Michael Fischer Has Resigned

A Scenic Salinas Valley
Farm Will Be Protected

A 192-acre farm in the Salinas Valley, on the edge of the Monterey Dunes, will at last be permanently protected, thanks to funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmland Protection Program. The Coastal Conservancy and the Monterey County Agricultural and Historic Land Conservancy have worked toward this goal for years. The West Armstrong Farm is prime agricultural acreage, currently in artichoke production, on both sides of Highway 1 just north of Marina.
In 1991 the Coastal Conservancy provided $995,000 to the Land Conservancy to acquire a one-third interest in the farm, but $2,030,200 more was needed to purchase the remaining property interests. The Land Conservancy bought a five-year option, hoping to find the money by 1996. The landowner extended the option through June 1998.
In the meantime Congress passed the Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, which includes a program to buy property interests to protect prime farmland from being converted to nonagricultural uses. The Coastal Conservancy seized the opportunity, submitted this project for consideration, and, after a highly competitive process and much support from the Land Conservancy, was awarded $1.5 million. The Land Conservancy has committed to raising the remainder needed, $530,200, either through grants or by obtaining a loan on the property that will be paid off with agricultural lease revenues. The acquisition is expected to be completed by early autumn. The land will be leased to private farmers. Revenues generated from the leases will be used by the Land Conservancy to protect other valuable farmland in the Salinas Valley.

The Gray Whale Ranch Deal

The Gray Whale Ranch, a spectacular 2,305-acre undeveloped property on the coastside slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains, is now state parkland. The Save the Redwoods League, which bought the ranch from the private landowner in December 1996, has transferred it to the State Parks Department. Public expenditures for the purchase are less than 8 percent of the League's total $13.4 million acquisition cost. The Coastal Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Board each contributed $250,000 to help State Parks acquire this unique property for $1,045,000.
Preserving the ranch, which adjoins the University of California, Santa Cruz, has long been a goal of several conservation organizations and natural resource agencies. Gray Whale Ranch slopes upward to the north and west from the northern border of Wilder Ranch State Park. The property will be added to the park, thus creating a 6,000-acre expanse of protected land extending 7.5 miles from the shore to the mountains and including beaches, coastal terrace, meadows, evergreen forests, oak woodlands, creeks, and riparian habitat.

Hermosa Beach Pier Repair

Since it was built in 1965 the Hermosa Beach Pier has been hard hit by violent nature. Its support pilings were damaged by severe winter storms in 1986, and again by the Northridge earthquake in 1994. In addition, normal weathering, marine organisms, and heavy use have left their marks.
Hermosa Beach is a dense beachfront community 17 miles southwest of Los Angeles, sandwiched between Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach on the southern end of Santa Monica Bay. For seven years the City has been trying to find the funds necessary to repair the damage, for this 1,228-foot concrete pier is important both to the local economy and to the community's quality of life. Some three million visitors flock to the pier and adjacent beaches every year, and their presence is a major source of the city's income.
Because the pier is an asset to the entire region, the Coastal Conservancy has worked with the City since 1991, providing technical assistance and support in efforts to rejuvenate the pier and the pier plaza. In June the Conservancy authorized $200,000 to Hermosa Beach, as part of a total $4,390,000 package the City has patched together from several public sources.
Hermosa Beach hosts major national beach events, including national beach volleyball tournaments and the annual Fiesta de Las Artes, a festival that draws over 50,000 people to the pier and the waterfront plaza.

Progress in Bolsa Chica Wetlands

On February 14, the state of California acquired title to 880 acres of Bolsa Chica lowlands, and eight state and federal agencies have begun to shape plans to enhance this Orange County habitat, using $78.75 million in trust funds provided by the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to mitigate damage to deepwater habitat that will be incurred by port expansion projects in San Pedro Harbor. The state and federal agencies held the first community meeting to discuss restoration, design, cleanup of contaminants, and scheduling. Actual restoration is to begin in late 2000.
On a related matter, the Superior Court in San Diego has invalidated Orange County's Local Coastal Program (LCP) for both the wetlands and the adjacent Bolsa Mesa. In a writ of mandate issued June 4, Judge Judith McConnell set aside the Coastal Commission's 1996 certification of the LCP and remanded the matter to the Commission. The court acted in a suit brought by several citizens groups alleging that the Commission's approval of this LCP was inconsistent with the Coastal Act because housing was permitted in wetlands. The ruling may delay housing construction on the mesa, but does not appear to have a direct effect on restoration of the lowlands.

A Footpath for Gualala

A $16,000 grant approved by the Conservancy in June will enable the Redwood Coast Land Conservancy to build a footpath about 500 feet long on the blufftop above the Gualala River mouth in Mendocino County. Labor and some materials are being donated. The public path will run between Highway 1 and the bluff's edge. Interpretive signs about the river and ocean will be installed.

San Dieguito Lagoon to Benefit
from Utility Mitigation Dollars

The Southern California Edison Company has agreed to restore 150 acres of wetlands at San Dieguito, create 177 acres of reef in the vicinity of the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station, fund a fish hatchery, and pay for technical oversight and monitoring of these projects. The company announced May 9 that it would take these steps, which are required by the Coastal Commission as conditions of its operating permit for the San Onofre power plant. The company had sought to reduce these requirements, but on April 9 the Coastal Commission declined to do so, by a 12-0 vote, making only a few changes in keeping with new scientific information about the impacts of the station's cooling-water discharges on kelp beds.
The Coastal Commission gave the utility the option of achieving compliance by depositing $117 million into a trust fund, to be used by others to accomplish the required mitigation of damages to marine ecosystems. The company, however, has elected to do the work directly.