), a public working group, dedicated countless hours to develop the project. This group included individuals from the Modoc County Board of Supervisors, California Department of Fish and Game, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Mule Deer Foundation, Society for Range Management, Natural Resources Conservation Service, UC Extension, and livestock permittees. Modoc-Washoe ESP is also vitally interested in the progress, outcome, and implementation of the project. Membership of ESP includes the Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, wildlife departments in California and Nevada, wild horse interests, local elected officials, and permittees.

Several partnerships are incorporated into this project, including the Pacific Southwest Experiment Station (providing geographic information technology) and the University of Utah and Utah State Museum of Natural History (providing data on the human role in the area over the past 10,000 years).

This project, and a second project located in the Modoc National Forest, have recently received national recognition, proving that partnerships and collaboration really do work.

Here in far northern Sierra—where we generally get lots of rain and snow—the bulk of the state’s lifeblood, water, begins its long trek toward downstream consumption.

It is also here where a $1 million grant involving six stream restoration projects is getting underway in the Indian Creek watershed. This watershed, encompassing 750 square miles, is the home of huge amounts of precipitation. That water which eventually makes its way to the Feather River itself, then to the big reservoir at Lake Oroville. From there it is distributed and eventually consumed by householders and agriculture. It must serve people, crops, and fish.

We are as concerned about the condition of this water as those who eventually use the vital product. What these funds enable us to do, in short, is stabilize and improve the quality and quantity of stream flows and improve the value of that water though better timing of its flow away from Plumas and Sierra counties.

The Feather River Coordinated Resource Management (CRM) is a collaborative, consensus-based process that is finding new emphasis from Proposition 204 funding. As an example, six separate stream restoration projects aimed at erosion control will be undertaken. A planned improvement is to allow streams that move toward our reservoirs to be routed back to the tops of the meadows through which they flowed in the past. That means a sharp reduction in the sediment that is carved from stream banks and delivered with the water downstream.

We are fortunate to have seen scientific advances to help give us new direction in following the complex interactions of natural processes that provide our best hope at preserving and enhancing California’s biodiversity.

We consider this process—and it is a process—an important one in another regard. We are dealing principally with streams flowing through privately-owned lands, not as properties under a single government ownership. We have been able to gain the confidence and cooperation of landowners who will see streambeds actually moved to nearby locations for the benefit of water users hundreds of miles away.

In short, we are proud to have made a substantial contribution to the more efficient use of our water supply.

SOUTH COAST BIOREGION

The San Diego region continues to make progress on planning and implementation of their various habitat conservation plans. The Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP) was adopted by the City and County of San Diego in 1997, and implementing agreements were entered into that same year. Since then, the city and the county have been implementing their plans, including the preparation of annual reports that account for habitat acreage lost and conserved within the planning area.

The Multiple Habitat Conservation Program (MHCP) is completing its biological analysis and species evaluation report. A list of covered species should be available soon, along with a financial and economic impact analysis. The MHCP covers the seven incorporated cities of north San Diego County. Each city is preparing a subarea plan that specifies their individual actions and implementation responsibilities. It is anticipated that the draft plan, along with the public review draft of the environmental documents, will be complete in the summer of 2000.

Implementation requires public land acquisition, public and private developers’ mitigation requirements, and land set-aside through the development review and approval process. The speed with which land acquisition activities have occurred is worth noting.

Since 1996, 13,348 acres of natural habitat lands have been purchased, the majority in the MSCP area. Acquisitions have occurred with federal, state, and local funds.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is the primary source of federal money used to purchase lands within the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge, the proposed Otay Mountain Wilderness System, and the Rancho Jamul section of the preserve. The Refuge is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Otay Mountain is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and Rancho Jamul is managed by the California Department of Fish and Game.

To date, 5,893 acres have been acquired for the Refuge by purchase, donation, or transfer, of which 2,270 acres were purchased with monies from LWCF. The LWCF was also used to purchase 2,569 acres of Rancho Jamul and 363 acres of Otay Mountain. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation purchased 179 acres to contribute to the south county MSCP preserve system. Total acres purchased by or donated to the federal government totals 5,381 acres.

To date, the state has funded projects through the Wildlife Conservation Board and the State Coastal Conservancy. The state has purchased a total of 3,856 acres, including 2,983 acres for the Lakeside/Jamul segment of the MSCP, 95 acres added to the Blue Sky Ecological Reserve in Poway, 561 acres of Boden Canyon in north San Diego City, as well as 217 acres of San Miguel Ranch in south county. Also, in the NCCP local assistance grant program, $750,000 has been slated for land acquisitions in the Cities of Escondido, Oceanside and Poway.

Since 1996, the City of San Diego has purchased 775 acres. The County of San Diego has purchased 270 acres. Also, the City of Escondido purchased Daley Ranch, which is 3,058 acres. The City of Poway purchased 8 acres adjacent to the Blue Sky Ecological Preserve, and it plans to acquire an additional 50 acres with state and city funds sometime this year.

And finally, the San Diego region wants to acknowledge the Bureau of Land Management for their hard work in seeing through the designation of the 18,500-acre Otay Mountain as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Otay Mountain is an important core area of the MSCP. Its unique and rare habitat contributes to the overall ecological diversity of the area.

by Janet Fairbanks, Senior Regional Planner, San Diego Association of Governments