Saving Land north Of Sacramento

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No. Calif. Regional Land Trust is Negotiating Conservation deals on 9985 Acres

http://www.landconservation.org/UserFiles/File/NCRLT%20Spring%202009(1).pdf

from their spring 2009 newsletter

NCRLT has been helping landowners and public agencies gain the economic benefits of voluntary land protection and conservation of natural resources in Butte, Glenn and Tehama counties since 1990. NCRLT currently holds 15 conservation easements in Butte and Tehama counties covering over 6,400 acres. Our smallest easement is less than one acre, while the largest easement, Llano Seco Rancho, protects over 4,200 acres of riparian habitat and working farmland in Butte County. To learn more about our services and the lands and resources we protect, visit our website at: www.landconservation.org .

NCRLT is currently working with eight landowners on seven projects that would protect approximately 9,985 acres of both “working” and “non-working” land in Butte and Tehama counties. In addition to these board-approved projects, NCRLT has eight (8) applications totaling another 2,164 acres of working land (1,413 acres) and non-working land (751 acres) that are waiting to be reviewed by the Lands Committee. The following are some project highlights:

• Since June of 2007, NCRLT’s Farmland Protection Program has collected 26 applications from regional farmers who together own over 4,758 acres of prime farmland in Butte, Glenn and Tehama counties. Appraisals on three properties have been approved by the Cal. Farmland Cons. Program (CFCP) and two more appraisals are expected to be approved by July 1, 2009.

• NCRLT is hoping to close escrow on the “Red Bank Project” in the Fall/ Winter of 2009. This project consists of two adjacent ranch properties located west of the City of Red Bluff in Tehama County, which together comprise 7,130 contiguous acres of primarily blue oak woodland. The project area is also contiguous with approximately 6,135 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land located near the Mendocino National Forest.

• The “Big Chico Creek Linkage Project” would nearly connect the approximately 4,100-acre Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve (BCCER) to an approximately 1,130- acre protected estate upstream, effectively protecting approximately 9,474 contiguous acres and 16 river miles of riverine/riparian habitat from development within the Big Chico Creek Watershed. The two adjoined properties represent two of the remaining three properties that together would connect the BCCER to the protected estate. Both properties straddle Big Chico Creek and total approximately 447 acres. Unfortunately, the majority of our projects are in jeopardy due to the State’s suspension of bond funding, which is where much of our capacity and easement acquisition funding comes from. As a result, NCRLT staff does not have the capacity to meet current demand in facilitating projects and landowners are losing confidence in the process and/or funding sources. It is during these tough times when your support is especially critical to our mission of “assisting landowners in voluntary protection of land and other natural resources.”