OUTCOME: Ecosystem Conservation and Restoration

Problem

Lack of a shared vision and shared priorities for landscape scale conservation in the North Coast region reduces the scope and impact of effective land protection and stewardship.

Solution

Land Acquisition & Protection - Develop a regional land acquisition and protection strategy in support of the state’s conservation, climate adaptation, and wildfire resilience goals.

Background and Context

Land conservation has proven to be a powerful and cost-effective tool to protect natural and working lands and their associated values. Conservation easements for open space, agricultural lands, working forests, and habitat protection encompass 2 million acres in California. Similarly, state land use conservation actions such as the Williamson Act or the Timber Production Zone Act incentivize retention of working farms and forests. While these tools are valuable, additional conservation tools are needed in response to the evolving threats associated with land use conversions and climate change. Increased use of Transfer of Development Rights, Williamson Act subventions, and adoption of new approaches can increase the rate of voluntary land conservation. Especially helpful are tools that provide financial incentives or other benefits to landowners, while providing organizations and agencies the ability to work with landowners to create landscapes that can adapt to extreme events. For example, a conservation easement or agreement may protect a riparian corridor or wetland that acts as a natural fire break during fire season and mitigates flooding during winter storms, while also supporting biological diversity, carbon sequestration, and water quality and supply benefits. Habitat and ecosystem stewardship and restoration are critical elements of any land conservation strategy.

Land conservation tools may also be used in the WUI to create and maintain multi-benefit fuel breaks to protect residential areas. For example, a conservation agreement or easement associated with a parcel can assure that it can be actively managed for hazardous fuel reduction, while also supporting agriculture, habitat protection, or recreation near a community. In this way, multiple benefits – economic vitality, visual beauty, biodiversity, local food, water quality, and/or recreational amenities – are provided throughout the year, yet the active management of these areas as a fuel break provides protection when wildfires occur in the vicinity (see Community Health & Safety – Fuel Breaks Solution).

Conservation Priorities

California’s Pathways to 30×30 Strategy identifies the following conservation priorities to protect and restore biodiversity. The North Coast Region Land Conservation Strategy will identify specific conservation targets in the region that meet these criteria:

  • Ensure conservation of habitats that represent the full diversity of California’s ecosystems, especially rare or remnant habitat types.
  • Protect areas that are adjacent to or linked to existing conserved areas to support large, interconnected watersheds and seascapes.
  • Restore degraded habitats, especially for rare ecosystems and wetlands.
  • Target areas for conservation with high species richness, endemism, and species rarity.
  • Prioritize places that support exceptional biocultural significance, which accounts for the interconnected nature of people and places.
  • Ensure conservation and restoration of riparian corridors that are essential to fish and wildlife movement and that serve as climate refugia for native species.

Recommendations

Recognizing that strategic land conservation can achieve multiple benefits that communities value, NCRP will develop a North Coast region land conservation strategy that aligns and synchronizes Tribal, state, federal, regional, and local strategic plans and priorities for conserving natural and working lands in the North Coast region in support of the state’s Pathways to 30×30, Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy, and California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan. The regional land conservation strategy will be developed in collaboration with North Coast Tribes, NGOs, RCDs, local governments, agencies and private landowner groups and will include mapped priorities for land conservation. The strategy will describe an array of tools and approaches – including ecosystem restoration and enhancement, purchase of fee title, conservation easements, Williamson Act, payment for ecosystem services (PES), regional advanced mitigation and conservation strategies, and expansion of Community Forests and other community-based forest landownership models. The plan will include policy, legislative, and funding recommendations to facilitate implementation of the strategy. The plan will include strategies and phasing for implementation as well as reporting on the return on investment from plan implementation.

Actions

  • Stream ecosystems and riparian corridors that provide critical ecological value.
  • Wetlands (coastal and freshwater) that help ameliorate adverse climatic effects such as sea level rise or increased flooding and/or provide critical limited habitats elements (e.g. flyway refugia).
  • Groundwater basins.
  • Forests that have old-growth stand characteristics.
  • Ecologically high value lands identified in adopted plans.
  • High-value lands impacted by severe adverse climate change that provides resilience (i.e., coastal planned retreat areas and wetlands impacted by sea level rise, regionally strategic fuel break zones or modified stands to reduce fire intensity adjacent to wilderness areas).
  • Working lands: ranches, farms, and forests that have unique or intrinsic public benefit from operations.
  • Lands with high biodiversity ranking.
  • Corridors and connections between protected areas.
  • Strategic ridgetops to create a system of long-term, natural fuel breaks.

  • Collect and develop spatial and non-spatial data at the regional and local scale, integrate into North Coast regional land conservation prioritization framework.
  • Downscale and integrate local, state, and federal priorities into land conservation prioritization framework.
  • Integrate Tribal, regional, state, county, and local agency priorities and plans into the land conservation prioritization framework.
  • Prioritize landscape areas for conservation easements, habitat enhancement, stand treatments or public acquisition, and land transfers that will improve forest health, increase community safety, enhance ecosystem function, and provide for sustainable economies of scale.

Options for consideration include:

  • Acquisition of fee title.
  • Conservation easements to restrict development rights and incentivize the protection of key land attributes. Create templates for affirmative easements for forest lands that ensure meaningful improvements such as fuel reduction, return to natural stand densities, or prescribed fire.
  • Community-based land ownership models (with or without easements), like Community Forests or Redwood Forest Foundation Usal Forest.
  • Application of existing policies and/or development of new tools (i.e., Williamson Act, zoning, General Plan designations, Regional Advanced Mitigation (RAMP), Regional Conservation Investment Strategies (RCIS), Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), or Debt for Nature programs) including developing model tools initiated by RFFC demonstration projects and pursuing recommended actions.
  • Advocate for state funding for Williamson Act and for expansion of a “Williamson Act Plus” program that incentivizes practices that support ecosystem services on agricultural lands, such as practices like wet meadow restoration that might restrict grazing or other agricultural use.
  • Evaluate jurisdictional or governance authorities that could support the implementation of the North Coast regional land conservation plan, including special districts funded by parcel or sales tax.
  • Legislative, policy or funding programs.
  • Regional and local cost-share programs for private landowners to restore prioritized areas.

This includes:

  • Implementation.
  • Performance reporting.
  • Adaptive updating of Regional Land Conservation Plan.
  • Messaging and outreach plan to support outreach to decision makers, community, partners.
  • Long-term management and maintenance.

Support repatriation of culturally and ecologically important lands to Tribes through public agencies, land trusts and land conservation organizations. Support the restoration and Tribal co-management of culturally important public lands.

Support adaptive management mechanisms in conservation covenants to encourage resilient conservation of core landscape values while adapting to evolving conditions.

Create pooled fund for rapid deployment for acquisitions when critical properties are put on the market or need funding during various stages of the easement/acquisition process. Develop potential green/angel investors for such opportunities.

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