Conservancy Responds to Climate Change
Global climate change will likely have profound effects on almost every aspect of the Conservancy’s work, from habitat preservation and stream restoration to coastal access. That is why, in addition to taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint, the Conservancy has now begun to collaborate with agencies and researchers to learn more about the impacts of climate change and what can be done to build adaptation and mitigation into all of its projects.

To reduce its own contributions to greenhouses gases, the agency is offering alternative work schedules and telecommuting opportunities. To cut down on travel, more phone conferences are being held and the option of teleconferences is being developed. The agency will lease a low-emission vehicle for local travel. Staff is encouraged to rent low-emission vehicles when traveling and to use public transit, carpools, or bicycles to commute. An effort is being made to cut down on paper use and to be diligent about turning off lights and equipment at the workday’s end. The Conservancy has joined the California Climate Registry and will be calculating its own carbon footprint this year, to provide a baseline for measuring progress.

The Conservancy is working with other state and federal agencies to collect, assess, and make available the most up-to-date scientific information about climate change and its effects on shoreline processes and ecosystems. Projections for sea level rise are being built into all trail, park, and wetland restoration projects. Decisions about which pieces of land to help preserve will take into account the need for corridors that will allow animals and plants to migrate as temperatures rise, and restoration project managers will have to consider how a changing climate may also change the types of habitat within their geographic area. Predicted changes in rainfall and stream flows will be considered in stream restoration projects to benefit anadromous fish. The Conservancy is also discussing what types of changes, if any, it might require from partner organizations and grant recipients.

“I suspect that the changing climate will dominate our thinking and our work for the rest of our professional lives,” said the Conservancy’s executive officer, Sam Schuchat. “Although this is a small agency, we play a large role in coastal California, where about 80 percent of Californians live.”

The Conservancy is also collaborating with the California Ocean Protection Council and others to help fund some climate-related research, including one study that will assess how high the sea level will rise along different sections of the state’s coastline, and how and where the shoreline will be affected by storm surges and erosion rates. Another research project will refine a hydrodynamic and sediment transport model of San Francisco Bay and use it to help scientists understand how climate change is affecting these processes.

Tolay Creek Ranch Acquired
The Sonoma Land Trust acquired 1,657 acres of the Roche family ranch in the Tolay Creek watershed on December 21, 2007, thereby opening the way to restoration of the creek’s entire main stem and allowing wildlife to move within a much-expanded range of protected areas. The Tolay Creek watershed connects upland seasonal and freshwater wetlands to the tidal lowlands of San Francisco Bay.

The property will be added to Tolay Lake Regional Park, nearly doubling the park’s 1,737 acres and linking it to 40,000 acres of protected land along the Sonoma, Napa, and Marin baylands, including the Sears Point, Sonoma Baylands, and Petaluma Marsh restoration projects, and the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. A seven-mile trail is planned from the park to the San Francisco Bay Trail at Sears Point, on San Pablo Bay.

The ranch’s oak woodlands, grasslands, and meadows support a number of state and federally listed threatened and endangered species, including burrowing owls, northwestern pond turtles, golden eagles, and California horned larks. Before turning the land over to the County of Sonoma Regional Parks Department, Sonoma Land Trust will conduct a baseline survey, develop an interim plan to allow continued cattle grazing to control invasive plants, put in fences to keep the cattle out of the creek, and plant native plants. During this period, Regional Parks will lead guided hikes onto the property.

The Conservancy provided $3 million toward the $13 million purchase price, $1 million less than the property’s appraised value. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Board, Sonoma County Agricultural and Open Space District, and the Land Trust also provided funding. The family retained 400 acres of the ranch as part of its Roche Carneros Estate Winery, which is on the other side of Highway 121.

Conserving Tomales Bay and the West Marin Landscape
Almost from its inception three decades ago, the Coastal Conservancy has been working in the Tomales Bay watershed, collaborating with dairy ranchers and others on projects to benefit natural communities as well as local agriculture. In fall 2007, the Conservancy approved three grants totaling $3,000,000 toward those ends.

The Point Reyes National Seashore Association will use $1.5 million approved in September 2007 to help restore over 500 acres of tidal marsh, riparian habitat, and native grasslands on the 550-acre Giacomini Ranch, a former dairy farm purchased by the National Park Service in 2000 and now part of the Seashore. The estimated cost of the project is $5.5 million. The Point Reyes National Seashore Association has raised $4 million from other public and private sources.

The Seashore Association will remove levees built in the 1940s and restore the expansive wetlands that existed here at the mouth of Lagunitas Creek before they were drained for use as pasture. Tidal channels will be expanded and new ones created. Riprap will be removed along the banks of Lagunitas Creek and its tributaries, and replaced with riparian vegetation.

If things go according to plan, the restored wetlands will teem with life, from juvenile coho and chinook salmon to tidewater gobies and California black rails. In addition to providing valuable habitat, the wetlands will improve water quality in Tomales Bay, which has deteriorated over the last century because of excessive fine sediment, nutrients, and pathogens from stormwater runoff, failed septic systems, livestock, and recreational boaters. Two-thirds of the bay’s freshwater inflow passes through the mouth of Lagunitas Creek, where the wetlands will filter out sediment, excess nutrients, and pathogens. The marsh restoration will also provide flood control for homes along the creek by removing levees and other manmade obstructions and increasing the amount of floodplain available for floodwaters.

Two additional Conservancy grants helped the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) to purchase conservation easements over 993 acres of rangelands that also drain to Tomales Bay. One grant, $750,000 approved in September, filled the funding gap needed to secure a conservation easement on 750 acres of the Poncia Ranch and helped the Land Trust raise $1,250,000 in federal and private funds for the purchase. Eugene Poncia, a fourth-generation Marin County rancher who has lived on the ranch his whole life, used the income from selling the easement to buy out his cousins, who owned 50 percent of the ranch, enabling him to continue farming the land. Without the easement, Poncia would have had to sell the ranch on the open market to fulfill an agreement with his cousins.

The second $750,000 grant to MALT, approved in November and supplemented by $250,000 of private funds, purchased a conservation easement on 243 acres of the 505-acre Tomales Farm and Dairy, enabling its owners to pay for improvements to the land and infrastructure needed to begin organic dairy operations, grow specialty crops on small tracts, and make artisan cheese to sell directly to the public. This type of innovative, specialized agriculture is increasingly necessary for small farmers to survive in areas like Marin County that are highly valued for development. In 2006, the Conservancy helped fund purchase of an easement on 178 acres of the eastern portion of this farm, which allowed the owners to begin an organic cattle grazing business and build fences to keep the cattle out of Keyes Creek, to protect the creek banks and allow willows and other native plants to grow back.

Both the Poncia and Tomales Dairy conservation easements include requirements to protect streams from the effects of inappropriate grazing. Keeping the creeks healthy as they flow through these rangelands enhances habitat for coho salmon, California red-legged frog, and other wildlife, and protects Tomales Bay from the sediments, nutrients, and pathogens that degrade habitat and sometimes shut down the bay’s oyster-growing operations.

Land’s End Trailhead Makeover
The Land’s End/Sutro Historic District, in San Francisco’s northwest corner, is one of the most popular places within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, drawing over 1.4 million people a year. The Land’s End segment of the Coastal Trail offers walkers a taste of wilderness within the city, as well as spectacular views across the Golden Gate. It runs for roughly 1.5 miles from the Merrie Way parking area northeast to Eagle’s Point Overlook near the Sea Cliff neighborhood.

Despite its popularity, Land’s End had been neglected for years, until 2006, when the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy began to improve trails, thin trees to open views, and replace invasive plants with natives. Now further improvements are under way. With the help of $850,000 approved by the Conservancy in December 2007, the parking lot at Merrie Way, just above Cliff House and the Sutro Baths, is getting a facelift, and a Coastal Trail “grand trailhead” is being built.

An overlook with seat walls and benches will be built along the entire 415-foot length of the parking lot, a wheelchair-accessible pathway will be constructed, and new interpretive signs will be erected. The existing Land’s End trailhead will be expanded and landscaped to provide a place for groups to gather and listen to presentations. The parking lot will be terraced, with native plants between the terraces, and wheelchair-accessible parking spaces will be next to the overlook. There will be a drop-off area and a separate area for tour buses.

Bay Area Environmental Education Grants
In December 2007, the Conservancy approved $1,774,681 to 20 San Francisco Bay Area nonprofit organizations and government agencies for 21 projects that combine habitat restoration and trail work with environmental education. Students and other volunteers involved in these projects will get hands-on experience in making positive changes to their local environment. The projects range from helping to restore tidal wetlands, stream corridors, and oak woodlands to building or enhancing key regional and local connector trails, and will directly serve more than 22,000 people throughout the nine Bay Area counties. All the recipients reach out to underserved communities, and all are providing some matching funds.

The awards include:
• To Save San Francisco Bay Association, $125,000 for planting projects at five tidal marshes around the Bay, for the benefit of fish, shorebirds, and other wildlife;
• To Berryessa Trails and Conservation, $80,000 to remove invasive species, plant native plants, and clear and build trails within the Lake Berryessa Recreation Area;
• To the Bay Institute, $120,000 to restore streams and estuaries in the San Pablo Baylands, Laguna de Santa Rosa, Tomales Bay, and Napa River watersheds;
• To the Solano County Resource Conservation District, $148,680 to plant native plants, install irrigation, reduce erosion, and implement stream biomonitoring to benefit the Suisun Marsh Wetland and the Bay Delta Estuary, and to improve a section of the Bay Area Ridge Trail;
• To the East Bay Municipal Utility District, $50,000 to restore oak savannah in the flats surrounding creek restoration sites throughout the utility’s watershed lands;
• To the Golden Gate Audubon Society, $90,000 to remove trash and invasive species and plant native plants within the San Leandro Bay watershed;
• To the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, $120,000 to build trails in San Francisco’s Presidio and to remove invasive species, plant native plants, and control erosion along Marin’s Redwood Creek. Another $120,000 goes to the Marin Conservation Corps for restoration in and along Redwood Creek at the former Banducci farm site (see p. 16) to help endangered coho salmon;
• To the California State Parks Foundation, $60,000 to restore wetlands along San Francisco’s Yosemite Slough and plant native plants throughout Candlestick Point State Recreation Area;
• To Literacy for Environmental Justice, $90,000 to restore wetlands at Heron’s Head Park in San Francisco;
• To the San Mateo County Department of Parks, $38,122 to rehabilitate two seriously neglected trails on San Bruno Mountain; and
• To the California Department of Parks and Recreation, $50,000 to remove invasives and plant native plants, as well as clean up the river and beach, at
Half Moon Bay State Beach and Pigeon Point Light Station.

Santa Cruz Harbor Trail Repairs
A popular but sometimes steep and poorly paved trail in the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor will be broadened, regraded, and repaved to accommodate wheelchair riders, with the help of $250,000 approved by the Conservancy in November 2007. The Santa Cruz Port District will use the funds, along with $675,000 in private donations and $21,000 of its own money, to replace the existing West Jetty Pathway and add landscaping, harbor overlooks, benches, interpretive signs, and other amenities.

The Pathway runs along the harbor’s navigation channel from a restaurant at the foot of Atlantic Avenue to Walton Lighthouse at the jetty’s south end. Visited by 150,000 people each year, it is a spur of the two-mile Harbor Trail, which in turn is a segment of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail. When completed, the Scenic Trail will travel along the edge of Monterey Bay from Santa Cruz to Pt. Pinos Lighthouse in Pacific Grove, and will serve as the California Coastal Trail through this area.

Huntington Beach Wetlands Gain
Orange County’s Huntington Beach Wetlands are a remnant of the coastal wetland system created by the meandering of the Santa Ana River, which extended over 2,950 acres before most of it was drained and filled for agricultural and urban development. Much of the approximately 300 acres that remain were cut off from tidal action by construction of the Pacific Coast Highway, channelization of the river, and construction of flood control channels. Over the past 20 years, the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy has acquired approximately 120 acres of degraded tidal marsh, restored 27 acres of one of the marshes in the complex, and constructed a wetlands education and wildlife care center. It continues to restore and enhance the wetlands, as well as acquire new acres as they become available.

With the help of $865,000 approved by the Conservancy in November 2007, 16.6 acres of tidal marsh will be restored and added to the complex, which will total 191 acres when the project is complete. The Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy will use the grant to buy the 16.6 acres, which are currently owned by the University of California, Riverside. This acquisition will allow the property to be included in the restoration work scheduled to begin in 2008. Eventually trails will connect the wetlands to the regional trail network and to nearby parks and schools.

River Parkway Progress
For 50 years, citizens groups and community leaders in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties have dreamed of completing the Santa Ana River Trail and Parkway, running 100 miles from the crest of the San Bernardino Mountains to the coast near Huntington Beach. About half of the parkway has been completed or is under construction, and now, with the help of a $2,750,000 grant approved by the Conservancy in December 2007, planning and design can go forward on 29 more miles in the three counties. When these projects are completed, only 11.5 more miles will be needed to finish the parkway.

More than 7 million people live in the region through which the trail passes, one of the fastest-growing in California. When and if it is completed, the parkway will be one of the longest urban recreation and river parkways in the nation. It will connect 17 cities, traveling from the coast up through urban areas of Orange County and the Inland Empire to National Forest wilderness areas. The trail is designed to be used by bicyclists and horseback riders as well as hikers, and will connect inland communities to the California Coastal Trail. Within communities, it will link playgrounds, schools, commercial centers, residential neighborhoods, and natural areas.

Progress on the parkway proceeded in fits and starts from the 1950s until 1990, when the three counties, along with 11 cities and various agencies, came together to adopt a regional approach to planning the trail. In 2005 the parties adopted a Parkway Partnership Action Plan to help coordinate planning and secure funding for trail projects. The Partnership’s work plan lays out a strategy for completing the backbone of the trail by 2012.

Orange County has already completed 24 miles of trail and has to build only 4.5 more miles to finish its stretch of the parkway, but the projects needed to complete them--including one road undercrossing and two bridges across the Santa Ana River--are complicated and potentially costly. The County will use the Conservancy funds to refine trail alignments, develop conceptual plans, identify areas where right-of-way agreements will be needed, and prepare an engineer’s report for the projects required to finish three of the 4.5 miles. Riverside County has completed 12 miles of the parkway and will use the Conservancy funds to plan alignments, analyze environmental impacts, and complete detailed engineering and permit applications for its remaining 22 miles. San Bernardino County will use the Conservancy funds to design approximately four miles of trail in its remaining 14-mile gap. These four miles will connect to the county’s existing seven miles of paved parkway. Eighteen miles of dirt National Forest trail also lie within the county’s boundaries.