The Sutter Creek City Council approved an agreement with the California Department of Transportation to manage a 176-acre parcel which has been transferred to the city as part of the Highway 49 bypass project. Part of the agreement is to record a conservation easement on the property with the Amador Land Trust, which will ensure that the property remain undeveloped in perpetuity. The agreement provides the city with a lump sum of approximately $50,000 for maintaining and managing the property.
I agree that this property should be zoned and maintained as open space as part of the mitigation for the bypass project and, a conservation easement with the Amador Land Trust is a good mechanism to ensure it remains in open space. What I don't agree with is the recent mitigation work that has occurred on the property by Caltrans.
What was a beautiful oak woodland parcel is now scarred by heavy equipment excavating ponds and cutting roads to install an irrigation system to irrigate oak acorns and willow planting, all at a cost of approximately $3 million.
The ponds were excavated to create wetlands or "seeps" similar to vernal pools, which don't exist in the geographic area. Historically, the site did not support any riparian plant species, but Caltrans is planting water-loving plants that will require an expensive and unsightly irrigation system to survive. One Sutter Creek City Council member discussed pumping treated wastewater to keep the ponds full. Lack of natural oak regeneration is a problem statewide, but irrigating oak acorns at a cost that may exceed $1,000 per surviving tree is not the solution to our statewide problem.
What has caused me the greatest concern is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has imposed a mitigation to not allow the public on the property unless a trail is constructed and completely fenced to keep the public from impacting this "natural" wildlife and plant refuge.
The cost of the trail construction and fencing may take all of the $50,000 the city received to manage the property in perpetuity. If the trail is not fenced, then the public will not be able to walk on the property. There was no fire management plan developed under the agreement and, without grazing as a tool to keep the grass crop down, the city now has a tremendous liability to the existing Crestview Estates sub-division. Also, one wildland fire will destroy all the irrigation system and planted trees. We already had two wildland fires on this property last year, which came close to destroying part of the oak planting area.
What else could Caltrans do to mitigate the impacts from their projects? They could have spent the taxpayers' $3 million on conservation easements to protect critical oak woodland and riparian habitat.
The Nature Conservancy purchased 12,000 acres of the Howard Property in Ione a number of years ago and placed a conservation easement on the property. The property was resold to a cattle rancher who now runs cattle on the property, but with the conservation easement the oak woodland and vernal pools are protected in perpetuity from development, all at a cost of $6 million.
The funds could have also been spent assisting local landowners in improving their oak woodland and through landowner incentive programs. I know where I would spend my money and it wouldn't be to fund an over-engineered science project.