WCB 1/2013 to 3/2013: A few State Wildlife board land purchases in March...

LAND PURCHASES BY CALIFORNIA'S WILDLIFE CONSERVATION BOARD

FOR JANUARY THROUGH MARCH 2013

SUMMARY:

1640 acres of development rights purchased

124 acres bought in full ownership

AGENDA FOR 3/11/2013 MEETING: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=60200&inline=1

MAPS: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=68100

HUMBOLDT COUNTY: Arcata Community Forest (Humphry) 2 acres for $190,000. WCB 3/2013

MENDOCINO COUNTY: acquire 64± acres, located adjacent to the Inglenook Fen-Ten Mile Dunes Natural Preserve – MacKerricher State Park. WCB 3/2013

YUBA COUNTY: exchange easements between the State and two separate property owners to provide clear title to the adjoining landowners and improved access to the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Daugherty Hills Wildlife Area (Howard Hill Unit). WCB 3/2013

YUBA COUNTY: Marysville ranch--acquisition of a conservation easement over 1,277± acres of land by the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) for a cooperative project with the U.S. Department of Defense, California Department of Transportation and the Trust for Public Land for the protection of oak woodland and grassland habitats and habitat linkages and open space buffers between DFW’s Spenceville Wildlife Area (SWA) and Beale Air Force Base (BAFB). $265,000. WCB 3/2013

BUTTE COUNTY: Little Chico Creek Oak Woodland, 363 acres,  $555,000.00

Conservation Easement, and Expansions 1 and 2 (Mott, Smith and Brigham). WCB 3/2013

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY: Puma Canyon, and $488,000  Expansions 1 and 2 (Swart, J. Cox, and M&B Cox)

To consider the allocation for a grant to the Transition Habitat Conservancy to acquire the fee title of three separate properties totaling 124± acres. WCB 3/2013

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There was also a WCB Board Meeting on January 24, 2013;

There were no land purchases on the agenda for that meeting

WCB 5/2012: State wildlife land buys for May 2012...

Over 17,000 acres to be saved for Critters this Month

NOTICE OF MEETING

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION BOARD

May 31, 2012, 10:00 AM

State Capitol, Room 112, Sacramento, California 95814

preliminary agenda:
http://www.nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=46452

MAPS: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=54666

SUMMARY:

SISKIYOU COUNTY: 3104 ACRES

HUMBOLDT COUNTY: 8461 ACRES

BUTTE COUNTY: 918 ACRES

FRESNO COUNTY: 11 ACRES

MONTEREY COUNTY: 113 ACRES

RIVERSIDE COUNTY: 1372 ACRES
SOLANO COUNTY: 2910 ACRES

SAN DIEGO COUNTY: 139 ACRES
LOS ANGELES COUNTY: 1030 ACRES

Little Shasta Conservation Easement (Townley) $1,327,900, Siskiyou County

grant to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to acquire a conservation easement over 3,104± acres of land for protection of critical winter range for elk and other regional California wildlife and protection of grasslands that sustain working landscapes, located east of the City of Yreka and the town of Montague in Siskiyou County.

Charles Mountain Ranch Conservation Easement, $1,200,000, Phase II Humboldt County

grant to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) to acquire a working forest conservation easement over 4,437± acres located eight miles southeast of Bridgeville in Humboldt County

Chalk Mountain phase 2--4024 acre forest conservation easement in Humboldt county---$2 million

Little Chico Creek Oak Woodland Conservation Easement $315,000 Butte County

To consider the allocation for a grant to Northern California Regional Land Trust to acquire a conservation easement over 239± acres of land to protect and preserve oak woodland habitat located seven miles northeast of Chico in Butte County. WITHDRAWN FROM AGENDA-POSTPONED TO 3/2013 MEETING

679 acres in Daugherty Hill wildlife area-expansion 13, in Butte County, $2.7 million
WITHDRAWN FROM AGENDA-POSTPONED TO 8/2012 MEETING

San Joaquin River Parkway, $245,000 Camp Pashayan #2, Fresno County

acquisition of 11± acres of land by the San Joaquin River Conservancy for the protection of riparian and oak woodland habitats and provide future public use opportunities, located along the San Joaquin River, just east of State Highway 99 in the City of Fresno, in Fresno County.

Marks Ranch $552,076 Phase II, Monterey County

grant to the Monterey County Parks Department to acquire 113± acres to protect native grasslands, oak woodlands, riparian woodlands and seasonal wetlands that serve as an import wildlife corridor, located west of Salinas, adjacent to the Toro County Park, along Highway 68, in Monterey County.

Santa Margarita River Ecological Reserve, $25,000 Expansion 4, Riverside County

acquisition of 21± acres of land, southwest of the City of Temecula, in Riverside County.

Santa Rosa Mountains (Blixeth 1), $10,000 Expansion 16, Riverside County

acquire 1,342± acres of land for the protection of Peninsular bighorn sheep habitat, and to provide future wildlife oriented public use opportunities.

Upper Mission Creek / Big Morongo Canyon $5,000 Conservation Area, Expansion 5, Riverside County

acquire 9± acres of land for the protection of core habitat linkages, fluvial and aeolian sand transport corridor, alluvial fan habitat, and mountainous habitat important for the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, Peninsular bighorn sheep, and other species addressed in the Coachella Valley Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan and provide future wildlife oriented public use opportunities, located north of the City of Palm Springs in Riverside County.


47 acres in San Diego County-El Cajon
92 acres in San Diego County--Michelson

763 acres in Suisun Marsh in Solano County, $1.5 million
982 acres in Suisun Marsh--Grizzly Ranch in Solano County, $2 million

1165 acres in Rockville Trail Estates in Solano County, $2.8 million


1030 acres in Soledad Canyon in Los Angeles County, Nominn property, $2.48 million

Butte and Tehama update...

North California Regional Land Trust news—Spring 2010

http://landconservation.org

PROJECT UPDATES
NCRLT is working on seven conservation easements that would protect approximately 750 acres of prime farmland. 7,132 acres of oak woodland and working rangeland, and 877 acres of vernal pool grassland in Butte and Tehama. counties. The following are project highlights:

The culmination of NCRLT’s Irrigated Farmland Protection Project, which began in June of 2007, has been the submittal of four applications for easement funding to both the California Farmland
Conservation Program (CFCP) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

• NCRLT is hoping to close escrow on the ‘Red Bank Project” in 2010. This project consists of two adjacent ranch properties locatedwest of Red Bluff in Tehama County, which together comprise 7,130 contiguous acres of primarily blue oak woodland.
• NCRLT is currently working on three mitigation projects which would permanently protect approximately 877 acres of vernal pool grassland, perennial and intermittent streams, and riparian woodland. These natural communities support several state and federally protected species, including vernal pool tadpole shrimp, vernal pool fairy shrimp, Green’s tuctoria, Swainson’s hawk, western burrowing owl, and Western spadefoot toad.


http://landconservation.org/UserFiles/File/NewsletterSpringTBFinalLowRes.pdf

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.”

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Sierra Pacific Industries Settles Case, Withdraws Bid to "Upzone" 34,000 Acres of Forests in 6 Northern Calif. Counties

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/1660393.html

2-28-2009--Timber firm, Sierra Nevada environmental groups settle dispute

Two Sierra Nevada environmental groups have settled lawsuits challenging the rezoning of 12,541 acres of timberland owned by Sierra Pacific Industries, the largest private landowner in California…

Sierra and Lassen counties are among eight Northern California counties where the Anderson-based timber company had sought to remove a total of about 40,000 acres of its forests from timber production zoning. New zoning designations would start a 10-year countdown that would end the tax benefits Sierra Pacific has enjoyed under timberland production zoning, approved by the Legislature in 1976 to encourage long-term working forests.

After 10 years, the company could request new zoning designations that permit development.

With the settlements in Sierra and Lassen counties, only Tehama and Shasta counties have authorized the company's rezone requests on a combined 6,339 acres.

Sierra Pacific recently withdrew applications for rezoning 34,237 acres of timberlands in Butte, Lassen, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou and Trinity counties, said Mark Pawlicki, a company spokesman. The requests ranged from 7,826 acres in Plumas County to 2,537 acres in Tehama County.

Although it has no plans for development, the company is not abandoning zoning changes on some of its 1.7 million acres, Pawlicki said.

Instead of a piecemeal approach, company officials want to take a more comprehensive view that adheres to the legal processes required by state environmental laws, he said.

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http://www.sierracounty.ws/county_docs/bos/050808%20BOS/mno05062008bosweb.pdf

County planning staff doesn’t think any development is foreseen for the thousands of acres of SPI’s forest lands that they are rezoning in Sierra County...

WCB 11/2008

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Another 9511 Acres of Wildlife Habitat Will be Purchased With State Funds

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION BOARD
November 20, 2008
10:00 A.M.
1/ State Capitol, Room 112
Sacramento, California 95814

http://www.wcb.ca.gov/

MAPS: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=14456

*8. South Fork American River, Lower Canyon Unit, $410,000.00 Expansion 3, El Dorado County
a grant to the American River Conservancy for a cooperative project with the California Resources Agency to acquire 45± acres to protect riparian and upland habitat located near Folsom Lake, in El Dorado County. (Proposition 40)

*12. Burton Mesa Ecological Reserve, Expansion 1, $469,000.00 Santa Barbara County
To consider the acquisition of 20± acres to protect rare and threatened species in the community of Lompoc (Proposition 117)

*13. Western Riverside County MSHCP, $177,000.00 Expansions 4 and 5, Riverside County
To consider the allocation for two grants to the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority to acquire two properties totaling 80+ acres to protect threatened and endangered species and wildlife corridors and to further implement Natural Community Conservation Planning efforts, located near the City of Lake Elsinore (Proposition 12)

*14. Whitewater Canyon, MacKenzie Ranch, $410,000.00 Riverside County
To consider the allocation for a grant to Friends of the Desert Mountains (Friends) for a cooperative project with the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to acquire 260± acres to protect endangered species and wildlife corridors (Proposition 12)

*15. Crestridge Preserve, South Crest, Expansion 3, $250,000.00 San Diego County
To consider the allocation for a grant to the Endangered Habitats League (League) Inc., to acquire 29± acres to protect threatened and endangered species and wildlife corridors, located west of the community of Crest (Proposition 84)

*16. The Environmental Trust Bankruptcy, $30,000.00 San Diego, Kern, Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino Counties.
TET acquired most of the 3600 acres of Conserved Property (mostly in San Diego County) in connection with mitigation obligations of private third parties under federal, State or local requirements.

To consider the acceptance of properties as agreed to in negotiations surrounding the bankruptcy and reorganization of The Environmental Trust (TET). The Department of Fish and Game, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the City of San Diego and the County of San Diego are working cooperatively to transfer the properties previously held by TET to non-profits, State and local government entities to ensure protection of the habitat and open space on the lands. (Proposition 84)

19. Daugherty Hill Wildlife Area, Expansion 11, $610,000.00 Butte County
To consider the acquisition of a conservation easement over 582± acres to protect deer winter range for the Bucks Mountain/Mooretown deer herd located near the Sierra foothill communities of Bangor and Rackersby (Proposition 117)

20. Daugherty Hill Wildlife Area, Expansion 12 $935,000.00 Yuba County
To consider a cooperative project to acquire of 529± acres with the Trust for Public Land and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to protect oak woodlands habitat and deer winter range located near Collins Lake, in the Sierra foothills(Proposition 117)

21. Truckee Basin (Perazzo Meadows), $765,000.00, Sierra County
To consider the allocation for a grant to the Truckee Donner Land Trust for a cooperative project with the Department of Fish and Game, Trust for Public Land, the Resources Agency, and the California Transportation Commission to acquire 982± acres to protect critical fawning areas and summer range for mule deer of the Loyalton-Truckee deer herd and winter migration corridors west of Highway 89, near Webber Lake (Proposition 117). For more information:

http://www.tdlandtrust.org/downloads/PerazzoMeadowsPurchaseCloser9-12-07.pdf

22. Elkhorn Basin Ranch, $3,780,000.00 Yolo County
To consider the allocation for a grant to the Yolo Land Trust for a cooperative project with the Sacramento Valley Conservancy, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency and the Packard Foundation to acquire three properties totaling 685± acres to protect riparian habitat and agriculture land and to connect large tracts of land located between the Sacramento River and the Yolo Bypass, southeast of Woodland (Proposition 40)

24. Watsonville Slough Conservation Area, $5,510,500.00 and Expansion 1, Santa Cruz County
To consider an allocation for two grants to the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County for cooperative projects with the Department of Fish and Game, State Coastal Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy to acquire two properties totaling 441± acres to protect coastal wetland and upland habitats, provide sustainable habitat for sensitive species, and reduce adverse impacts to the water quality and supply in the slough system located west of Highway 1 in the City of Watsonville (Proposition 84)

25. East Merced Vernal Pool Grassland Preserve, $4,400,000.00 Expansion 6, Merced County
To consider the allocation for a grant to the California Rangeland Trust to acquire a conservation easement over 2,912± acres to protect rolling grasslands with a high density of vernal pools and associated rare and endangered species located northeast of the City of Merced (Proposition 40)

26. Midland School Oak Woodlands Conservation Easement, $4,155,000.00 Santa Barbara County;
To consider the allocation for a grant to the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County for a cooperative project with the Trust for Public Land and the California Transportation Commission to acquire a conservation easement over 2,725± acres to protect and preserve oak woodland habitat in Los Olivos (Proposition 84)

27. Palo Verde Ecological Reserve, $2,585,000.00 Expansions 1 and 2, Riverside County
To consider a cooperative project with the Trust for Public Land to acquire two properties totaling 422± acres to protect desert wash and riparian habitat along the Colorado River located north of Blythe (Proposition 50)

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Update on Negotiations to Link Butte County Parks; Red Bluff Oak Woodlands May be Saved

From http://landconservation.org, Northern Caliifornia Regional Land Trust


NCRLT is currently working on two very exciting projects. In April 2008, we were awarded $15,000 by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy for appraisal services in support of the Big Chico Creek Linkage Project. By securing appraisal services for three key properties, linking 3,616-ac Bidwell Park and the 4,144-ac Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve (BCCER) to a protected 1,058-ac private estate upstream might be made possible. If realized, this would allow for the permanent protection of approximately 9,474 contiguous acres and 16 river miles of riverine/riparian habitat within the Big Chico Creek Watershed.

Another project, the Red Bank Project, represents an opportunity to purchase two conservation easements on two immediately adjacent ranch properties west of Red Bluff in Tehama County that would protect over 7,000 acres of working rangeland and farmland, including approximately 4,275 contiguous acres of blue oak woodland.

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:tiUFTCy8PSgJ:www.landconservation.org/+%22ncrlt+is+currently+working+on+two+very+exciting+projects%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us