'Safe harbor' plan recognizes benefit of land stewardship

Issue Date: October 21, 2009

By Kate Campbell
Assistant Editor

Calling it a good fit for California ranchers, people who have developed an innovative new "safe harbor agreement" say it benefits both landowners and protected wildlife species.

The program is being proposed by the California Rangeland Conservation Coalition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game and should be fully approved by year end. The California Farm Bureau Federation is an active participant in the rangeland coalition.

When implemented, the safe harbor agreement will protect participating landowners if, during routine farming or ranching operations, they accidentally harm any of more than 15 species protected under both the federal and state Endangered Species Acts. The program will cover such "incidental take" of protected species on private ranchland in four Northern California counties—Shasta, Tehama, Butte and Glenn.

Under a safe harbor agreement, participating landowners can voluntarily undertake management activities on their property to enhance or restore habitat for species protected under the ESA, explained Noelle Cremers, CFBF natural resources and commodities director.

"In part, the proposed agreement recognizes the value of grazing and other land stewardship practices of California's ranchers as essential for species management," said Cremers, who called the agreement the result of collaboration among agricultural groups, government agencies and environmental organizations.

"Safe harbor agreements protect landowners from increased property use restrictions and in many cases create financial opportunities for improvements through grants and funding partnerships," Cremers said.

At this stage, Cremers added, it is unclear how many landowners will participate in the program. The draft agreement remains to be finalized by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The program provides confidentiality for ranchers, liability protections for neighbors and methods to verify habitat improvements by the agencies. Under the proposal, the California Cattlemen's Association will serve as the program administrator and liaison for ranchers and the wildlife agencies.

Some of the species covered under the proposed agreement include the valley elderberry longhorn beetle, vernal pool fairy shrimp, California red-legged frog, giant garter snake, Swainson's hawk and western yellow-billed cuckoo.

In the proposed safe harbor agreement, each species is accompanied by a list of beneficial activities to support recovery objectives. In the case of the California red-legged frog, beneficial activities might include controlling predator species such as bullfrogs and non-native species such as bass, catfish and sunfish. Other activities could include planting native vegetation around ponds and waterways and controlling sedimentation and siltation by stabilizing eroding streambanks, pond banks, dam faces and spillways, or potentially allowing reintroduction of California red-legged frogs on land enrolled under the agreement.

The California Rangeland Conservation Coalition, which includes Farm Bureau and the California Cattlemen's Association, as well as more than 75 other agricultural organizations, environmental groups and state and federal agencies, will offer informational materials and meetings to interested landowners once the proposed program is approved.

Tracy Schohr, California Cattlemen's Association rangeland conservation director who also helps lead the rangeland coalition, said the kinds of projects that will fit under the proposed agreement tie in nicely to those offered through Natural Resources Conservation Service projects.

"It's an exciting program that highlights that farmers and ranchers are doing good things for the environment," Schohr said. "This is another tool in the toolbox for those who want to make improvements on their land without being threatened by the Endangered Species Act."

To bring the state's safe harbor agreement program into closer alignment with federal requirements, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 448 into law last week.

"When we were working through this agreement and the state's equivalent program, we found it challenging to get the two government programs to work together," Cremers said. "What California Department of Fish and Game required wasn't the same as requirements of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service."

She said SB 448 harmonizes the state and federal programs to provide a better working framework for protecting both species and landowners.

"We worked very closely with Defenders of Wildlife and helped ensure the state legislation that supports the program works well for farmers and ranchers. Now, with the bill approved, we're able to more easily create programs that provide protections for state or federally listed species, and those listed by both," Cremers said.

That should make it easier to create more safe harbor agreements in other parts of the state that will help landowners, she said.

"We've been working on this agreement for a couple of years," said Kim Delfino of Defenders of Wildlife, which also is a member of the rangeland coalition. "We think this is a program that will be used by ranchers, just as similar programs have been actively used in other parts of the state and the nation. We hope people in other counties will want to do something similar to the approach used in the four northern Sacramento Valley counties."

Information about the program is available at www.fws.gov/sacramento.

(Kate Campbell is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at kcampbell@cfbf.com.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item. Top