Mendo County Forest may be opened to the public...

Redwood Forests Foundation seeks $5 million state grant to open 50,000 acre former Georgia-Pacific forest to limited public access.

The forest was purchased by the Foundation in 2007 with a loan from Bank of America. The land continues to be operated as a "working forest" by the Foundation. Read more:

http://rffi.org/Newsletters/RFFI-Spring2010.pdf

http://rare-earth-news.blogspot.com/2007/09/huge-redwood-forest-deal-on-north.html

Another Beach saved in Mendocino

On January 5, 2010, the Mendocino County Land Trust completed the purchase of this 5.6 acre jewel in Fort Bragg.  The Land Trust intends to permanently manage the property.  In 2010, the Land Trust will write a management plan for the property and begin working towards opening the beach to public access.

This acquisition was made possible by a grant from the California Coastal Conservancy and a generous matching donation from a local Fort Bragg resident. To learn more about the acquisition, click here.

http://www.mendocinolandtrust.org/?download=Acquisition%20Press%20Release%201.7.10.pdf

Sonoma County saves more land...

247 acres of Ag land are protected in 3 Sonoma deals

Agreement Protects 165 acres Natural Area along Sonoma's Highway 12
Conservation easement keeps land “forever wild” and preserves historic agricultural use

http://www.sonomaopenspace.org/docManager/1000001643/danielli.pdf

2/2/2010--SANTA ROSA, Calif.–In an area surrounded by existing or planned residential development and vineyards, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District will purchase an easement over the 165-acre Danielli property which will keep approximately 148 acres natural and provide for 17 acres of agricultural use.
Today, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, acting as the District’s Board of Directors, approved the $1.48 million agreement between the District and Lola Danielli. The purchase price represents a 10% or $164,500 reduction of the appraised value, and the agreement eliminates the potential for development of five parcels and provides for continued agricultural and existing residential uses on the property....The property has been in the Danielli family since the 1940s and will adjoin two existing open space easements that will create 420 acres of contiguous wildlife habitat. Forever protected are the oak woodland, conifer forest, meadows, chaparral, and seasonal creeks that characterize the property.

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Original Crane Melon Property Protected Forever--48 acres
District works with the Crane family to protect agricultural legacy

http://www.sonomaopenspace.org/docManager/1000001688/crane-1.pdf

4/20/2010--SANTA ROSA, Calif.–The 48.53-acre farm where the original Crane melon was developed is now protected in perpetuity as the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, acting as the District’s Board of Directors, today approved a $365,750 purchase of a conservation easement that eliminates the potential for development of two parcels. The purchase price represents a 5% or $19,250 reduction of the appraised value.
The Crane Home Ranch is located on the north side of Crane Canyon Road, east of Petaluma Hill Road, just outside of Rohnert Park. The easement will protect the agricultural uses on the farm which include the production of melons, hay, and 11 acres of pinot noir grapes, as well as the riparian corridors associated with two seasonal creeks that traverse the property....The District has protected nearly 300 acres in the surrounding area that continues to experience agricultural land conversion to rural residential estates. Currently, the District leases out 148 acres in that vicinity for agricultural use. In total, the District has protected 33,000 acres for agriculture—nearly half of all the land protected by the District since its creation by Sonoma County voters in 1990.
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Sonoma Land Trust protects scenic Bennett Valley property and wildlife corridor
http://www.sonomalandtrust.org/news_room/press_releases/100209_BennetValley.html

(SANTA ROSA, CALIF., Feb. 9, 2010) — A stunning 34-acre property on the northern flank of Sonoma Mountain is now permanently protected with a conservation easement thanks to a generous donation by landowners Peter and Kathy Drake. Located at the southern end of rural Bennett Valley, the property boasts sweeping views of the Mayacamas Mountains and Annadel State Park, and is situated in an important wildlife habitat corridor between Annadel and Jack London State Parks, a priority for conservation.

3200 Acres preserved from development in Humboldt...

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Six Rivers to the Sea conservation easement finalized

The Eureka Times-Standard
Posted: 01/29/2010

http://www.times-standard.com/ci_14293015?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com

Owners of the Chalk Mountain Ranch in Bridgeville granted a forest conservation easement on a 3,200-acre working ranch to Cal Fire earlier this month. The easement will have no effect on property taxes. It will ensure the property remains a single large parcel and conserves the economic potential of forestry, grazing and natural resource-based recreation on the property, according to a Cal Fire press release. It also creates a stream-side forest preserve on major perennial streams throughout the ranch.

The Northcoast Regional Land Trust was involved with developing the project and will be monitoring the easement. The California Wildlife Conservation Board provided the real estate research and expertise for Cal Fire. The Barnwell family, owners of the property, helped create the Six Rivers to the Sea project in 2002, and the Chalk Mountain Ranch tract is another in a string of perpetual conservation agreements designed to keep productive resource property on tax rolls and working in private ownership in Humboldt County, according to the press release.

The Barnwells donated a significant portion of the value, and the sale was funded by the Federal Forest Legacy Program. Les Barnwell said in a statement, “My grandpa, my father and I have given our heart and soul to Chalk Mountain Ranch. This conservation easement will help ensure our legacy will go on forever.”

Since 2002, 14,450 acres of private ranchlands have been similarly protected in the Six Rivers to the Sea project in Humboldt County, with landowners contributing about one-quarter of the easement's value.

Santa Cruz buys 32 miles of Railroad tracks...

State releases funds so Santa Cruz County can buy 32 mile beach rail line, between Pajaro and Davenport

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_15417059

7/1/2010--Future possibilities include hiking and biking path, although State officials are insisting that rail service continue, too

Tejon Ranch stock is in the toilet....

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The Condor's revenge?

Editor's note: a little over 2 years ago, after Tejon made a deal with 5 groups to not oppose their developments, the company's stock was trading at $45 a share. Times change...

http://www.learningmarkets.com/News-Feed/2010070929155/tejon-ranch-co-drops-to-52-week-low-trc-vno-loop.html

Friday, 09 July 2010 03:24 Tejon Ranch Co. (TRC) [Chart - Analysis - News] established a new 52-week low yesterday at $22.90. Clearly investors are not enthusiastic about the firm's prospects. The decline was accompanied by higher than average volume, which adds to the momentum behind yesterday's move.

Bush regime attack on L.A. Rivers is overturned...

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Feds Restore protection to the L.A. River

Plus State officials announce the purchase of 4 acres along a tributary to the L.A. River known as Compton Creek

The deletion of protection for all but 4 miles of the L.A. River by the federal regulators was in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened wetlands protection laws, and locally it was part of an attempt to help landowners in the canyons that ring the L.A. basin to develop and fill in these canyons. Rare Earth News reported on this in 2008, concerning landowner Wayne Fishbacks's plans to develop the top of Browns Canyon in Chatsworth:
http://rare-earth-news.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-looks-like-river-but-isnt-sneak.html

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-compton-creek-20100708,0,7714848.story

7/8/2010--U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Wednesday declared the entire concrete-lined Los Angeles River channel "traditional navigable waters," a designation crucial to applying Clean Water Act protections throughout its 834-square-mile urban watershed.
...Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas would not argue with any of that. At the news conference he announced the purchase of a four-acre portion of the Compton Creek riverbed devastated by decades of storm runoff and illegal dumping.

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FOR MORE:
http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/big-newsepa-designates-l-a-river-as-navigable/

Rex Frankel Says:
July 7, 2010 at 10:40 pm | Reply
I thought it was up to the Army Corps of Engineers to declare whether the river is navigable or not. I don’t know if the river is actually protected yet until the Army Corps makes this declaration. They are the ones that always issue permits to fill in “waters of the USA”, so I’m a little concerned that this isn’t the end of this battle.

• Joe Linton Says:
  July 8, 2010 at 12:03 am | Reply Rex – The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is responsible for the initial designation (which they did and determined that only 4 miles of the L.A. River were, in their determination navigable.) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can override the USACE. Once the EPA overrides the USACE, then the USACE issues permits, based on the EPA’s determination. The USACE and EPA stood together today and said the river is navigable, so it doesn’t look like there will be any more “battle” specific to that.
  There may still be some issues to work out relative to tributaries. Protected waters must have a “significant nexus” to a protected waterbody… EPA guidance on this is a bit vague. I seem to recall them saying that within 5 miles there’s definitely a nexus, and further than that, it’s not a clear call… so if a party wants to alter a small tributary at a point 5.5 miles from the L.A. River… it’s unclear (probably subject to legal dispute) whether that portion of that tributary is actually fully protected by the Clean Water Act.
  

New Water Case seeks to halt giveaway to big-Ag...

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Private takeover of State Water "bank" challenged

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. July 2, 2010 - A coalition of farmers, sportfishing interests and environmentalists filed suit today seeking to have the Kern Water Bank returned to state control. The water bank, a massive underground reservoir in Kern County built by the state's Department of Water Resources, was illegally gifted to powerful corporate agribusiness interests and real-estate speculators as part of the controversial "Monterey Plus Amendments" to the State Water Project system.

"The Kern Water Bank is an integral part of our State Water Project and crucial to the future health of our farms, our cities and our environment," said Adam Keats, urban wildlands program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "It was built and paid for by the people of California and should remain the property of the people of California, not handed over to a small group of powerful private interests."

California's state constitution expressly forbids any agency giving away or "gifting" of state assets to private interests. The current lawsuit asserts that the Kern County Water Agency gifted the Kern Water Bank to the Kern Water Bank Authority, a public-private joint powers authority controlled by Paramount Farming Company (one of the world's largest agricultural and holding companies) and Tejon Ranch Company (the massive landholding corporation seeking to develop several new cities north of Los Angeles - including the largest development ever proposed in California).

The suit is the coalition's second in the last month over the State Water Project. The first targeted the Department of Water Resources for approving the Monterey Plus Amendments – a huge set of structural changes for how the State Water Project is managed. In one of those changes, the department transferred the Kern Water Bank to an entity called the Kern County Water Agency. That agency then quickly handed over the water bank to the newly formed Kern Water Bank Authority. The latest suit seeks to bring the Kern Water Bank back into state control.

"We're not going to stand aside and allow a few very powerful and wealthy water barons to illegally privatize a publicly funded facility worth hundreds of millions of dollars so they can reap vast profits from growing nut trees in the desert and building thousands of speculative McMansions in the wilderness," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. "All while our rivers and streams are dewatered, farms fallowed, and fish and wildlife plunge toward extinction."

The sportfishing and environmental groups are joined in the suit by two delta water agencies, the Central Delta Water Agency and the Southern Delta Water Agency, whose constituents are dependent on in-delta flows to irrigate their farms.

"A properly managed Kern Water Bank could benefit the entire state, providing backup water during drought years for farms and urban areas, while helping to ensure that water is available to keep the Delta ecosystem healthy," said Carolee Krieger, executive director of the California Water Impact Network. "But instead, as a result of this giveaway, both the State Water Project and the Delta ecosystem are on the brink of destruction while the water barons hoard water they don't own and use it for their own maximum profits, no matter what the consequences."

For more information on the Monterey Plus Amendments, see
http://www.c-win.org/press-room-monterey-plus-amendments-and-environmental-impact-report-lawsuit.html
and http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/monterey_plus_amendments/index.html.

Facts about California's Mountain Lion Protection law...

Big Cat Protection saves habitat for all critters

http://mountainlion.org/blog_article.asp?news_id=1197

6/29/2010
Fact: In addition to banning the trophy hunting of mountain lions, Proposition117 directs the California State legislature to allocate a minimum of $30million annually for thirty years towards the acquisition of critical habitat
for all of the state's wildlife. Since the Mountain Lion Foundation is not in the land acquisition business, none of these funds benefit our organization.

Fact:
To date, Proposition 117 has helped acquire and protect over 2 million acres of critical habitat. Below is a breakdown of those acquisitions:

305,183 acres for the protection of mountain lion and deer habitat.
337,744 acres for the protection of special status species and significant habitat areas.
267,261 acres for protection and restoration of wetlands habitat.
1,170,649 acres for protection and restoration of fisheries and riparian habitat.
143,221 acres of corridors, trails, and for interpretive programs.

TOTAL:
2,224,058 Total Acres Protected

Eastern Sierra Trail access lawsuit...

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Pleasant Valley Trails Lawsuit ----- Information Needed

6/29/2010--Alpine County--Sometimes the only access to public lands is across private property.

It is a long-settled principle of law that public use of a path over private property for a specified period of time creates a public easement that is permanent and cannot be revoked by subsequent owners. We recently received the following notice from a citizens group in the Sierra Nevada south of Lake Tahoe regarding access issues. If you have information that might help them and are interested in helping out, please get in touch with the people mentioned in the alert. Thanks.

Pleasant Valley is a beautiful meadow south of Lake Tahoe that for well over 100 years had served as a major access point into Alpine County high country, including the Pacific Crest Trail and the Mokelumne Wilderness Area. Access to Pleasant Valley was gated shut by a private landowner in 1999 who no longer
wished to have hikers, anglers, and others cross his land. In the years following the trails' closure, Friends of Hope Valley (FOHV) worked hard to persuade the landowner to voluntarily reopen these trails for public use, but after eight years of working for an amicable resolution this gateway to public lands remains closed. With no other recourse, FOHV has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California in an effortto reopen the trails.

FOHV is working to find members of the public who accessed the Pleasant Valley trails in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Potential witnesses will be interviewed by FOHV's legal team, possibly deposed by the defendant's lawyers, and may be asked to testify in court in Sacramento. The deadline to discover witnesses is fast approaching and is essential to building the case for the trail's historic use.

The public's right to access public trails, even if people have to pass through private land to reach them, is firmly grounded in California state law. Any land in California that was used by the public for five continuous years before March 1972 cannot lawfully be closed to public access at the whim of the landowner. There is ample evidence demonstrating lengthy historical use of Pleasant Valley for hiking, fishing, and other recreational uses, including prior use by the Washoe tribe for more than a century.

Securing trail users from the 1950s, '60s, and '70s as witnesses is crucial to asserting the public's legal right to access these pristine trails. Hikers, anglers and others who used Pleasant Valley from 1950-1980 are asked to contact Friends of Hope Valley by emailing info@hopevalleyca.com or to call FOHV's lawyer, Matthew Zinn of Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger LLP, at 415-552-7272 as soon as possible. For more information about the Friends of Hope Valley lawsuit,visit http://www.hopevalleyca.com/issues.html.