COASTAL CONSERVANCY ACTIONS
In October and November, the Conservancy approved projects that will extend hiking trails and wildlife corridors, add strategically important land to parklands, help sustainable grazing to continue, provide new campsites and affordable overnight rentals in coastal parks, begin construction on the largest wetland protection project ever undertaken in California, and accomplish other conservation and public access goals. The projects approved include the following, mostly funded with the help of Proposition 40 and other voter-approved bonds.

Jazzing up Crystal Cove
The ongoing restoration of the Crystal Cove Historic District at Crystal Cove State Park in Orange County has been a big hit with visitors. The 13 restored cottages there that are available for affordable overnight lodging are occupied more than 95 percent of the time.

Together, State Parks and the Crystal Cove Alliance have restored 22 historic structures in the district since work began in 2003. The restoration will continue with the help of $1 million in Proposition 40 funds from the Conservancy for a $6-million project that will include rehabilitation of three cottages as an “educational commons” and new whole-access pathways throughout the commons area; restoration of two more overnight rental cottages; conversion of one cottage into a museum and lifeguard station; restoration of the bank of Los Trancos Creek; and conversion of several garages into park facilities and another garage into a public restroom (there is now only one public restroom in the historic district).

These upgrades are expected to greatly increase the number of visitors, and to double the 4,000 students who come there annually to study California geology, biology, and environmental and earth sciences through the Crystal Cove Alliance's education programs.

More South Coast Wilderness
Citizens have worked for many years to create the South Coast Wilderness, a greenbelt along the Laguna Beach coast, much of which was once part of the Irvine Ranch. So far, the Wilderness comprises 20,000 acres. Soon 4.5 more acres will be added, with the purchase of the 4.5-acre Bunn property, next to Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, about a mile inland from the beach in the Laguna Canyon Creek watershed. The City of Laguna Beach will use $679,000 in Proposition 12 funds granted by the Conservacy for the purchase, which will protect coastal sage scrub habitat against development, expand public access, and connect trails to the regional network. This will be the ninth property purchased since 2003 with Conservancy funds for addition to the South Coast Wilderness.

Palos Verdes Purchase
The Palos Verdes Nature Preserve in Los Angeles County will expand with the acquisition of the 190-acre Upper Filiorum property and the 28-acre Plumtree property by the City of Rancho Palos Verdes. This will link the Three Sisters Reserve on the west with the Portuguese Bend Reserve to the east, and will provide long-term protection of coastal sage scrub habitat that supports the California gnatcatcher, cactus wren, Palos Verdes blue butterfly, and other special status species. It will also provide trail connections and habitat linkages to other parts of the Preserve. The Conservancy approved $5.5 million of Proposition 84 funds to the City, which will own the land, with a conservation easement over both properties held by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy (PVPLC), which will manage these and other parts of the Preserve. Management is also being coordinated with the California Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the state's Natural Communities Conservation Planning process. The City, the PVPLC, and the Wildlife Conservation Board will also contribute funds to the purchase. The City and the PVPLC are working on a plan for better public access, trails, parking, and fire and brush management for when these properties are added to the reserve.

Montaña de Oro State Park to Expand
Montaña de Oro State Park will expand from 8,000 to 13,500 acres with the addition of 2,400-acre Wild Cherry Canyon and other protected lands near Avila Beach, in San Luis Obispo County. The American Land Conservancy (ALC) will buy the 160-year leasehold on Wild Cherry Canyon from the San Luis Bay and Pacho Limited Partnerships in early 2009, and immediately transfer these rights to State Parks for public recreation and resource protection. Then, by no later than 2025, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which operates the nearby Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, will transfer the underlying fee title, while retaining some access rights.

The Coastal Conservancy approved $5 million of Proposition 84 funds toward the $24-million purchase price in November. Also contributing are State Parks, the Wildlife Conservation Board, California Transportation Commission, Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Luis Obispo Council of Governments, Hind Foundation, and other private donors.

Wild Cherry Canyon lies within the southeastern portion of the area known
as the Irish Hills, a largely undeveloped, 60,000-acre rugged and mountainous coastal landscape southwest of San Luis Obispo. With rolling hills of maritime chaparral, grasslands, and dense coast live oak woodlands, the property provides habitat for several threatened and endangered species, including the California red-legged frog, western pond turtle, and pallid bat. The land was considered likely to be developed due to its proximity to roads and services and its ocean views.

Eventually, environmental campsites may be established in Wild Cherry Canyon, and a 20-mile stretch of the California Coastal Trail is to be built between the communities of Los Osos and Avila Beach. New trail links are also being considered between the park and both the Port San Luis Lighthouse and the Bob Jones City-to-the-Sea Trail.

Freshwater Wetlands Protected at Watsonville Slough
The Watsonville Slough complex in southern Santa Cruz County is the largest area of freshwater wetlands on the Central Coast. The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County will soon acquire four properties totaling 486 acres in this area, so as to protect and enhance these wetlands, improve floodplain function and public access, and preserve agricultural lands.

The purchase price is about $15 million. The Conservancy is contributing $6.5 million in Proposition 84 funds, the Wildlife Conservation Board has approved $5.5 million, and the Nature Conservancy will contribute $1.5 million. In partnership with the Conservancy and WCB, the Land Trust has applied for $1.6 million in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Coastal Wetland Grants and also expects to raise local funds to contribute to the project.

The Watsonville Slough complex comprises riparian habitats, upland grasslands, and freshwater wetlands. It provides critical habitat for California brown pelicans, tri-colored blackbirds, long-billed curlews, white-faced ibises, and other coastal and migratory birds, as well for the federally listed tidewater goby, south-central California coast steelhead, California red-legged frog, and other aquatic and riparian species.

The Land Trust's acquisitions will link two isolated Department of Fish and Game Ecological Reserve units and various other parcels so that a total of 850 acres of contiguous lands are protected in the Slough complex. The Land Trust will hold title to the newly acquired lands and manage them. It expects to help preserve farming operations on the property, while reducing soil erosion and sedimentation that is affecting the Slough's drainage capacity and water quality. Rowcrop farming will continue in upland areas, with revenues from rents applied to restoration, management, and further acquisitions.

Work to Begin on South Bay Salt Ponds
With a total of about $15 million now secured for construction on the first phase of the 15,100-acre South Bay Salt Ponds Restoration Project--the largest wetland recovery project ever attempted in California--on-the-ground work can soon begin. In November, the Conservancy authorized $4.25 million from Propositions 50 and 84 funds for the project's first phase, with a number of other agencies contributing to the total. The Conservancy also authorized $300,000 for the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Study, which will identify specific flood control, habitat restoration, and public access improvement projects in the South Bay, including areas surrounding the salt ponds. These funds allow habitat restoration and public access construction to begin.

The former Cargill salt ponds will be reconfigured into a complex of managed ponds and tidal wetlands to create conditions more closely resembling the historic landscape of San Francisco Bay. Public access will be improved, with trails, viewing platforms, cultural and environmental resource interpretive stations, waterfowl hunting, non-motorized boat launches, and parking areas.

Phase I will include five public access projects (interpretive platforms and overlooks) and six wetland construction projects. Restored wetlands are expected to provide not only improved habitats for a variety of wildlife, but more resilience to tidal flooding as sea level continues to rise.

Chaparral Spring to Enhance Mount Diablo Protection
Protecting the unique habitats of Mount Diablo and the surrounding wildlands has long been a focus of the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD), especially where it is possible to preserve wildlife corridors through large areas. The 333-acre Chaparral Spring property lies between EBRPD's 1,030-acre Clayton Ranch to the east and Mount Diablo State Park to the south. With its diverse habitats and shared borders with other parkland, it was a prime target for addition to the wildlife, open space, and recreational corridor between the State Park and the EBRPD-owned Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve.

The Conservancy's approval of $1.4 million in Proposition 84 funds to the EBRPD will enable the district to purchase the property from the nonprofit Save Mount Diablo (SMD), which bought Chaparral Spring in 1994, using private funds, with the intent of transferring it to a public agency for management. Chaparral Spring will be combined with the Clayton Ranch to form a new regional preserve focused on wildlife corridors and trail networks. SMD also secured an agricultural easement that allows limited grazing over 150 acres, which EBRPD likely will continue to lease to a local rancher.

Chaparral Spring includes the saddle between Mount Diablo and Black Diamond Mines, the divide between the Marsh Creek and Mount Diablo Creek watersheds, with many canyons and dramatic views from the higher elevations. The property has grassland, oak savannah, blue oak woodland, chaparral, broadleaf evergreen forest, deciduous forest, ponds, and riparian corridor habitats. Wildlife there includes 17 special status species--California tiger salamanders, Alameda whipsnakes, Cooper's hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, and golden eagles among them--as well as rare plant species, including two endemics, the Mount Diablo sunflower and the Mount Diablo globe lily.

New Napa Park
A new regional park will be created in central Napa County, east of St. Helena, with trails, campsites and cabins or yurts, a swimming pool, and many miles of multiuse trails. To make this park possible, the Conservancy approved $1.65 million in Proposition 84 funds toward the purchase of the 673-acre Moore Creek property, adjacent to the City of Napa's Lake Hennessey watershed property. The Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District and Napa County will provide the remainder of the $3.38 million needed to acquire the property and to plan and implement public access improvements.

This land is centrally located and well-suited for recreational uses. More than two miles of Moore Creek (a major tributary of Lake Hennessey, primary water supply for the City of Napa) runs through and along the border of the property, and the acquisition will open up public access to the north side of the Lake. It will also leave only a 4,000-foot gap in public and land trust-owned properties in the 25 miles between Lake Hennessey and Mount St. Helena, and will enable the creation of almost a fourth of the long-planned Napa Crest Trail, which would eventually encircle Napa Valley.

The Moore Creek property also has notable biodiversity, with a mix of oak woodland, coniferous forest, chaparral, grassland, and riparian habitats, and the benefits from being adjacent to large areas that are protected by conservation easements.

About 200 acres of grassland will continue to be grazed, but cattle will be kept away from the creek and prevented from overgrazing, to keep the land from being degraded.

Access for Fish and People
The Camp Meeker Dam on Dutch Bill Creek in western Sonoma County was built in the 1950s to create a seasonal swimming hole and beach area, but now the dam is identified as one of the worst barriers to fish passage in the Russian River watershed. Another is a culvert at Market Street in nearby Occidental.

With funding approved by the Conservancy, the Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District and the Camp Meeker Recreation and Park District will remove the dam and reconfigure the culvert to restore free passage for salmon and steelhead. In place of the dam, a prefabricated 80-foot steel pedestrian bridge will be installed, improving public access across the creek. As part of this project, stream banks will be stabilized and revegetated, and a more natural meander and grade change will be created. These improvements will help return the natural transport of gravel from upstream and provide better fish habitat.

The Conservancy's contribution of $494,500 in Proposition 50 funds to the Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District will be matched by money from Sonoma County and several state and federal agencies. The project will restore fish passage to 3.4 miles of Dutch Bill Creek, one of only five remaining streams in the Russian River system where wild juvenile coho salmon are known to be present in each year of the species' three-year reproductive cycle.

Humboldt County Trails
The City of Arcata is about to begin planning, engineering, and other preliminary work for 3.8 miles of California Coastal Trail that will run from the north end of Arcata through the city and a mile south, to Bracut Marsh. Much of the trail will be built within the right-of-way of the North Coast Rail Authority. The City will work closely with the Authority, and with the nonprofit Redwood Community Action Agency (RCAA), which works to coordinate trail-building efforts in Humboldt County. The City expects to begin construction in 2010, as soon as the final design and environmental review are completed. The Conservancy has been involved with trail building around Humboldt Bay for 30 years, and has approved $1.065 million in Proposition 40 funds for this Coastal Trail project.

The Conservancy also granted $900,000 in Proposition 40 funds to RCAA toward the completion of Phase I of the Humboldt County Coastal Trail Implementation Program, which aims to complete the California Coastal Trail along the entire Humboldt County Coast.