Although the Conservancy approved 20 projects in December 2008, 15 of them were put on hold when Governor Schwarzenegger froze bond fund expenditures as of December 18, pending resolution of the State’s budget deficit. One acquisition was successfully completed before the funding freeze: the purchase of Sonoma Mountain Ranch. Funding for other approved projects cannot be spent until the freeze is lifted. These include continuing restoration work on Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands National Park; watershed restoration and fish passage projects on the Central and North Coasts; further work on the San Francisco Bay Trail; and planning for wetlands restoration on the South Coast.

Two acquisitions approved in September--Chaparral Spring and Moore Creek (see last issue)--were completed just before the bond freeze went into effect.

Long-Sought Purchase: Sonoma Mountain Ranch
The Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District completed the purchase of the 283-acre Sonoma Mountain Ranch just before the unanticipated bond freeze, to the great relief of many who had worked for the protection of this invaluable property for decades. The check for the purchase was issued by the State Controller on December 16, the last day bond funds were available.

The ranch is at the summit of Sonoma Mountain, which rises to 2,463 feet and is one of the most prominent landscape features in the North Bay. It offers views of San Francisco Bay, the Pacific Ocean, the Coast Range, and the Sierra Nevada. The property adjoins Jack London State Historic Park to the east, and is almost completely surrounded by other protected lands.

The purchase assures that contiguous habitats and public access on more than 5,500 acres will be protected in perpetuity. The Conservancy’s grant of $1.5 million in Proposition 84 funds was added to District funds to meet the $9.95-million purchase price. The sale was under time pressure from potential private buyers, so it was expedited, and thereby saved before the bond freeze.

As development approaches the mountain from most directions, it has become an island of refuge for wildlife, with oak woodlands, grassland savannah, streams, redwood forests, and even wetland habitats in the form of ponds and streams. These habitats support a rich diversity of flora and fauna, including nine species of oaks and more than 80 species of birds.

In the Miwok people’s creation story, Coyote-man perched on top of Oon’-nah-pi (Sonoma Mountain) while he made the plants and animals of the region, before creating the people. Surveys have located at least one Miwok archaeological site on the property.

Much of the ranch has been used for grazing, which degraded water quality and allowed non-native plants to spread. This acquisition will help the District to work on these problems, as well as that of Sudden Oak Death, which threatens the property. The acquisition will also make it possible to extend and complete connections in the local trail network, including a trail to the summit.

Wildlife and Trail Corridor in Livermore Valley May Yet Be Saved
The purchase of the 74-acre Bobba property in South Livermore Valley, just outside the city limits of Livermore in Alameda County, has been delayed because the request for payment reached the State Controller’s office ten hours after the bond freeze deadline. The Tri-Valley Conservancy would have met the $1.5-million purchase price by combining $600,000 of Proposition 84 funds approved by the Coastal Conservancy with contributions from the Livermore Area Regional Park District, the East Bay Regional Parks District, and its own funds. Instead the grantee has been forced into an option agreement to make the purchase by the end of 2009, in hope that Coastal Conservancy funds can be restored.

This acquisition will provide linkage to public access trails in parks that surround the property: Del Valle State Park, Sycamore Grove Regional Park, Camp Arroyo, and Veteran’s Park. The trails include the Ohlone Wilderness Trail, Heron Bay Trail, Sycamore Grove Trail, and the Shadow Cliffs to Del Valle Regional Trail. It is expected that trails will eventually connect the Ohlone Wilderness to the Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area in South Pleasanton, connecting with the Bay Area Ridge Trail.

This land has been used for grazing and will remain available for agricultural use until 2018. The upper portion of the property is open grassland--mostly non-native annual grasses--and some eucalyptus. Steep slopes may be restorable, for remnants of native grasses have survived. The property’s low-lying acreage includes grasslands, oak woodlands, and a riparian area along a seasonal creek fringed by oaks, buckeyes, and willows that provide habitat for raptors. No biological surveys have been done on the property, but it is likely habitat for two protected amphibians, California tiger salamanders and California red-legged frogs. Deer, bobcats, foxes, and coyotes have often been seen using the property as a wildlife corridor.

Lake Merritt Improvements on Hold
Lake Merritt in downtown Oakland was once a marshy tidal slough where four creeks drained into San Francisco Bay. In 1869, Oakland Mayor Samuel Merritt personally funded the building of a dam at 12th Street, which turned the slough into a 150-acre lake (around which he owned considerable land). A year later he persuaded the State Legislature to declare the lake a game refuge--the first wildlife refuge in the nation. The dam impeded tidal flow, a problem later aggravated by the construction of culverts, a pump station, and more dams.

Now the lake and surrounding parkland are to Oakland what Central Park is to New York. They are valued and enjoyed by the city’s residents, home to many birds and mammals, and the lake is an important stopover for migratory birds traveling the Pacific Flyway. Heavy use and stormwater runoff have long degraded the water quality of the lake, however, so a number of groups and agencies have made efforts to solve these problems.

In 2002, Oakland voters passed Measure DD to provide bond funding for habitat and access improvements at the lake and elsewhere in the city. In 2006, the Conservancy contributed $1 million toward restoring bird habitat on the lake’s five islands. In December 2008, the Conservancy approved $9 million of Proposition 50 funds from the Wildlife Conservation Board to the City of Oakland for an $83,187,900 project to widen the channel between the lake and estuary, create a demonstration tidal marsh and upland habitat along the channel, improve tidal flows, and do work to improve water quality, but these funds have been frozen since December 18, 2008. The City hoped that an expected federal grant would allow the project to proceed on schedule by using those funds first, but that grant will likely not come until the end of the year, so the project start will have to be postponed.

Wet Cushion to Ward off Sea-Level Rise
All permits are in place and construction work has begun on the 15,100-acre South Bay Salt Ponds Restoration Project, the largest tidal marsh restoration project on the West Coast, and a major component of a 40,000-acre wetland recovery effort on San Francisco Bay. Restoration of these industrial salt ponds to marshland will not only expand wildlife habitat and provide wildlife-oriented recreation opportunities, it will also serve to protect shoreline roads, highways, and other nearby structures against the expected sea-level rise. Look for a progress report in our Winter 2009 issue. Also see www.scc.ca.gov.