New Park Has 360 Degree View of L.A.

-
The Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook has opened to the public!

Finally opening up the western half of the Baldwin Hills park project which sits on lands entirely surrounded by the concrete of Los Angeles, the State Parks department has completed a hilltop visitor's center which is open to the public (as long as there are funds to staff it!). The park is a work in progress, and so far, about 1/3rd of the land of the total planned area of the park has been acquired by the government from the oil companies which have operated there for many years.

The grand opening was April 18th, 2009--Here are photos, maps, planting lists and more...

http://picasaweb.google.com/Rare.Earth.fotos/BaldwinHillsScenicOverlookGrandOpening#

5000 Acres Saved in Shasta County

-
Lassen Foothills -- Conservation Easement purchased on 5000 Acres

http://www.shastalandtrust.org

http://anewscafe.com/2009/04/13/shasta-land-trust-wraps-up-cow-creek-ranch/

http://www.redding.com/news/2009/mar/30/shasta-land-trust-adds-5000-acre-ranch-to-its/

By Ben Miles , executive director of the Shasta Land Trust of Shasta County.

4/13/2009-Shasta Land Trust has completed a conservation easement on the 5,000-acre Cow Creek Ranch in Shasta County.

The completed easement represents the conclusion of over two years of coordinated efforts by the owners of Cow Creek Ranch, Shasta Land Trust, and their partner organization, the Trust for Public Land.

This conservation easement will prevent further development on the ranch, protecting the many natural resources on the property and ensuring that it remains open space available for ranching purposes.

Located along Whitmore Road, the ranch is owned by the Cow Creek Ranch Limited Partnership. The 4,915-acre cattle ranch will remain in private ownership and may continue to be used for productive ranching uses under the terms of the conservation easement.

The vast acreage of Cow Creek Ranch features an impressive array of habitat types that support many species of wildlife. Blue oak and black oak woodlands, riparian corridors along several creeks, ponderosa pine stands, springs, and ponds all can be found on the property, along with vast expanses of upland dryland grazing areas.

The Cow Creek Ranch will not be open to the public as a result of the conservation easement, but some limited visitation may be conducted by Shasta Land Trust on an annual basis in the future.

Shasta Land Trust is a local non-profit conservation organization, formed in Redding in 1998. Working only with willing landowners who are motivated to conserve their property, Shasta Land Trust has helped conserve over 16,000 acres of land in this region.

The conservation easement on Cow Creek Ranch joins similar Shasta Land Trust easements for over 8,000 acres of ranches in the Cow Creek watershed, helping support the local ranching economy and ensuring the diverse natural resources of the region continue to thrive for generations to come.

The conservation easement was purchased from the Cow Creek Limited Partnership with funds provided by the Wildlife Conservation Board of California, as well as the Preserving Wild California program of the Resources Legacy Fund. Support for Shasta Land Trust is derived from its many supporters and members.

The conservation easement for Cow Creek Ranch permits a handful of residences on the nearly 5,000 acres, but prohibits any additional residential development on the property. Continued grazing is permitted, as is the ability to maintain the necessary ranching and agricultural infrastructure. The property will remain in private ownership and may be sold or passed down to heirs, but will remain under the restrictions of the conservation easement in perpetuity. The ranch will continue to support the local ranching economy, provide important wildlife habitat, provide clean water from its springs and streams, and offer scenic views of its natural expanses for many generations to come.

Another 40 Acres saved in Santa Cruz Mountains

-
Santa Cruz Wildlife Corridor Gains more protection

http://www.sempervirens.org/gazos40acres.htm

4/9/2009--Sempervirens Fund, California’s oldest land trust, announced this week its latest victory in land conservation: the acquisition of a 40 acre parcel of land in the Gazos Creek watershed just north of Big Basin State Park. This purchase puts Sempervirens one step closer to its current campaign goal of linking Big Basin with Butano State Park, approximately two miles to the Northwest. This link will establish a strip of permanently protected land and create a vital wildlife corridor in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Big Basin and Butano are currently separated by a subdivision of rural, privately owned land-- land subject to the threats of both development and logging. Sempervirens Fund seeks to protect this land, its trees and wildlife, with the ultimate goal turning it into public parkland. With this latest purchase, they now have 158 acres toward the completion of this corridor.

Defined as a “link of natural space which joins two or more larger areas of similar wildlife habitat,” a wildlife corridor is critical for ecological processes. Corridors allow for the movement of animals, the promotion of species biodiversity, and the protection of threatened species. MORE about the Gazos Wildlife Corridor

http://www.sempervirens.org/GazosWildlifeCorridor.pdf

http://www.sempervirens.org/SVF-CompletedProjects.pdf

State Frees Up $$$ for Napa preserves

-
Napa County Parks Finally Get some State Funding

http://newspherenapa.com/2009/04/funding-for-napa-projects-restarted-by-state-bond-sales/

4/23/2009--The governor's office recently sold almost $7 billion in bonds which now make possible a list of environmental projects throughout the state. In Napa county, those include purchase of 212 acres of wildlife habitat.

the list includes:

Acquisition of a conservation easement and a 55-acre property known as Smith-Madrone, adjacent to Bothe Napa Valley State Park

Acquisition of two parcels, totaling 157 acres, for inclusion in the Quail Ridge Reserve, part of the UC Davis Natural Reserve System, located near Lake Berryessa.

Saving Land north Of Sacramento

-
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.”

Timberworkers Suffer When Forests are Overlogged or Converted to Housing Tracts

-
Saving Forests from becoming Housing Tracts Saves Millworkers' Jobs

From the High Sierra Rural Alliance:

Regarding the Settlement between HSRA, SPI and the County of Sierra

4/18/2009--Since the announcement of the HSRA settlement with Sierra Pacific Industries and Sierra County, there have been a spate of letters-to-the-editor and an opinion piece in local newspapers implying that the closing of the SPI mill in Quincy and the loss of 150 jobs was caused by the litigation settlement between the parties. This is not true.

The agreement which SPI proposed and was agreed to by HSRA and the County of Sierra resulted in:

* 7000 acres of land zoned as Timber Production remaining in Timber Production Zone, and

* Reimbursement of HSRA costs and attorney fees by SPI, $15,640.

Making sure productive timberland within reasonable distances of timber mills is not converted into other uses protects mill jobs. The monetary settlement consists of less than four months wages for one mill worker. SPI receives generous property tax deductions by having the land in Timber Production Zone rather than General Forest. This case did not cause the loss of 150 jobs at the SPI mill in Quincy or anywhere else. For more information, please see: http://www.highsierrarural.org/announcements/aresponse

Saving the Headwaters of the Feather River

-
Lands Saved by the Feather River Land Trust

(on this map, the Sierra Valley is in the upper left.
The pink and dark green shading on this map shows land saved by land trusts and by the private land owners. The light green and yellow shadingshows federal lands; the blue shading is State land.)

http://www.frlt.org/oursuccesses.html

By July, 2004, using both conservation easements and outright purchase, the Feather River Land Trust has protected over 27,000 acres in the Feather River region. About 90% of these 27,000 acres consist of working cattle ranches. The properties we've protected include:

--The 1,030-acre Matley Ranch along Last Chance Creek
--The 1,360-acre Balderston Ranch (formerly known as the Lombardi Ranch) in Sierra Valley --The 575-acre Maddalena Property in Sierra Valley
--The 13,120-acre Bar One Ranch in Sierra Valley—conservation easement
--The 450-acre Ranz Property along Little Truckee River
--The 480-acre Babbit Peak Property south of Sierra Valley
--The 884-acre Heart K Ranch and 80-acre Taylor Lake, in Genesee Valley
--the 1,360-acre Trosi Canyon Ranch in the Sierra Valley—conservation easement
--the 160 acre Don Balderston ranch in Sierra Valley—conservation easement

A River Parkway across the Pacific

-
What Removing Concrete from our Rivers Can Look Like

http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/daylighting-in-the-heart-of-seoul-the-cheong-gye-cheon-project/

pictures of "daylighting" a river running through the middle of Seoul, South Korea. The river was formely covered by a freeway...

San Joaquin River Parkway

-
Drawing a Northerly Limit to the Sprawl of Fresno

http://www.sjrc.ca.gov/ --State Agency buying up land

http://www.riverparkway.org/ --a private group helping out...

Threats to an Orange County River Parkway

-
Will a Pristine Canyon in South Orange County be Modified to Clean up Urban Runoff Pollution from Upstream Developments?

http://www.lagunagreenbelt.org/page15/page15.html

24 small dams proposed in Aliso canyon park in OC

http://www.lagunagreenbelt.org/page1/page4/alisocreek.html

1. The SUPER project doesn't address the volume and water quality of runoff from up-stream cities. It just allows the impact of those excessive and polluted flows to impact the "wilderness" park. The natural flow patterns of the stream are being sacrificed to this out-of-control run-off.
2. The plan involves leaving in place the existing concrete dam that has caused much of the present erosion problem.
3. There is a series of check dams which are described to be only 2' tall, but the foundation for these is designed to go all the way to bedrock. Since this is a deep alluvial valley, that could be 20' down or more. If erosion occurs below and around these dams, the full height of these dams could be exposed. Also with a big flood, the dams could fail and end up on the beach in pieces after destroying vegetation and improvements
along the way.
4. The plan includes constraining the creek between reinforced banks on both sides. This is channelization, but the project proponents don't use these words. So the stream will no longer meander, and horseshoe bend will never be restored.
5. Water quality is only addressed at the mouth of the creek with a UV treatment system. It should be addressed before run-off enters the stream, at the outlets (Aliso Viejo has installed a prototype), and all along the stream by allowing the stream to flow the longest possible distance through wetlands vegetation.