Conservation Highlights
Creating a Safe Harbor for California's Endangered Species
Finding practical private-sector solutions to complex environmental problems is a cornerstone of Sustainable Conservation's work. That's why we've expanded the use of an innovative tool in California that encourages landowners to create and restore endangered species habitat on their properties.
This conservation tool, called a Safe Harbor Agreement, does what the Endangered Species Act cannot: provide incentives for landowners to help endangered species recover. With more than half of U.S. land privately owned - and more than half of all rare animals and plants making their homes on private property - the fate of endangered species depends heavily on the decisions of private landowners.
Safe Harbor Agreements are a powerful win for wildlife and committed property owners overseeing the nation's wildlife resources. Sustainable Conservation is excited to expand the use of this important tool to promote habitat restoration across California - and reward landowners for their help in keeping many endangered species from the brink of extinction.
California Red-Legged Frog
California's endangered red-legged frog
has lost 70% of its original habitat over
the last 100 years - with the overall
population declining by 90%.
Sustainable Conservation is advancing two projects to save the threatened California red-legged frog - celebrated by Mark Twain and once so abundant it was consumed at countless California dinner tables. At the start of the last century, the frog's habitat extended as far north as Redding down to Baja California. The species has lost an estimated 70% of its original habitat over the last 100 years and 90% of its population through predation (both by humans and introduced amphibians), logging, water diversion, grazing, pollution and urban development.
Sustainable Conservation penned a Safe Harbor Agreement to enhance the frog's habitat in the 604,000-acre Cottonwood Creek watershed that spans Shasta and Tehama counties - and another along Pine Gulch Creek near Bolinas. These agreements were forged with local conservation groups and landowners to protect both habitat and the people living there. The Cottonwood Creek agreement is the second regional, "programmatic" agreement in California - compared with previous agreements that covered only one property. Potentially, properties covering up to 500,000 acres within the Northern California watershed could benefit.
Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle
The endangered Valley elderberry
longhorn beetle's habitat has dwindled
by 90% since the mid-1800s.
Photo: US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Sustainable Conservation and its partners came to the rescue of a unique little bug, the Valley elderberry longhorn beetle. Until the mid-1800s, this tiny creature was abundant throughout much of California's Central Valley. Today, only about 10% of its original habitat remains.
Sustainable Conservation developed a Safe Harbor Agreement that enables River Partners, a Chico-based conservation organization, to restore and maintain nearly 260 acres of riparian habitat along the Sacramento River in Glenn County. With the agreement in place, River Partners will plant approximately 1,500 elderberry bushes to restore the flood-prone region to riparian habitat. The new bushes will connect previously fragmented areas of vegetation along the river, and establish a wildlife corridor benefiting the beetle and an array of wildlife dependent on insects for food.
> More about our Safe Harbor Agreement work.
News
> "Agreement Aims to Aid Vanishing Species" - Davis Enterprise