Restoring Farmland to Nature

PRIME-SOIL AGRICULTURAL LAND IS AN IMPORTANT coastal resource and strongly protected by the California Coastal Act. Therefore, a restoration project that involves the conversion of farmland back to natural floodplain must be carefully evaluated to establish whether the need to reduce or eliminate catastrophic flood damage and/or to expand fish and wildlife habitat warrants this conversion. The Coastal Conservancy will sponsor this type of project only when resource agencies and local jurisdictions agree that the benefits outweigh the loss. In all cases, the first essential step is to purchase the property to be restored from willing landowners, at fair market value.

At the Carmel River, the Department of State Parks had purchased the land west of Highway 1 in 1974 with the intention of restoring it eventually to a natural condition. In the interim, the Department leased the land back to the previous owner, John Odello, so that he could continue to grow crops on it. This year, however, he decided that he may want to stop farming the land sooner than he had planned. Recent wet winters and the flood-prone nature of the land have influenced his decision. 

- CA