Proposal balances landowners, threatened species

A proposal supporters contend will equally protect endangered species and landowners of more than 77,000 acres along the Sacramento River was published in the Federal Register this week.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is seeking public comment on the Safe Harbor Agreement, a voluntary program that allows property owners within the boundaries of the Sacramento River Conservation Area Forum — from Keswick Dam above Redding to the Feather River confluence at Verona — to establish a population base for a number of threatened and endangered species on their properties.

Bev Anderson, executive director of the Forum, said the program essentially targets nonprofit groups such as the Nature Conservancy and their work to enhance the native riparian habitat along the river. However, any landowner — including government agencies — can sign up for the program.

Of the 77,200 acres in the area, 28,000 acres are owned by the federal and state governments, and conservation groups such as the Nature Conservancy, Anderson reported. Not all of that land is in an active restoration program.

The idea is to establish base populations of such creatures as the valley elderberry longhorn beetle, giant garter snake, the state-protected western pond turtle, Swainson's hawk, bank swallow, willow flycatcher and western yellow-billed cuckoo.

Then, whatever work is done on the land — whether it be riparian restoration or farming — would not be subject to endangered species laws as along as those populations are not injured to the point of going below the base populations.

Anderson said one of the real benefits of the program is that neighbors who are potentially impacted by what the protected landowners do, can also sign up under a less formal permitting process that allows them to keep their lands in their current conditions, and remove potential habitat for the endangered species without penalty.

In other words, a row crop farmer would not have to worry about damaging future yellow-billed cuckoo habitat that did not exist prior to signing the agreement.

Al Donner, an assistant field supervisor for Fish & Wildlife Service in Sacramento said the hope is that any landowner who joins the Safe Harbor program will do more than just enjoy the status quo.

The ultimate design of the program, he said, is that private landowners will enhance the habitat of the threatened or endangered species in conjunction with their current land uses.

There are time limits established in the program. A landowner who signs up at the 2010 base, for example, cannot expect that base population protection if the changes he makes to his land comes too far ahead in the future, Donner said.

Moreover, any significant change in land use or zoning would trigger the normal environmental reviews, he said.

If the property is sold, the new owner can opt to continue the existing agreement, write up his own or opt out entirely.

Donner said there is no cost to the property owner, nor does the federal government pay the property owners to sign the Safe Harbor Agreement.

The public comment period of a similar agreement worked out by the Cattlemen's Association in Glenn County recently closed, and the final documents are being prepared, Donner said. That Safe Harbor program targets such things as vernal pools and ferry shrimp in pasture lands.

The new proposal takes in properties stretching 222 miles along the Sacramento River, the largest proposal of its kind, Donner said.