Open Space Council: Blog

Be Our Guest: When the Levee Breaks, Mama You Got to Go

Planning for Climate Change: When the Levee Breaks, Mama You Got to Go

By Sara S. Moore, MPP/ MA, Research Consultant on Climate Change Adaptation.

Last year I became involved in part of the California Climate Vulnerability Assessment, intended to prepare the state for climate change. Before that, I never thought of “human” and “natural” systems as different—they were one integrated system in my mind, people living in nature. However, the State of California separated the various vulnerability assessment studies into two categories—human and natural systems. Within the context of that work I began to hear experts talking about the conflict between planning to protect ecosystems versus people.

Natural system specialists (conservationists, by and large) worry that those prioritizing human communities might ignore the longer term consequences of their actions in terms of preserving the health and integrity of natural systems (which we need for people’s health, ultimately).

On the other side, people-oriented vulnerability experts, such as public health workers, worry that the natural system specialists aren’t taking into account issues of equity and existing, long-term disproportionate impacts that might be exacerbated by climate change planning decisions. They are also concerned that the conservation-oriented approach discounts the public (and very human) elements of planning, such as ensuring a transparent decision-making process and accessible stakeholder hearings. Natural system specialists may lack experience with building public trust in a planning process, and those proficient in planning for human needs may lack the long-term view of the importance of protecting natural systems.

This conflict heats up quickly in the debate of how to approach sea level rise, a problem the Bay Area is facing with these two priorities in mind: preserving human communities and preserving natural systems. We stand on the shore, a bucket of concrete and rebar in one hand, and a bucket of native wetland grasses in the other.  Should we wall out the sea or invite it in?

A levee or sea wall system is one approach, and it prioritizes human communities, but at the expense of maintaining the integrity of ecosystems. And, it might not ultimately be a safe alternative. In planning meetings the word “Katrina” is invoked. Behind this word is this question:

The Lower Ninth Ward levee break.  Wikipedia Commons.

With climate change, what if another “Katrina” happens here— will the Bay Area be prepared?

The answer is: we’ll see.

Climate change may bring the Bay Area conditions that put our communities more in danger of a “Katrina”-like scenario.  San Francisco may not face hurricanes, but as wind and storm regimes shift, and sea levels rise, it might face weather and flood conditions it has never seen before.

However, before diving for the concrete and rebar, it must be remembered what was responsible for the worst of that tragedy—not the storm— the levee failure. In the wake of that failure, an investigative article made this assertion:

“Engineers say that most structures that fail do so not because they're hit by overwhelming forces, but due to flaws that creep in unnoticed during design, construction and upkeep.” (Human Error Blamed for Making New Orleans' Flooding Worse, Dec. 11, 2005).

The question that I pose in response to the Katrina question: what if a massive sea wall system failure happens here? Can we prevent it?

Are there alternatives to relying strictly on sea wall system?

In some cases, natural systems might provide more protection, and both cheaper and more flexible protection, than a sea wall system.

For years before Katrina experts had been publishing warnings about the vulnerability of the levee system, and the need for marshland restoration to buffer the severity of hurricanes (read one article, “Drowning New Orleans,” published in Scientific American in 2001).

The SF Bay Area has options for planning for wetland migration or cultivating other natural buffers. This approach, using natural systems to reduce threats from climate change, is called ecosystem-based adaptation.

Ecosystem‐based adaptation uses biodiversity and ecosystem services in an overall adaptation strategy including the sustainable management, conservation and restoration of ecosystems to reduce the danger of climate change to people. (Read more about the Convention on Biological Diversity’s definition of ecosystem-based adaptation in this 2009 report)

This concept is usually discussed as an alternative to “hard” or engineered responses like sea walls. Hard approaches are prone to the systematic problems we saw in New Orlean’s levees,  can be more expensive to build and maintain than natural approaches, and will only protect the shoreline to a particular level of rising sea water—no further.

However, wetlands restoration and other nature-based approaches cannot be considered a silver bullet for sea level rise. In some places, like around the Bay Area’s airports, only sea walls are likely to save the existing infrastructure. Proposed plans that I have seen show a strategic use of both the strengths of wetlands restoration and sea walls to achieve our minimum necessary level of protection.

Now, a question that lingers in my mind:

What are we going to do with Ocean Beach?

In preparation for writing this post, I asked some local experts their opinion of what we’re going to do about sea level rise and Ocean Beach in San Francisco. One Emergency Services Manager at the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, Bijan Karimi, said that San Francisco recognizes the potential impacts that climate change might have on weather-related events, with a near-term focus on the problem of flooding. However, the Emergency Management Department of San Francisco has not yet actively begun weighing the alternate paths of either retreat or increased shore armoring  to protect the people living in the projected flood zone at Ocean Beach. This encompasses two rows of houses in one high water projection (see more at the visualization tool Cal-Adapt).

The President of the Marin Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, Scott Tye, says that his organization takes an official stance in favor of a planned retreat from sea level rise, and “armoring the shore is not a viable option.” He points to the managed retreat being conducted at Surfer’s Point project in Ventura (read more about this project here). In that case the city is removing a parking lot, relocating a bicycle path, restoring a beach, and taking other “soft” ecosystem-friendly measures to anticipate future coastal erosion.

But would that work at Ocean Beach? Would homeowners agree to give up their land in return for government compensation? What about the apartment buildings in the projected flood zone which provide subsidized (Section 8) housing to seniors— how could the city ensure that those households were treated fairly?

There is no silver bullet for this problem. We stand on the shore and see the inevitable challenge coming from the sea, a bucket in each hand. What would you do?

 

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This is Part Three of Four that Sara Moore will be sharing here on the Open Space blog.  Part One can be read here.  Part Two is here.  Stay tuned for the Part Four next Monday.

One of our strategies is to serve as the central hub for the Bay Area land conservation community. We serve as an essential resource for anyone interested in land conservation in the Bay Area.  To that end, we invite others to share their stories here on our blog and amplify them to people around the region who care about this place we call home.  

About the author: Sara S. Moore, MPP/ MA, Research Consultant on Climate Change Adaptation. Sara most recently worked at the Zavaleta Lab, UC Santa Cruz, on a component study of the California State Climate Vulnerability Assessment. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a Master of Public Policy and an MA in International and Area Studies with a focus on government climate adaptation policy. Previously, she worked for Pacific Environment as a Russia Program Associate, helping communities protect their local environment in Siberia and the Russian Far East.

For background on the post's title, click here and turn up your volume.

The State of the Birds of the Bay

What is life like for the birds of the San Francisco Bay Area?

(Click here to see a video if you're reading this by email)

San Francisco Bay Joint Venture and PRBO Conservation Science introduced last week the 2011 State of the Birds Report for the San Francisco Bay Region.  Read more about it on SF Gate, BirdsNews, and the Marin IJ.  

Open Space Happenings: 10.26.11

Your weekly helping of Bay Area conservation news and inspiration...

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will present a special one-week engagement of Gary Hustwit’s vibrant new film Urbanized.  Click here for more information.

(If you're reading this on email, click here to see a video)

 

• Work starts on Golden Gate Bridge's 75th anniversary building.  The 3,500-square-foot building — set to open by mid-April — is being built at the southeast end of the bridge near the statue of bridge builder Joseph Strauss. The bridge turns 75 on May 27, 2012. (Marin IJ)
• Partnerships try to keep threatened state parks open.  Across the country, people are taking the initiative to save state parks as budget cuts threaten to close them.  (USA Today)
• Battle over the Baylands: Opponents in Palo Alto's Measure E debate prepare for Election Day showdown.  (Palo Alto Online)
• Quick and dirty: Congress may rewrite the Farm Bill in two weeks.  The next reauthorization was not expected until late in 2012—if not 2013—but through an unexpected turn of events, it may be decided much faster, and with even less input from the good food movement than the last one. (Grist)
• Bay Area duck hunters celebrate season opener.  It's the time of year when the leaves fall and hunters' pulses climb, as millions of migrating birds stop to refuel at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in the shadow of Google, Oracle and a metropolitan area of 7.5 million people. And the recent conversion of salt ponds to wetlands in Alviso, Redwood City and Newark has created new habitat -- attracting larger flocks. (Mercury News)
• Bay Area Nature 100 Years Ago, Through the Eyes of Painter William Keith.  An art exhibit at Saint Mary's College Museum of Art.  (Bay Nature)
• AUDIO: "A Big, Captivating Idea": The Bay Area Ridge Trail (KQED Quest)
• Big new section of Bay Area Ridge Trail to open Saturday east of San Jose.  Roughly 5.3 miles will be added to the Bay Area Ridge Trail, bringing its total completed segments to 337 miles. The new route follows broad open meadows and oak woodlands in the Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve, which sits just east of Alum Rock Park in the Diablo Foothills. (Mercury News)
• 20 Years After Fire, Revelation and Tribute.  Richard Misrach's images, currently on view at the Berkeley Art Museum and the Oakland Museum of California, were taken a week after the fire swept through the hills on Oct. 20, 1991, and show an almost monochromatic sea of devastation. (Bay Citizen and New York Times)

 

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This is the weekly Happenings, a weekly round-up of news - with some art and fun thrown in - related to the members, partners, supporters, and friends of the Open Space Council.  

We'll be talking about The Big Picture and Tactical Next Steps for State Parks at our next Gathering on November 17 from 10am-1pm at the Brower Center in Berkeley.  New partnerships are being formed.  New ways of working together have been created and are being implemented.  And new strategies are needed to deal with the new realities of publicly funded conservation.  What does it all mean?  What is being done?  And how do we need to think in new ways?  Join us for a conversation.  Click here to register.

Like these blog posts?  Click on that handy Facebook button below.  Share the love on Twitter.  Or email the link to friends.  Maybe they'll thank you for doing so.

 

Be Our Guest: Planning for Climate Change, Part Two

A Case Study of Impact Scenarios in Marin County 

By Sara S. Moore, MPP/ MA, Research Consultant on Climate Change Adaptation.

What is the “scenario planning” tool?

At the state’s request, we held a workshop to test-drive the “scenario planning” tool to try to develop a set of priority action steps for resource management under climate change. Scenario planning is a tool for planning under conditions of uncertainty that has been used  by the military and the business sector, and is now in use by resource managers to plan for climate change. This tool tests strategies against a range of plausible futures (scenarios) that include the most high impact—though possibly low-probability—events. Using scenarios to test strategies builds flexibility into plans, so you aren’t caught planning only for one contingency. Resource managers in West Marin are being told conflicting things by climate scientists about the future behavior of fog and rain, so they don’t want to plan ONLY for a rainier, foggier future, or ONLY for a drier future with no fog. Scenario planning allows you to plan for both.

One aspect of scenario planning that should not be neglected is that it is not intended to be used the way we used it, as a one-off exercise. If plans based on scenarios are actually intended to lead to action, they should be modified as new information on climate change is available: scenarios are supposed to be revisited and improved over time. At the end of our workshop, it was clear that participants wanted both more scientific information on climate change, and the chance to improve the scenarios on that basis. Unfortunately, our funding only provided for this one exercise.

How did we create the West Marin scenarios for climate change planning?

The National Park Service (NPS) has used scenarios to experiment with climate change planning since 2007, after a pilot workshop held in Joshua Tree National Park. I studied the pilot workshop format, collected input from the NPS workshop organizers, and, in a stroke of luck, hired the same workshop facilitator used by the NPS from the firm that pioneered the use of scenario planning in the business sector, the Global Business Network.  It just happened that the facilitator lived in Marin. We followed the GBN model for the development of scenarios. First, we selected the high-impact factors (of all kinds: climate, plus economic, technological, social, and political) in the decision-making environment. Then, we identified the factors with high certainty (“inevitabilities”), and those with high uncertainty. Then we tried to identify the uncertainties that might create nightmare scenarios, like a repeat of the 1995 Vision Fire in Point Reyes in a populated area. Based on available information on climate change in West Marin, the ten scientists and resource managers I recruited to help develop the scenarios selected the following factors for the West Marin scenarios (looking at the uncertainties, you can see that wildfire is a great worry):

Four “Certainties”

1. Temperature increasing, 
2. Sea level rising, 
3. Seasonal extremes increasing, and 
4. Biodiversity declining. 

Three “Uncertainties”

1. The onset of the dry season (earlier/ later), 
2. The direction of strong wind (more easterly/ more northerly; some discussion groups found this confusing, and replaced it with intensified La Niña or El Niño effects), 
3. The capacity to act in a resource management realm (no greater [or possibly less] capacity/ significantly greater capacity).

 

How did we use the scenarios to start planning for climate change?

On January 28, 2011, thirty-five resource managers and scientists came to the Headlands Institute to discuss these factors and the different worlds they would produce.

In the end, eight scenarios were created, interacting the three uncertainties:

“Club Marin” (earlier dry season onset, stronger northerly winds/ El Nino, high capacity to act), “Dry Sweat” (earlier dry season onset, stronger northerly winds/ El Nino, same or less capacity to act), and so on, going by the names “Fryin and Cryin,” “Leaky Boat, No Bucket,” “Lush Flush,” “Muddy Waters,” “Phoenix,” and “Playing God.” Each scenario was given a set of headlines (“Muir Woods Burns”), and possible action steps (“give penalties for overuse of water”). A few top actions were reported back for each scenario. Notably, “more collaboration” appeared in all scenarios.  

In the afternoon, we chose some criteria for taking action, evaluated our possible actions, and created a set of top ten action steps. We evaluated whether the actions were flexible, used adaptive management, were cost-effective, had clear design, or were collaborative across work sectors. Our evaluation produced ten top action steps.

Ten action steps for climate change preparation for West Marin’s protected areas

1. Create a regional and collaborative approach to adaptation. 
2. Improve fire management.
3. Improve water management.
4. Improve early detection networks to control invasive species.
5. Improve connectivity, emphasizing protecting and restoring riparian areas.
6. Create a Rapid Response Team to work on restoration after climate events or other disasters.
7. Measure change over time to inform adaptive management (e.g., improve monitoring).
8. Integrate restoration with infrastructure, making sure they work together.
9. Develop a triage framework for allocating resources.
10. Create public-private partnerships (modeled on the work of Resource Conservation Districts).

These actions are the basis of a Statement of Agreement now circulating among the workshop’s thirty-five participants, hopefully providing a basis for future collaboration. 

What’s next for West Marin?

This summer I followed-up with some of the workshop’s participants to see if there had been any movement on climate change planning in their agencies. Besides the usual problems with lack of funds to continue current operations, resource managers are working to respond to the closure threat hanging over four Marin County state parks. However, I believe the threat of climate change impacts will not be forgotten, even with the ongoing budget crisis. The participants will probably be guided more by the continually improving climate models coming from the science community than by exercises in imagination like scenario planning workshops, but they now have a set of action steps that would be useful in a range of potential low-probability, high-impact nightmare scenarios. They have just that much more power to respond to the paralyzing uncertainty that comes with climate change planning.

 

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This is Part Two of Four that Sara Moore will be sharing here on the Open Space blog.  Part One can be read here.  Stay tuned for the Part Three next Monday.

One of our strategies is to serve as the central hub for the Bay Area land conservation community. We serve as an essential resource for anyone interested in land conservation in the Bay Area.  To that end, we invite others to share their stories here on our blog and amplify them to people around the region who care about this place we call home.  

About the author: Sara S. Moore, MPP/ MA, Research Consultant on Climate Change Adaptation. Sara most recently worked at the Zavaleta Lab, UC Santa Cruz, on a component study of the California State Climate Vulnerability Assessment. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a Master of Public Policy and an MA in International and Area Studies with a focus on government climate adaptation policy. Previously, she worked for Pacific Environment as a Russia Program Associate, helping communities protect their local environment in Siberia and the Russian Far East.  She can be reached at saramoore [at] gmail [dot] com.

 

Open Space Happenings: 10.19.11

Your weekly helping of Bay Area conservation news and inspiration...

(If you're reading this on email, click here to see a video)

 

• Stanford: Jasper Ridge nightlife captured on video.  Video cameras at Stanford University's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve are capturing the hidden life of mountain lions and other animals that hunt by night. (SFGate)
• State of the Birds report focuses on Bay Area.  The bird populations around San Francisco Bay appear to have stabilized and life for many waterfowl is actually improving, but the avian residents of California's dry grasslands are going through hard times, according to the Bay Area's first ever State of the Birds report.  (SFGate).  More info can be found from PRBO and SFBJV here.
• Fate of a tiny mouse rests on salt marsh restoration.  The salt marsh harvest mouse weighs about as much as four pennies, but millions of dollars are being spent to try to restore the tidal marsh habitat the endangered species calls home. (Mercury News)
• What Happens When an Outdoor Afro Visits Soul Food Farm?  This past Saturday I was a guest of Outdoor Afro and Soul Food Farm at their annual benefit for Slow Food Solano, and the Farmer Veteran Coalition in Vacaville, CA. (Outdoor Afro)
• Welcoming the burrowing owl.  This Saturday, Oct. 22, SonomaBirding is working with the Sonoma Land Trust, the Burrowing Owl Conservation Network and the California Department of Fish and Game to host a workday in the Baylands near Sears Point to build artificial habitats for the burrowing owls (Sonoma Magazine)
• VIDEO: Tarantulas Looking For Love On Mount Diablo.  Just in time for Halloween, tarantulas are on the trails and roads around Mount Diablo. While many think it's a migration, an expert said the spiders are looking for mates. (CBS5)
• Event: The 4th Quadrennial Contra Costa County Creek and Watershed Symposium: Changing Landscapes, Evolving Perspectives, will showcase the broad array of work on local creeks and watersheds and draw on experts and success stories from outside the County. (Contra Costa Watershed Forum)

 

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This is the weekly Happenings, a weekly round-up of news - with some art and fun thrown in - related to the members, partners, supporters, and friends of the Open Space Council.  

Our last Gathering of 2011 will focus on The Big Picture and Tactical Next Steps for State Parks and will be held on November 17 from 10am-1pm at the Brower Center in Berkeley.  New partnerships are being formed.  New ways of working together have been created and are being implemented.  And new strategies are needed to deal with the new realities of publicly funded conservation.  What does it all mean?  What is being done?  And how do we need to think in new ways?  Join us for a conversation.  Click here to register.

Be Our Guest: Planning for Climate Change, Part One

How did we get here, planning for climate change instead of fighting it?

By Sara S. Moore, MPP/ MA, Research Consultant on Climate Change Adaptation.

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made its strongest, most scientifically grounded assertion yet on the reality of the threat of climate change with the release of its fourth assessment report. Governments around the world took notice, including California’s. Scientists had been measuring climate change and its impacts in California for years, but in 2008 the state finally decided the time had come to create a climate change adaptation strategy, and begin a vulnerability assessment.  Adaptation here means taking action to take advantage of opportunities and minimize harm brought by climate change. The state vulnerability assessment, due out in 2012, will help define which of the state’s communities, life-critical resources, and natural systems might be the most sensitive, exposed, and unable to get out of the way of the harm of climate change.

Why are we planning for climate change instead of fighting it? This question is sometimes asked by people committed to averting climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and I believe it presents a false dichotomy: according to climate projections, the impacts of climate change are likely to be dire enough that it is in everybody’s interest to BOTH plan for climate change and fight it. I say this as someone concerned for our collective well-being under inevitable climate change. But, most of us are concerned about our collective well-being. How did I get here, working to plan for climate change?

  Photo by Kathryn Barnhart

The “aha” moment when I decided to work on climate change adaptation

In my last job before graduate school, I was an organizer working at the grassroots to reduce the impacts of the oil, gas and mining industries in communities in the Russian Far East and Siberia. Climate change was only a peripheral threat in my view, even though I heard first-hand about Russia’s subsistence reindeer herders sinking into the melting permafrost with their herds. Al Gore won Oscars for a PowerPoint presentation, and the battle for clean air and water next to mines and oil and gas processing plants went on. I went to graduate school, expecting to gain policy skills to later work on indigenous communities’ access to clean water.

Then, coincidentally just a week before Schwarzenegger called for a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy to be drafted for California, I went to a talk by Isabel Hilton, a journalist who presented alarming information about the melting of the Himalayan glaciers and the war she saw as inevitable between Pakistan, China and India over fresh water resources. She talked about “inland tsunamis” from glacial lakes bursting their dams, and the slowing and shifting of the global wind regime from the lack of the glacier’s cooling effect. A silence followed her presentation. Someone asked her what we could do. Her reply: “Work on adaptation.” I went home and looked up the word. I had my graduate thesis topic, and a new career goal.

In 2008, I studied the development of the state’s Climate Adaptation Strategy, looking at the implications for California’s vulnerable populations, focusing on access to clean water. This past year, I worked with natural resource managers and scientists on a study for the California Energy Commission, doing a case study in Marin County, specifically the protected areas of West Marin.

 

Why West Marin?

 My project supervisors, Erika Zavaleta (UCSC) and Rebecca Shaw (EDF), and I vetted thirteen different candidate sites for a study of planning for resource management under climate change using a particular planning tool, scenario planning. We chose West Marin’s protected areas to give us the opportunity to work with different kinds of management agencies, and on different climate change problems, from sea-level rise to wildfires. Also, this site allowed us to ask the question that would captivate any Californian: “what if Muir Woods lost its redwoods?” We called the workshop “the Futures of Wild Marin.”

  Photo by Kathryn Barnhart

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This is Part One of Four that Sara Moore will be sharing here on the Open Space blog.  Stay tuned for the Part Two next Monday.

One of our strategies is to serve as the central hub for the Bay Area land conservation community. We serve as an essential resource for anyone interested in land conservation in the Bay Area.  To that end, we invite others to share their stories here on our blog and amplify them to people around the region who care about this place we call home.  

About the author: Sara S. Moore, MPP/ MA, Research Consultant on Climate Change Adaptation. Sara most recently worked at the Zavaleta Lab, UC Santa Cruz, on a component study of the California State Climate Vulnerability Assessment. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a Master of Public Policy and an MA in International and Area Studies with a focus on government climate adaptation policy. Previously, she worked for Pacific Environment as a Russia Program Associate, helping communities protect their local environment in Siberia and the Russian Far East.

 

The Big Picture and Tactical Next Steps for State Parks, November 17

California Lost: China Camp from CIR on Vimeo.

 

Right now California State Parks, the largest state park system in the country, face unprecedented budget cuts and closures. Governor Jerry Brown signed budget cuts in May 2011 that included a reduction of General Fund support for state parks by $11 million for Fiscal Year 2011-12 and a total reduction of $22 million by the beginning of Fiscal Year 2012-2013.  Seventy parks are slated to close by July 2012, some of which have already done so.   China Camp, Olompali, Jack London, Samuel P. Taylor, Sugarloaf Ridge, Annadel, Austin Creek, Petaluma Adobe, Bale Grist Mill, Bothe-Napa Valley, Castle Rock, and Henry Coe are all here in the Bay Area.

This hasn’t happened before.  New partnerships are being formed.  New ways of working together have been created and are being implemented.  And new strategies are needed to deal with the new realities of publicly funded conservation.

What does it all mean?  What is being done?  And how do we need to think in new ways?  On November 17 from 10am to 1pm at the Brower Center in Berkeley we will discuss it all at our last Gathering of 2011.  Joining us will be: 

• Dave Gould, Sonoma Parks Alliance and Former State Parks Superintendent, moderator
• Lauren Dixon, Sonoma Parks Alliance
• Traci Verardo, State Parks Foundation (invited)
• Danita Rodriguez, State Parks, Marin District
• Bob Berman, Benicia State Parks Association
• Other speakers to be announced

Lunch will be served and there will be plenty of time for networking and seeing friends.  Our Gatherings can sell out so please register early.

 

Click here to register.  

 

Open Space Happenings: 10.12.11

Your weekly helping of Bay Area conservation news and inspiration...

Artist Rueben Margolin, the son of Bay Area legend Malcolm Margolin, creates beauty including a mesmorizing piece in the lobby of the Brower Center in downtown Berkeley.  From Make Magazine.

• Federal and State Government Work Together To Keep Some State Parks Open and Operating.  Three California State Parks on the closure list will be kept open through an agreement reached between the National Park Service and the California State Parks.  (State Parks Foundation)
• Rethinking and reinventing state park financing. Part six in a series about State Parks and their current crisis.  (Christine Sculati's blog)
• Greenbelt Alliance wins EPA grant for smart growth.  Greenbelt Alliance and a consortium of partners will help local communities create more housing choices, design healthy neighborhoods, and increase economic vitality.  (Grow Smart Bay Area)
• Report: The Farming Systems Trial.  An analysis of the benefits of sustainable farming practices.  (Rodale Institute).
• Bay Area Adopts Historic Climate-Change Rules.  New developments on the shores of San Francisco Bay won't be approved unless they offer economic or environmental benefits that outweigh the cost of protecting against rising seas.  (Bay Citizen) 

 

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This is the weekly Happenings, a weekly round-up of news - with some art and fun thrown in - related to the members, partners, supporters, and friends of the Open Space Council.  

Our last Gathering of 2011 will focus on The Big Picture and Tactical Next Steps for State Parks and will be held on November 17 from 10am-1pm at the Brower Center in Berkeley.  New partnerships are being formed.  New ways of working together have been created and are being implemented.  And new strategies are needed to deal with the new realities of publicly funded conservation.  What does it all mean?  What is being done?  And how do we need to think in new ways?  Join us for a conversation.  Click here to register.

 

 

 

Good news from Sacramento!

Over the weekend Governor Jerry Brown signed a host of bills related to conservation.  Click here to read a synopsis from the California Council of Land Trusts.  Highlights from CCLT include: 

 

AB 703 (Gordon) - Extension of Property Tax Exemption for Nonprofit-Held Lands.  This bill extends for the property tax exemption for nonprofit-owned lands that are held for habitat, open space and recreational uses.  This exemption is extended for another ten years and will become inoperative on 1/1/2022 and repealed on 1/1/2023.  Click here for the complete, final bill. 

SB 328 (Kehoe) - Rules of the Road for Condemning Conservation Easements.  Contrary to popular belief, properties protected by conservation easements can be condemned.  SB 328 is a carefully crafted law that gives easement holders and any public funders early notice in the condemnation process, ensures their ability to appear in early proceedings, recognizes the public value of most conservation easements, and identifies specific appraisal techniques depending on whether the easement is condemned, damaged, or remains intact while the underlying fee is condemned.  Click here for the complete, final bill.

SB 436 (Kehoe) - Mitigation Endowments.  SB 436 solves the seemingly intractable problem of who can hold mitigation endowments.  The subject of five bills since 2006, SB 436 establishes strong protections, standards and reporting requirements for mitigation endowments, and directs that in most cases endowments will be held by the agency that imposes the mitigation requirement or by the entity that holds the mitigation land or conservation easement.  It gives additional direction for the protection of mitigation properties, including that easements must be permanent.  Click here for the complete, final bill. 

 SB 618 (Wolk) - Williamson Act and Renewable Energy Projects.  This bill authorizes parties to a Williamson Act contract to rescind the contract and enter into a solar-use easement that requires the land be used for solar photovoltaic failities for no more than 20 years, except as specified.  The Department of Contract must approve the rescission and the landonwer must pay a fee.  The solar-use easement is renewed annually, and additional conditions and restrictions apply to easement including what happens in the event of non-renewal.  Click here for the complete, final bill.

AB 565 (Monning) - Dam Removal by State Coastal Conservancy (signed 10/6/11).  In furtherance of the Conservancy's project to remove the San Clemente Dam, AB 565 authorizes the Conservancy to award a grant to a for-profit entity to remove or alter the Dam.  The bill caps the expenditure to not more than $25million for this purpose.  Click here for the complete, final bill.  

 AB 982 (Skinner) - Energy: Land exchange for renewable energy-related projects (signed 10/6/11).  For those of you with renewable energy projects or state school lands in your area, AB 982 will require the State Lands Commission, contingent upon the cooperation of the US Secretary of the Interior, to facilitate land exchanges that will consolidate school land parcels into contiguous holdings that are suitable for renewable energy-related projects.  The bill has further detail regarding revenues from the energy leases and reporting requirements.  Click here for the complete, final bill.

To learn more about any of these bills, such as earlier versions, committee analyses, or voting history, click here.  To get lists of all bills the Governor has signed or vetoed, click here.

Thanks to CCLT for these highlights from their Breaking News email over the weekend!

 

All in the comfort of your home or office

Are you familiar with this map?

It is the Conservation Lands Network, about 2 million acres of existing and potential protected parks, trails, working lands, and open spaces.  It's available online in various useful forms including maps, GIS data, Explorer and brochures.  

Have you wanted to dig deeper into this map?  Wonder how this map came to be? 

Now, available from the comfort of your home or office, is the Conservation Lands Network full report.  In your comfortable chair or on the couch you can explore ponds, vegetation types and enjoy stunning photography of the region's flora and fauna.  With a few clicks you can download the whole report or individual chapters, including: 

• How the Conservation Lands Network was created in Chapter 3: Methodology
• Descriptions and maps of the many types of vegetation in the Bay Area in Chapter 4: Vegetation
• Analysis of watersheds, discussion of riparian buffers, and more in Chapter 5: Riparian Habitat and Fish
• Maps and analysis of American Badgers, Red Tree Voles, Mountain Lions and others in Chapter 6: Mammals
• What can be done along with the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture in Chapter 7: Birds
• A very cool map of ponds and more in Chapter 8: Amphibians, Reptiles and Invertebrates
• Careful analysis of things that get in the way of realizing the Conservation Lands Network in Chapter 9: Conservation Target Viability
• Summary, conclusions, how to use the Conservation Lands Network and more in Chapters 10, 11 and 12

But wait!  There's more.  Do you know what a Boundary Length Modifier is?  What about the difference between a Focal Species and a Target Species?  The Glossary can help.  It's available for download, too.

Have you used the Conservation Lands Network already?  We'd love to hear what you think.  Take a quick and painless survey and tell us your experiences, what you like, and what could be improved.  Click here.

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We launched the Conservation Lands Network earlier this year, a bold plan to protect the Bay Area's last wild places and working lands.  We thank the funders of the Upland Habitat Goals Project - the project that created the Conservation Lands Network - and invite you to join them in supporting regional, science-based conservation planning.  Click here to contribute.

Read more about the Conservation Lands Network on our blog over the past year.