New Strategic Plan Shows Phenomenal Growth
The Coastal Conservancy approved its 2007 strategic plan at a public hearing in Eureka on September 20, charting a course for the next five years. The document describes current and historical resource allocation by the Conservancy, public needs served, policies and principles guiding the Conservancy and its staff, and the intended and recommended future course.

The Coastal Conservancy strategic plan is a “living” document, intended for reference in the course of conducting the daily activities of the Conservancy. It will be subject to an annual formal evaluation and will be updated within five years.

Since it was created by the Legislature in 1976, the Conservancy has experienced phenomenal growth in capital outlay funding for projects. In its first 20 years, the agency spent approximately $200 million on restoration, acquisition, and access projects. During the next five years it spent twice that. Between 2001 and 2006, the agency’s capacity and responsibilities continued to grow as voter-approved Propositions 40 and 50 allocated $380 million directly to the Conservancy, the Legislature allocated an additional $46.4 million from Proposition 40 for watershed management projects, and the California Wildlife Conservation Board granted the Conservancy $40 million for San Francisco Bay Area wetland projects.

It is anticipated that the next five years’ funding will be at levels similar to or greater than the past five years. The passage of Proposition 84 in November 2006 allocated $360 million to the Conservancy. Another $90 million is available to the Conservancy for purposes of ocean protection through the Ocean Protection Trust Fund.

Funds available for expenditure on projects over the next five years total approximately $500 million, including balances from recent bonds and Proposition 84. For purposes of planning and prioritizing expenditures, the Conservancy assumes that $100-150 million of additional funds will become available, derived from legislative appropriations of unallocated sections of Proposition 84, one additional state resource bond, and some newly developed or allocated non-bond sources, such as a Bay Area license plate. The strategic plan assumes that with these additional resources, the Conservancy will have a total of $600 to $650 million to spend--$100 to $130 million per year over the next five years. The plan also assumes that the Conservancy will continue to leverage its funds by at least two to one, on average.

The Conservancy’s recently completed Five-Year Capital Infrastructure Plan (FY08/09-12/13) identified a need for approximately two times the dollar amount assumed to be available to the Conservancy. Like the strategic plan, the infrastructure plan also assumes the Conservancy’s funds will be matched by at least two to one.

The Coastal Conservancy’s 2007 strategic plan is available at www.scc.ca.gov and also in print by contacting the Coastal Conservancy, 1330 Broadway, 13th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612; (510) 286-1015.

More Funding for the Bay Trail
Many more miles of the proposed 500-mile San Francisco Bay Trail network will be completed during the next few years with the help of $3 million approved by the Conservancy in September. Since 1990, 290 miles have been completed, enabling hikers, bicyclists, skaters, and wheelchair riders to visit more than 130 parks and wildlife preserves along or near the shores of San Francisco and San Pablo Bays, as well as city waterfronts, beaches, marinas, piers, and boat launches. The Conservancy has contributed nearly $17 million to the Bay Trail Project since its inception, and each dollar has leveraged four dollars from other sources.

Ocean Hazard Warnings
By May 2008, 1,325 signs in English and in Spanish will be posted on beaches statewide, warning visitors of potentially dangerous steep beaches and rip currents. The nonprofit Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods and a local designer created a steep beach warning sign in English and Spanish versions out of concern for drownings in the Spanish-speaking community in Sonoma County (see Coast & Ocean, Vol. 22, no. 3). The Stewards and California Sea Grant Extension will produce and distribute both steep beach and rip current signs, 600 of which have already been posted in San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles Counties. In September, the Conservancy approved $21,925 to the Stewards to complete the final 725 signs.

Friends of Elephant Seals Get a Boost
In 1992, the first pup was born to a small colony of elephant seals that had recently established itself at Piedras Blancas, seven miles north of San Simeon in San Luis Obispo County. During the 2006-2007 birthing season, 4,100 pups were born to the colony, which has now grown to 15,000 seals. This population boom is part of the remarkable recovery of these giant marine mammals, a species that was hunted to near-extinction in the 1800s--but as the colony expanded in the mid-1990s to beaches strung along busy Highway 1, it also created a dangerous situation for both animals and humans. As the crowds of gawkers grew, people began to get too close to the seals and sometimes harassed them, putting themselves in danger of being attacked. (See Coast & Ocean, Vol. 14, no. 1.)

In 1997, a group of coastal residents formed Friends of the Elephant Seal (www.elephantseal.org) to provide docents to answer questions and help ensure the safety of both visitors and seals. Today, volunteer docents are on duty nearly every day of the year, six hours a day. In September the Conservancy granted $40,000 to this all-volunteer organization to help it to continue its program over the next two years and recruit and train new volunteers. The number of visitors has increased beyond the group’s ability to manage solely on its own resources. The group’s volunteers interact with about 85,000 visitors a year.

SOS Will Try Top-to-Bottom Cleanup in Three Watersheds
To help citizen volunteers reduce the volume of trash flowing to beaches and into the ocean, the Coastal Conservancy approved $100,000 to the nonprofit Save Our Shores (SOS) in September. The funds will go toward launching a stewardship effort that will extend along three watersheds into nearshore waters of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. If this comprehensive effort is successful on the Pajaro River, the San Lorenzo River, and Arana Gulch, it could become a model for other coastal watersheds in the state.

The SOS effort will rely on community participation, encouraging people to change their personal behavior, and working with local governments and businesses toward changing practices that now generate some of the trash flowing downstream.

Work groups of trained volunteers will gather for monthly cleanups at storm drains, along creeks and rivers, along the shore, and in nearshore waters. Scuba divers will gather trash they find in kelp beds and other marine habitats. The volunteers will catalog what they find and try to determine its sources.

The group will identify “hot spots” where trash tends to accumulate, then work with local governments, businesses, and the public to assess why it collects there and how it can be reduced. SOS might, for example, help a carry-out food shop to adopt biodegradable containers, or recommend that a park provide more trash cans. The organization will also assess how local communities collect trash and recycle, review local litter laws and their enforcement, and perhaps suggest changes that might be helpful.

SOS began in 1978 as a grassroots response to the threat of offshore oil drilling, and has been a leader in stewardship activities on Monterey Bay ever since.

New Public Boat Launch for San Francisco
The only public boat launch in the City and County of San Francisco is falling apart. Built in the 1960s at Pier 52 in Mission Bay, the launch is not suitable for modern boats. Its ramp is so steep that it looks like “a skateboarder’s dream,” according to Conservancy project manager Joan Cardellino. Now, with the help of $200,000 from the Conservancy, the Port of San Francisco will build a modern ramp that has two lanes instead of one and can be used by both motorized and non-motorized boats. The new launch will also have a floating dock that is designed specifically for kayakers and is accessible to boaters with physical disabilities. The site will be a key link in the new San Francisco Bay Water Trail (see Coast & Ocean, Vol. 22, no. 2).

Pier 52 is a half-mile south of the Giants’ baseball stadium; to the west is the new Mission Bay commercial and housing development. The Port has been working with the boating community for 10 years to develop a new launch in Mission Bay, but the project was delayed in part by construction of the stadium and Mission Bay and the rerouting of China Basin Street/Terry Francois Boulevard. Because of the delay, the funding allocated for the project by the Port and the State Department of Boating and Waterways was no longer sufficient to pay for its construction. The Conservancy funds will make up the shortfall. The Port will maintain the launch and add public facilities such as a cafe or equipment rental kiosk as funding allows.

Sonoma County Ranch Now Parkland
The largest piece of privately owned land on the Sonoma coast between Bodega Bay and the Russian River has been protected as parkland and will become part of Sonoma Coast State Beach. In September, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District bought the Poff Ranch, 1,236 acres of scenic rolling grasslands and coastal forest, for $5.6 million, with the help of a $750,000 grant from the Conservancy.

The ranch, which has been used for grazing cattle for many years and has been in the Poff family since 1963, is three miles north of Bodega Bay and one mile east of Highway 1. It is bordered on three sides by protected land--the Red Hill addition to Sonoma Coast State Beach to the west, and properties with conservation easements to the north and south--and has great potential for both wildlife and regional trail connections, as well as camping, horseback riding, and other recreational activities. The property includes a small redwood grove, and its ridges and the 1,190-foot Wright Hill provide panoramic views of the ocean and coastal headlands, including Point Reyes. A 1900-era homestead and barn, never electrified or modernized, remain on the land and may be used for cultural and historical programs.

Regional plans for this portion of the Sonoma Coast have identified the Poff Ranch as a priority area for conservation since 1999. When the property was listed for sale in April 2007, the Open Space District consulted with State Parks, Sonoma Land Trust, LandPaths, the Conservancy, and other conservation partners before entering into a purchase agreement with the owners in June. The purchase was finalized September 28.

Storage Ponds to Protect Marin Creek
What good is it to restore fish habitat if there’s no water in the stream?” a Conservancy board member asked project manager Michael Bowen. It’s a highly relevant question on Pine Gulch Creek, the largest tributary to Bolinas Lagoon, where coho salmon reappeared in 2001 after a 30-year absence. In an attempt to make sure property owners with riparian rights to the creek’s water do not drain it during the dry season, the Conservancy is contributing to a unique project that will permit three farms to build offstream water storage ponds, to be filled during the rainy season, in exchange for dedicating their riparian rights during dry season to instream use by fish. The project will give the farms appropriative water rights, which they now do not have. The three participating farms, Fresh Run, Paradise Valley, and Star Route, grow organic vegetables, greens, herbs, and berries.

Five storage ponds are planned for the three farms, with a total storage capacity of 61 acre-feet. In winter, when stream flows are high, the farmers will divert larger amounts of water from the creek to store in the ponds. The stored water will enable them to limit their diversions between April and July 1, and take no creek water between July 1 and December 15 of each year.

In September, the Conservancy approved $275,000 to the Marin Resource Conservation District to prepare the final design and permits for the ponds. The Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed that the farms can continue to draw water from the ponds even if they attract endangered red-legged frogs. The project has the approval of both the Marin County Farm Bureau and Trout Unlimited--organizations that seldom see eye-to-eye.

Among the groups that have supported and helped develop the project are Point Reyes National Seashore, Department of Fish and Game, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and of course the farmers themselves, without whom there would be no project. The State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Water Rights will soon consider the application for the appropriative permit. In 2005, the Conservancy provided $50,000 to help plan and design the ponds, negotiate the transfer of water rights, and conduct an environmental analysis.

Tall Ship Replica Will Sail and Teach History
The historic sailing ship San Salvador, flagship of Juan Cabrillo’s 1542 voyage of exploration from Mexico to California, will sail again--or rather, a historically accurate replica of it will. In its reincarnation, the ship will take California schoolchildren aboard to learn firsthand about the state’s early maritime history. The San Salvador was the first European ship to explore and survey the California coastline. The replica, which will be built by the Maritime Museum Association of San Diego with the help of a $2 million grant from the Conservancy toward the estimated $5 million project cost, will serve as a floating classroom, particularly for fourth- and fifth-graders, who study the early voyages as part of their curriculum, and as a cultural attraction for San Diego’s revitalized port and waterfront. The Association will reimburse $750,000 to the Conservancy, with interest, within two years after the ship’s construction.

The ship will be capable of sailing thousands of miles, but will also be equipped with an auxiliary engine and modern facilities, and will be certified by the U.S. Coast Guard to carry passengers. Blueprints have already been completed, and the association hopes to start construction in spring 2008 and finish in early 2010. When it is completed, the 200-ton vessel will reenact a portion of Cabrillo’s 1542 voyage, stopping at maritime museums and public waterfronts along the California coast before returning to its permanent home at the Maritime Museum on San Diego’s northern waterfront.

The museum offers more than 300 daytime and overnight educational programs annually, with more than 15,000 students participating. It also conducts “tall ship” festivals in which fleets of reconstructed and replica vessels sail to various California ports, where the public can board and explore them. The San Salvador will add to the museum’s collection of 10 historic ships, which is already one of the most important in the nation and includes the 1863-vintage Star of India, the world’s oldest active vessel.

Laguna Coast Wilderness Expanded
The City of Laguna Beach has bought the last two pieces of land needed to complete a protected greenbelt along the south ridgeline above Laguna Canyon Road in Orange County’s Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. With $2,458,000 approved by the Conservancy, the City has purchased the 58.4-acre Chao property ($1.5 million) and the 50.37-acre Stonefield property ($950,000). Conservancy funding included $8,000 for closing costs.

Together, the two acquisitions, completed in July and November, will enhance the public trail network within the park, as well as connections to the broader regional trail network along the coastline from Newport Beach to Dana Point. Hikers and bicyclists on the Canyon Acres Trail, which runs through the center of the Chao property, will have expansive views of the coast and wilderness. This property also contains a complex of large granite caves.

The purchased properties will become part of the South Coast Wilderness, a 20,000-acre string of parks and reserves that includes Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, Crystal Cove State Park, Irvine Ranch Land Reserve, City of Irvine Open Space, and City of Laguna Beach Open Space, as well as the 6,500-acre Laguna Coast Wilderness Park.

Local citizens have been working for 40 years to create a greenbelt of parks in this region, much of which was once the Irvine Ranch. The scenic landscape was a favorite subject of California Impressionists in the early 1900s and has continued to attract plein-air painters.