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RESTORATION LESSONS
Huey Johnson’s essay on owls and good intentions ("Why Are We Losing the Burrowing Owl?") aptly describes two of the perennial conundrums created by restoration projects. First, what are we restoring to? Second, what are the consequences, intended and otherwise, of our good intentions? These are not idle or academic questions. Right now the Coastal Conservancy, our partners at the California Department of Fish and Game, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA Fisheries, and others are engaged in a gargantuan effort all over California to restore damaged or destroyed natural areas. These include nearly 40,000 acres of wetland restoration in the San Francisco Bay, nearly 10,000 acres in Southern California, the removal or control of invasive species (Arundo donax, Caulerpa taxifolia, and Spartina, to name a few), and the restoration of scores of rivers and creeks up and down the coast, critical habitat for anadromous fishes. You can’t be engaged in restoration work very long without starting to wonder what exactly we are restoring to, and for whom. If ducks are living happily in a man-made salt pond, to what extent should we convert their habitat to a tidal environment more suited for salt marsh–dependent clapper rails? Having restored the habitat for clapper rails, to what extent can we safely allow human recreational access? How do we know what is safe, anyway? It is easy to imagine restoration as simply “turning back the clock” to a particular era in time, usually pre-European settlement. But how far back do we go? California is filled with non-native plants and animals—some deliberately imported for economic or aesthetic reasons, others accidentally released. Eucalyptus trees, wild turkeys, bass, most trout in our Sierra Lakes, and pampas grass are not natives. They and others have flourished in California for a century or more, and they all have fans who will rise up in anger when anyone suggests that “restoration” might involve removal. Then there is the law of unintended consequences, nicely illustrated in Huey Johnson’s essay. Ecology is a relatively young discipline, restoration ecology even more so, and the simple fact is that our knowledge of nature is vastly exceeded by our ignorance. To compensate, we have invented “adaptive management,” a fancy name for carefully observing the progress of our restoration efforts and changing course when necessary. My column this month has more questions than answers, but before the reader despairs, I should describe some of the tools we use in addition to adaptive management to plan and carry out restoration projects successfully. To strike a balance between human needs and natural imperatives we consult with stakeholders to hash out plans that balance competing interests. There are often as many or more conflicts among human user groups as there are between people and critters. To access the best possible scientific thinking, we assemble teams of scientists to guide our work. In very large or complicated projects, we can assemble additional panels of experts from all over the country and the world to advise our local science teams. And just like any developer, we are subject to review by the full panoply of regulatory agencies in state and federal government, including the Coastal Commission, the Regional Water Quality Control Boards, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to name a few. Despite all these precautions, we inevitably fall short of some restoration objectives or overlook the need to include others, and it is often impossible to satisfy every constituency. These are not reasons to shy away from the task of undoing some of the damage we have caused nature. It just means we have to be very, very, careful, and mindful of the obligation to continue to learn. —Sam Schuchat COASTAL CONSERVANCY NEWS |
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| Thanks to bond acts approved by voters for parks and natural resource conservation in 2000 and 2002, the Coastal Conservancy in May funded several projects along the coast and in San Francisco Bay counties to improve public access, preserve open space, restore wildlife habitat, and support environmental education. Some of these projects are described below. Use of bond funds ensures no direct effect on the current state budget crisis.
More Restoration on The San Dieguito River Park Joint Powers Authority (JPA) has acquired a 73-acre property on San Dieguito Lagoon, east of Interstate 5, for the purpose of expanding a 400-acre wetland restoration project it is undertaking with Southern California Edison. The purchase of the Boudreau property secures in public ownership almost the entire lagoon and river floodplain from El Camino Real to the ocean. The Conservancy’s approval of $1.5 million, added to $2.75 million from the Wildlife Conservation Board, enabled the Trust for Public Land to purchase the Boudreau property for $4.25 million and convey it to the JPA. The acreage acquired borders the San Dieguito River channel on the south, just west of El Camino Real, and contains grasslands and saltmarsh. The Conservancy has been working since 1979 with the City of Del Mar and many other partners to restore San Dieguito Lagoon, and has assisted in planning for the current restoration. The San Dieguito River Park JPA is a local government agency established in 1989 to acquire natural open space, restore habitat, and provide recreation and educational interpretation in the San Dieguito River Valley. The JPA owns and manages 1,200 acres of open space and 22 miles of valley trails. New Sea Center and The Conservancy’s approval of $350,000 has enabled the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History to proceed toward the construction of the $8.5-million Sea Center on Stearns Wharf. The new structure, designed to be more than twice the size of the existing marine research and education facility, will be open to the public and is expected to provide programs for more than 15,000 K–12th-grade students annually. The Conservancy also approved $250,000 to the City of Santa Barbara for a demonstration project at Goleta Slough, designed to resolve the question of whether restoration of tidal circulation in the slough might result in more birds colliding with airplanes. Several federal, state, and local government agencies are involved in this project. More Trails and The Conservancy approved a total of $1.2 million for access, habitat, and open space improvements in San Luis Obispo County. The funds, available through Proposition 12, will help build a boardwalk on the Morro Bay waterfront, improve over a mile of the Coastal Trail at East West Ranch in Cambria, and help the City of San Luis Obispo to purchase and protect a portion of the Ahearn Ranch along San Luis Obispo Creek. The City of Morro Bay will use $500,000 to build a one-mile pedestrian and wheelchair-accessible boardwalk along the Morro Bay waterfront, from the city’s commercial district and fishing harbor to Morro Rock and Morro Strand State Beach. The boardwalk will offer visitors several vantage points for viewing Morro Bay, as well as dockside activities including fish offloading and processing. Caltrans is expected to provide an additional $657,000 in federal funding for the project. The Cambria Community Services District will use $300,000 to improve the 1.2-mile Bluff Trail on the East West Ranch. This trail, a segment of the California Coastal Trail, currently consists of informal dirt tracks that thousands of visitors have worn into the ocean bluff. The new trail will be located far enough from the bluff edge for public safety and to prevent erosion. New boardwalk crossings will prevent damage to wetlands along the trail route, and damage to the land from earlier public use will be repaired. The City of San Luis Obispo will use $400,000 to acquire 270 acres of the 610-acre Ahearn Ranch, along Highway 101 at the headwaters of San Luis Obispo Creek. The land to be purchased includes over a mile of a creek that supports endangered steelhead trout, as well as wetlands, woodlands, grasslands, and chapparal. The remaining 320 acres of the ranch will be purchased by the U.S. Forest Service and added to Los Padres National Forest. The purchase will retire development rights on five of the six parcels on the ranch. The current landowner will retain 20 acres where he resides, and will be permitted to lease land for continued cattle grazing. The ranch offers excellent opportunities, including existing fire roads, for developing a system of public trails that would link to trail networks on adjacent public lands. A large culvert under Highway 101, which passes through the ranch, will enable visitors to reach Forest Service properties that are currently separated by the highway corridor. Better Travel Conditions San PedroCreek is one of the few San Mateo County streams supporting steelhead trout. During the annual spring spawning run, City of Pacifica staff and San Pedro Creek Watershed Coalition volunteers have counted thousands of juveniles and nearly 300 adults. To ease the steelheads’ journey to upstream spawning beds, the Conservancy approved $545,000 to the City toward a $1.4-million multi-partner habitat restoration project in the creek’s middle section, where commercial and industrial development is close to the banks. A failed fish ladder under the Capistrano Bridge will be replaced by a series of “step pools” that will gradually rise in elevation from just below the bridge to about 100 feet upstream. These step pools will allow fish to rest between jumps, enabling them to swim upstream more easily. In addition, 2,000 linear feet of creekside habitat will be restored. About 670 feet of concrete channel will be removed and replaced with native vegetation. Later, the City hopes to remove three culverts above the project area. Most of the land upstream from this area is publicly owned and protected, providing excellent habitat for spawning and rearing young fish. The City expects to complete the construction and restoration by the end of 2004, and will monitor the results for five years. Also contributing to the project are the Department of Water Resources, $400,000; Department of Fish and Game, $250,000; City of Pacifica, $200,000; and the American Rivers Foundation, $30,000. These improvements are part of a larger effort to improve creek habitat while providing flood control for neighboring property owners. During the past four years, wetlands at the creek’s mouth and just east of Highway 1 have been restored in a collaboration between the Conservancy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Pacifica Land Trust. Improvements for To improve Tidewater Park in Oakland’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, the Conservancy approved a grant of over $437,000 to the East Bay Regional Park District. A portion of the grant funds, $186,381, came from a previous Conservancy block grant to the Bay Trail Project, while $250,880 came directly from the Conservancy. The funds will help pay for improvements for about half a mile of the San Francisco Bay Trail along the Oakland waterfront, new picnic areas, restrooms, an improved entry road, and a 65-car parking lot. Additional funds are being contributed by the Land and Water Conservation Fund, California State Parks, and Oakland Strokes, a nonprofit rowing club, which is working with the park district to establish a rowing facility that would offer public boat rentals, boat storage, and a dock just north of the park. Tidewater Park is at the northern end of the Regional Shoreline, in a mixed industrial and commercial area near the Oakland International Airport. Most of the shoreline’s recreational facilities are in its southern part. The park district recently constructed a bridge over Damon Slough, connecting Tidewater Park to the rest of the regional shoreline and closing a gap in the Bay Trail. The park district expects to complete the trail improvements by year’s end, and the remainder of the project soon afterward. This project is part of a larger effort to complete the Bay Trail from Jack London Square to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline. The City of Oakland, with grant funds from the Conservancy and the Bay Trail Project, has recently completed the Oakland Waterfront Pathway Study to assess the feasibility and cost of completing the trail. Alviso Marina County Park One of the few places on south San Francisco Bay where the public has access to the shoreline from land and water is Alviso Marina County Park. The marina was built in 1968 by Santa Clara County, but silted in and was abandoned in 1997. Its boat ramp—the only public boat ramp south of Redwood City—had also become useless. Excessive groundwater withdrawals in the South Bay led to severe subsidence, which resulted in heavy sedimentation in the marina and boat launch. Now the park is about to be improved for land-based use and enjoyment. The Conservancy allocated $500,000 to the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department for a 2,500-square-foot boardwalk over marshland, a wildlife observation platform with seating areas, and a reconfigured parking area which will allow for new picnic areas. The funds will also help pay for new trails that will connect this park to regional trail systems, residential neighborhoods, and commercial areas. A second phase of improvements, to be funded primarily by the Department of Boating and Waterways, will provide a new boat-launch ramp on the adjacent Alviso Slough, which has deeper water than the original boat launch. This Conservancy grant follows two others for Alviso Marina Park: $150,000 in 1999 to the County to plan improvements, and $150,000 in 2000 from the San Francisco Bay Trail Project (from a block grant from the Conservancy) for trail construction. More Than 1,400 Acres Since the early 1990s, the Solano Land Trust has been working to acquire from Pacific Gas & Electric Company 3,800 acres of contiguous open space bounded by the cities of Vallejo, Fairfield, and Benicia. The Coastal Conservancy helped the land trust move closer to its goal by approving $575,000 toward the $2.1-million purchase of the 1,408-acre Eastern Swett Ranch. The Wildlife Conservation Board is contributing $1 million, Solano County and the City of Benicia are chipping in $290,000, the City of Fairfield $100,000, Greater Vallejo Recreation District $110,000, and the Tri-City and County Joint Powers Authority $75,000. The land trust expects to complete the purchase by autumn, begin docent-led hikes within a year, and develop a plan for more expansive public access by late 2005. Limited cattle grazing will continue on the property, which contains habitat for the threatened California red-legged frog, and nesting and foraging habitat for a wide variety of birds, including golden eagles, hawks, and falcons. In 2002, the Solano Land Trust succeeded in purchasing 1,575 acres that included the King Ranch, for which the Conservancy provided $3 million. It hopes to assemble the funding required to purchase the 905-acre Vallejo Swett Ranch by 2006. The Solano Land Trust owns or manages more than 11,000 acres, including Rush Ranch in Suisun Marsh, Lynch Canyon on the Napa County border, and the Jepson Prairie Preserve in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. Sonoma Coast State Beach Carrington Ranch is about two miles north of Bodega Bay and eight miles south of the Russian River. It slopes gently upward from a broad coastal terrace to elevations of about 1,200 feet, offering spectacular ocean views and excellent opportunities for hiking trails. The Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District purchased the 344-acre ranch in May 2003 for $4.8 million, intending to convey it to the State Parks Department, so it can be added to Sonoma Coast State Beach. State Parks, however, lacks the funds for the planning and site development necessary to open the ranch to the public. To resolve this impasse, the Coastal Conservancy approved $260,000 to State Parks to be used for cleanup, demolition of structures not deemed historic or suitable for public use, and planning to ensure that public uses will be compatible with the natural environment. State Parks expects to be able to acquire the property later this year, and then to begin construction of trails and other improvements. LandPaths, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Rosa, is assisting the open space district with its stewardship of the ranch. Upcoming LandPaths events include Farmhand Day at Santa Rosa Junior College’s Shone Farm, where hikers can assist with farm work and learn about how the farm relates to the natural environment. Coastwalk, also a nonprofit organization, is helping to determine the route for a new segment of the California Coastal Trail on the property. |
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