Wildlands is excited to report the discovery of an adult California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) (CTS) in one of the created vernal pools on the 627-acre North Suisun Mitigation Bank located in Solano County, California. The Bank was established to provide compensatory mitigation for impacts to wetlands and threatened or endangered species, including CTS, vernal pool fairy shrimp (Branchinecta lynchi) and vernal pool tadpole shrimp (Lepidurus packardi) through habitat preservation, creation, and restoration activities.
Surveys conducted over the last 5 years have revealed the presence of listed vernal pool invertebrates in over 20% of the created pools, far exceeding the Bank’s performance standard requirement. Only in its 6th year of operation, the North Suisun Mitigation Bank has attained all “Year 10” performance standards, demonstrating the ecological success of the Bank.
Wildlands is proud to have been a participating sponsor in the recent 2nd Annual Calling Back the Salmon Celebration put on by Wildlife Heritage Foundation (WHF) and Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead (SARSAS). The all-day event was held at McBean Park in Lincoln, California with the purpose of uniting the community to educate and promote a return of the salmon run to the Auburn Ravine. Events of the day included live music, art and craft activities for the kids, a silent auction and raffle.
Founded in 2000, WHF is a local non-profit corporation that provides land conservation services and is dedicated to preserving California’s open spaces, agricultural land, and diverse wildlife. SARSAS was formed with the mission “to return salmon and steelhead to the entire length of the Auburn Ravine.”
For more information about either organization click here: WHF or SARSAS.
Richard “Skip” Moss, Wildlands’ Regional Manager for the Central California Region, has been elected President of the San Joaquin Valley Chapter of The Wildlife Society.
After years of dedicated participation and active enjoyment, Skip was excited to hear that he had beaten the competition for the coveted three-year position. According to the Chapter Charter, his first year will be spent as the “President Elect,” followed by one year as “Active President,” and his final year of service as “Past President.”
Over the course of his tenure, Skip hopes to facilitate an increase in membership through more efficient marketing, more successful and poignant training and workshops, and more enjoyable professional development and volunteer opportunities. If you have any ideas or opportunities for Skip and the San Joaquin Valley Chapter, please contact him at rmoss@wildlandsinc.com.
Congratulations Skip, and good luck on helping your Chapter grow, develop, and improve under your leadership.
Wildlands, Inc. announces the completion of habitat restoration at the Liberty Island Conservation Bank in Yolo County, California. The completion of construction caps a three year entitlement and permitting process with federal, state and local agencies in one of the most complex restoration projects in Wildlands 20-year history.
The 186-acre restoration project focused on tidal aquatic habitat suitable for special-status fish species. The Liberty Island Conservation Bank is a collaborative effort between Wildlands, California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and will mitigate permitted impacts to fisheries habitat throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The Bank is protected with a permanent conservation easement and a non-wasting long-term endowment to manage the property in perpetuity.
Watch the Liberty Island Restoration Project video case study:
The development of the project comes at a crucial time when varied environmental and water interests throughout California debate the current health and long term future of the Delta. All parties can agree that projects like Liberty Island are critical to the sustainability of the Delta as both an ecosystem and an economic engine for the State.
“There is a lot of attention being focused on habitat restoration in the Delta. Wildlands is proud to actually be implementing a needed restoration project in an area most agree is critically important to the continued survival of listed fish species like salmon, longfin smelt and Delta smelt,” said Steve Morgan, Wildlands CEO. “The approval and construction of this project is a true credit to all the talented and varied disciplines at Wildlands. Our planning, biology and design/build groups have put forth a remarkable effort to get this critically important project built.”
Restoration at Liberty Island called for developing a mosaic of habitats beneficial to Delta native fish species. The construction included creating open water channels, tidal emergent marsh, seasonally inundated floodplain habitats and removing levees which impeded tidal and flood flow. In all over 190,000 cubic yards of material was moved to complete the project.
The project was a complex permitting and construction effort that involved input from a multitude of agencies and consultants. “The design was a collaborative effort. The resource agencies, particularly NMFS, FWS and DFG, provided significant input in developing the restoration design and overall management of the project. Agency input and expertise is critical for all of our projects,” said Carl Jensen, Wildlands Director of Design Build.
Earthmoving was done by Chris Galloway Construction of Davis, California, who has developed a significant track record of habitat restoration projects working with Wildlands.
“One of the main challenges was just getting equipment on to the island,” said Chris Galloway, owner of Chris Galloway Construction. “Since access to the island is limited, we had to barge our heavy equipment to the project one piece at a time.”
“Earthwork on habitat restoration projects can be especially challenging because you are working in close proximity to water and getting the proper grading elevation is crucial to the success of the project,” continued Jensen. “Chris Galloway uses state of the art GPS-enabled equipment to ensure exact grades down to the inch.”
Additional Delta restoration projects are planned by Wildlands in 2011 and 2012. “We predict sizable need for a company like Wildlands to implement restoration projects throughout the Delta and we have developed a proven team who can act quickly and effectively,” said Morgan.
Wildlands, Inc. announces the approval of four new mitigation and conservation banks in Northern California. With the approval of the Phase III River Ranch Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle Conservation Bank, Liberty Island Native Fisheries Conservation Bank, Toad Hill Ranch and River Ranch Wetland Mitigation Banks, Wildlands is now operating 28 banks servicing 37 counties throughout California.
“The approval of these four banks further broadens our mitigation inventory and will allow us to continue to assist our Northern California public and private developer clients responsibly meet their mitigation obligations,” said Brian Monaghan, Project Director at Wildlands. “These recent approvals are not only a testament to our top notch bank entitlement team, but also to our natural resource agency partners at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG). They have provided valuable input and support throughout the approval process.”
Details of the four projects:
• 100-acre Phase III expansion of the River Ranch Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle Conservation Bank in Yolo County by USFWS. This is the expansion of a successful preserve dedicated to the recovery of the Beetle.
• 148-acre Liberty Island Native Fisheries Conservation Bank is approved to mitigate impacts to native delta fish including delta smelt and listed salmon. The project has been approved by NMFS, USFWS and CDFG. The project is approved to mitigate impacts to native fish habitat throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta.
• 1,630-acre Toad Hill Ranch, located in western Placer County, has been approved to mitigate for impacts to wetlands and listed vernal pool crustaceans by the USACE, USEPA, and USFWS; and for impacts to Swainson’s hawk foraging habitat by the County of Placer. The project will create and restore over 95 acres of wetlands and vernal pools; and preserve over 1,600 acres of Swainson’s hawk foraging habitat.
• 113-acre River Ranch Wetlands Mitigation Bank is approved by the USACE, USEPA, and CDFG to mitigate permitted impacts to wetlands in Western Placer County, Northern Sacramento County and Yolo County.
With the number of banks currently being operated by Wildlands, the company has developed an on-line mitigation search engine on the company’s web page that allows permit applicants and their consulting teams to accurately determine which Wildlands mitigation bank may service their project.
“We have received a lot of positive feedback from project proponents on our mitigation search engine, but it certainly will not replace the one-on-one customer service our clients expect,” remarked Monaghan.
As Wildlands approaches its 20th year in business, several additional California banks are slated for approval in 2011. These include new projects throughout Southern California to help the state meet future growth and infrastructure needs.
Environmental regulations, including the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, are far from ambiguous in requiring that impacts to the public’s natural resources must be mitigated. As straightforward as that may be, it becomes complicated when responsible project proponents, progressive consultants, and equitable regulators are figuring out exactly how to satisfy those mitigation requirements.
Mitigation Portal Welcome Screen
With these industry complexities in mind, we are excited to announce the launch of our new Wildlands Mitigation and Conservation Bank mapping tool, the “Mitigation Portal”. This web-based mapping application is the first of its kind, and will become an invaluable resource in your research of mitigation solutions.
Wildlands’ Mitigation Portal is an easily pannable and searchable mapping and satellite imagery tool that will bring the habitat mitigation and species mitigation world to your fingertips. Created with a user-friendly and intuitive interface, the Wildlands Mitigation Portal was designed with agency personnel, project proponents, and the environmental conservation community at large in mind.
Conservation Bank and Mitigation Bank Search Menu
The Mitigation Portal will allow you to easily:
• Access habitat and species mitigation projects
• Pan and search map and satellite imagery
• Search by bank type (credit or habitat type)
• Search by location
By clicking the name of any Bank, a pop-up window conveniently displays all of that bank’s pertinent information including credit types, acreages, service areas, approving agencies, pictures and more. Using this Mitigation Portal, you will be better informed regarding all potential mitigation solutions available, making you the mitigation expert.
Click on your Bank and credit type of choice to see the approved Service Area for that mitigation credit. Pictured: Service area for Gilsizer Slough South Giant Garter Snake Conservation Bank, Sutter County, CA.
Switch between the "Map" and "Satellite" views to enhance your geographic perspective of our protected landscapes. Pictured: Musket Bay Mitigation Bank in southeast Georgia.
Wildlands announces the approval of Ridge Cut Giant Garter Snake Conservation Bank in Yolo County, California, dedicated to mitigation of habitat impacts to the threatened giant garter snake (GGS). The 185-acre bank serves portions of Tehama, Glenn, Colusa, Yolo, Sacramento, and Solano Counties west of the Sacramento River, and is the first bank to offer GGS credits in that territory since Wildlands’ Dolan and Pope Ranch banks sold out three years ago.
Including sites scheduled for construction in 2009, Wildlands will have restored over 2,000 acres of GGS habitat in the Sacramento Valley, more than all other conservation banking entities combined.
For more information about the Ridge Cut GGS Conservation Bank, please contact Julie Maddox at (916) 435-3555.
We are pleased to present the following video previews of threatened and endangered wildlife, excerpted from work in progress by Orca Films for Wildlands.
Underwater Video of Vernal Pool Fairy Shrimp This clip shows the vernal pool fairy shrimp (Branchinecta lynchi) federally listed as a threatened species. The male can be identified by its long antennae. The female is carrying an egg sac, visible toward the end of the body. Recorded at Wildlands’ Blackburn Conservation Bank in Tehama County, California, 2008
Underwater Video of Vernal Pool Tadpole Shrimp This clip of the vernal pool tadpole shrimp (Lepidurus packardis), federally listed as an endangered species, was recorded at Wildlands’ Great Valley Conservation Bank in Merced County, California, 2008.
States are at risk of losing billions of dollars from the federal public works stimulus package if these projects lack environmental permits. Wildlands can provide wetland mitigation credits and stream mitigation credits available now in California, Georgia, and Washington state, for city, county and state agencies needing rapid permitting of public projects.
President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion economic stimulus package into law February 17. It includes massive spending on a variety of public projects including highway and bridge repairs and maintenance, new and upgraded schools, water supply reservoirs, and energy-efficient government buildings, among other projects. However, candidate projects for stimulus funding must be ’shovel ready’ and have all necessary permits within 180 days of package approval.
Public works projects impacting wetlands and streams are often required to offset project impacts through compensatory mitigation and habitat replacement. Wildlands’ mitigation credits provide a quick, efficient and cost-effective solution to this requirement.
For more information about how Wildlands can help, please contact Jeff Mathews at (877) 435-3555.
