Open Space Council: Blog

Grazing, Conservation, Ranchers & Environmentalists on March 17

We are definitely past the depths of winter, even though there is rain is in the forecast for later this week.  With the days getting longer, though, we know that it is almost spring...

Our Almost Spring Gathering is entitled Grazing and Conservation: Ranchers and Environmentalists and will be held on Thursday, March 17 from 10am-1pm at the Log Cabin in the Presidio.  

We will explore the complicated but exciting concept of rancher stewardship and prescribed grazing to benefit habitat and to minimize impacts in management planning.  We will also hear about how to incorporate other conservation issues, e.g. fire hazards, pest plants, erosion, water quality, and cooperation with the grazing operator.  The panel will discuss how to help planners and managers decide whether livestock grazing would provide conservation benefits, and if so, how to sustain a grazing management program and develop plans for feasible monitoring and adaptation of grazing.  And there will be maps (!) shared by the California Rangeland Trust.

 
Our panel will include:

• Sheila Barry, MS, Natural Resources/Livestock Advisor, UC Cooperative Extension (Panel Moderator)
• Tim Koopmann, Koopmann Ranch
• Darrel Sweet, Sweet Ranches
• Teri Luchini, Park Ranger, City of Fairfield
• Larry Ford, PhD, Rangeland Management and Conservation Science Consultant
• Lisa Bush, MS, Rangeland Management Consultant
• Lynn Huntsinger, PhD, Professor, University of California, Berkeley 

This is a complex subject but one that is critical to preserving open space and biodiversity in the Bay Area.  Plenty of time for Q&A and networking will be provided. 

We will be at the Log Cabin in the Presidio from 10am-1pm and lunch will be served. 

Click here to register.

 

 

What's Cool: CAKE

No, not this kind of cake.  What is cool is the Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange.  

Click on their map to see projects around the world that are working to adapt to and mitigate climate change.  Or puruse the case studies.  Or walk the aisles of the virtual library.  There's a lot to see and learn here.  (and be sure to note the many efforts here in the Bay Area!)

 

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What's Cool is our weekly feature about climate change in the Bay Area.  Our members and the land conservation community at large are incorporating what we know about climate change into their work to protect and steward open space.  We highlight that work and the many partnerships, events and ideas related to climate change here on Fridays.  Share your stories with us in the comments or by sending an email to Annie Burke at annie [at] openspacecouncil [dot] org.

 

 

Conference: Sonoma Land Trust has joined as a sponsor!

We are thrilled to announce that Sonoma Land Trust, one of our sixty members, has joined us as a sponsor of the Open Space Conference!

Click here for more information about the conference and to join Sonoma Land Trust as a sponsor.

President Obama: "Today, our open spaces are more precious than ever"

How exciting is it to hear the president of the United States talk about connecting people to the outdoors?  Pretty exciting.

Click here to read the transcript, the Executive Summary and click here to learn more about America's Great Outdoors.

Conference: The Nature Conservancy has joined as a sponsor!

We are thrilled to announce that The Nature Conservancy, one of our sixty members, has joined us as a sponsor of the Open Space Conference!

Click here for more information about the conference and to join The Nature Conservancy as a sponsor.

 

The Future of the Williamson Act on Quest

On Valentine's Day the radio program Quest on KQED produced a program about the Williamson Act, a state conservation program that for the more than forty years has protected much of California’s ranchland.  But with the state’s budget woes, its funding is threatened and that has both ranchers and environmentalists concerned.

Listen to the program on Quest from KQED:

QUEST on KQED Public Media.

Event: CA Trails and Greenways Conference

Do you own, manage, coordinate, map out, dream about, or use trails in the Bay Area?  Then this conference might be for you.

The California Trails & Greenways Conference, to be held this year on April 11-13 in San Ramon, provides trail professionals, advocates, volunteers and users with a venue for sharing practical, up-to-date trail management and advocacy skills; as well as a forum for networking and building support for accessible, inter-connected, sustainable non-motorized trail systems.

Click here for more information.

Pause: Nature's Beloved Son

From the exhibit description: John Muir was a botanist throughout his life and his fondness for the nature and beauty of plants contributed significantly to his understanding of the need to preserve wilderness. Yet this aspect of the well-known conservationist's passions is little known.

In the spirit which John Muir embraced the botanical world, the traveling exhibition Nature's Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir's Botanical Legacy traces his travels to Canada, Indiana, the American southeast, California, and Alaska, and presents vivid images and specimens of the actual plants that Muir held in his hands, carried in his pockets, and preserved for all time. 

Nature's Beloved Son is at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek until March 27.

 

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A Pause is a regular feature of the Open Space Council's blog where we take a moment to step back to consider a word, an idea or a photograph.  Past Pauses can be found here, here and here.

 

What's Cool: Goal Number 6 of Resolution 3987

What's cool is a performance target that reads "Direct all non-agricultural development within the urban footprint (existing urban development and urban growth boundaries) that include open space."  That's what performance target number 6 says in a Resolution 3987 by ABAG and MTC dated January 26, 2011. 

Here's the (very abbreviated) story behind those words.

In 2006, the California Legislature passed and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which set the 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal into law. 

The California Air Resources Board became required to set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.  And SB 375 was passed by the State Senate in 2008 which requires regional planning agencies to develop a Sustainable Community Strategy.  

One Bay Area was formed by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) along with Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.  They started working together to prepare an integrated land-use and transportation plan for the nine-county region that integrates the development pattern for the region with the transportation network and policies in order to achieve, to the extent practicable, the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets set by the California Air Resources Board.

Goals and performance targets were needed to create the plan. Because as you know, if we don't know what we're working towards, how will we know when we get there?

That's where Resolution 3987 comes in and the words "that include open space."  There are many interesting things about Resolution 3987 and there is still a lot of work to do.  But to think that the current urban footprint is set to be the future urban footprint... well, that's cool. 

Read the Resolution. Learn more about One Bay Area:

Conference: EBRPD has joined as a sponsor!

We are thrilled to announce that the East Bay Regional Park District, one of our sixty members, has joined us as a sponsor of the Open Space Conference!

Click here for more information about the conference and to join the East Bay Regional Park District as a sponsor.