Past Projects

Ponds

Due to our expertise in building partnerships between diverse interest groups, Sustainable Conservation was recruited in 2003 by the San Mateo Farm Bureau and Coastal Conservancy to develop economically and environmentally sustainable water supplies for farmers along the Santa Cruz and San Mateo coasts. As part of a growing effort to protect and restore coho salmon and steelhead populations, coastal farmers have faced increasing pressures to reduce their reliance on diversions from fish-bearing streams during the critical dry summer months. Several hundred acres of agricultural land in the project area have fallen out of irrigated production due to enforcement of state and federal regulations designed to protect fish habitat. This trend threatens the long-term viability of local agriculture and jeopardizes ongoing efforts to preserve the regions remaining open spaces.

The goal of the Ponds project was to develop sustainable, environmentally sound agricultural water supplies by facilitating the permitting and construction of off-stream storage ponds to capture excess winter stream flows for use in the dry summer months. By working with our partners to develop a template for addressing the diverse regulatory and water resource allocation issues facing coastal communities, Sustainable Conservation worked to ensure that both fish and farms have the water they need to survive.

Wastewater to Wetlands

Wetlands are nature's way of controlling flooding, soil erosion, water pollution and recharging groundwater aquifers. Wetlands are also one of earth's most biologically rich ecosystems, nurturing a wealth of waterfowl, amphibians, fish and other wildlife. Sadly, no state has suffered a greater loss than California where only nine percent of the original wetlands remain. Sustainable Conservation investigated innovative ways to recreate wetlands using wastewater from food manufacturing processes.

Partners in Protection

In six case studies across the country, Sustainable Conservation analyzed the impact of National Park boundaries on private property values. The project was developed in response to private landowner concern that the proposed Point Reyes Farmland Protection Act, if enacted, would depress private property values. Previously, the impact of park boundaries on private property values had not been documented. This project was conducted in collaboration with the National Park Service and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust.

Partners in Protection Final Report

Habitat Banking for the Protection of Threatened and Endangered Species

Sustainable Conservation worked with Environmental Defense (ED) to develop detailed recommendations for using mitigation/conservation banks, which enable landowners (public or private) to sell habitat credits to real estate developers in exchange for permanently protecting the land. These credits compensate communities for any potential negative environmental impacts to the land caused by development.

Conservation/mitigation banks provide long–term protection to endangered species, and offer landowners economic incentives to protect natural resources. This work will assist federal, state, and local public agencies to evaluate and use a market–based conservation tool whose use is expected to grow rapidly. Sustainable Conservation assisted ED with systematic evaluation, specifically profiling California's experience with this tool, in order to inform sound policy development.

Restoring Wetlands on Private Property

This project created a "tool kit" of incentives to increase wetland quantity and quality on private property in the Monterey Bay area. The incentives included conservation easements, management contracts, tax credits, transferable development credits, water credits, and other types of cash and cash equivalents to encourage local landowners to participate in wetlands restoration. Sustainable Conservation also successfully gained approval to work on nine privately–held sites encompassing 46 acres of degraded wetlands in the Monterey Bay area. Freshwater restoration projects are in progress on each of these sites. This undertaking was a joint effort with the Watershed Institute based at California State University, Monterey.

Bay Area Clean Water Agencies

When broken, fluorescent light bulbs release mercury, contributing to high levels of mercury in San Francisco Bay. The Bay Area Clean Water Agencies (BACWA, formerly Bay Area Dischargers Association) asked Sustainable Conservation to evaluate whether voluntary actions could reduce the amount of mercury that is released when fluorescent lamps break. Sustainable Conservation recommended that BACWA work with regulatory agencies and mercury lamp recyclers, as well as other affected businesses such as local landfills, to educate consumers about why, where, and how they should recycle defunct fluorescent bulbs.

Reducing Mercury Releases From Fluorescent Lamps: Analysis of Voluntary Approaches (Prepared for the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies)

Yolo County Resource Conservation District

The Yolo County Resource Conservation District (RCD) encourages farmers and ranchers to use the natural contours of the Yolo Foothills to form small ponds that create habitat for water–related species and regulate flood flows. The RCD asked Sustainable Conservation to explore opportunities for coordinating the environmental review of these ponds and the possibility of applying the tools and techniques developed as part of our Partners in Restoration program to this regulatory challenge. Instead of pursuing a similar strategy for hillponds, (the rigidity of water rights process required a different type of solution), Sustainable Conservation identified newly legislated changes in the state water code that would allow for expedited approval of hillpond construction, and advised the RCD on how to design new ponds to meet these criteria.

Water Rights and Hillponds: A Report to the Yolo County RCD

Fleming Ranch

Working with the ranch owners, a land planner, and scientists from the University of California Riverside, Sustainable Conservation established a long–term management plan for this 1,300–acre ranch in the San Jacinto Mountains. The project identified opportunities to protect the areas of significant biodiversity while providing the owners with long–term development options.