Update on Forest Update on Forest Legacy Program Legacy Program

20122012

Jeff Calvert Jeff Calvert FLP Coordinator FLP Coordinator

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While conservation is directed at places….

..it is important to remember that we are also serving people - keeping traditional uses viable through a landscapes approach.

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Barbara Baxter-Baxter Ranch Sonoma County

Why? Keep the 4000+ acre ranch intact for her grandchildren and their grandchildren to occupy and to manage.

What? Pressures from vineyard and Ranchette development have raised property values and threaten to result in the ranch being subdivided upon transfer to next generation.

How? Through a conservation easement- a legal agreement a property owner makes with a governmental entity or a nonprofit organization to restrict activities allowed on the land in order to protect specified conservation values. Easement restrictions are tailored to the particular property and to the interests of the individual landowner. All FLP conservation easements are held in perpetuity

Specifically a “working-forest” conservation easement that allows traditional uses; e.g. timber harvesting, grazing, hunting, owner occupation and business opportunities that do not conflict with conservation values.

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What attributes are needed to successfully compete for Forest Legacy Program funding?

Importance - Attributes of the property including: economic timber & non-timber benefits, T & E sp., wildlife & unique habitats, water supply & watershed protection, public access, scenic, historical/cultural

Threat - the likelihood of conversion or development

Strategic - How the project fits within a larger conservation plan

Dry Creek Ranch (Dofflemeyer), Tulare County

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Six Rivers to the Sea has been our most successful project. California has consistently placed in the highest rankings by the National FLP selection committee. (In 2009, out of over 80 applications to the Washington, DC office Chalk Mountain ranked #2.). Tracts include:

•Howe Creek Ranch

•Price Creek Ranch

•Iaqua Ranch

•Sunny Brae

•Valley View Ranch

•Grizzly Mountain Ranch

•Chalk Mountain Ranch

•Charles Mountain Ranch

•Miller Port Orford Cedar Forest

Chalk Mountain Ranch

From Left: Philo, Les and Brandon Barnwell

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Francis & Lorana Sweet

Valley View Ranch

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Arlin Grandy

Price Creek Ranch

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Iaqua Ranch

Howe Creek Ranch

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In 2011, the Eel River Peninsula Conservation Project, ranked second in the National FLP ranking in Washington DC and was awarded a grant for $7,000,000 to help acquire working forest conservation easements on the second phase. This represented the highest amount of project funding the California FLP has ever received.

The conservation easement on Phase 1 is held by Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) and was funded through the WCB

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Where do we go from here?

Steve Hackett (Howe Creek Ranch)

Greg Hendrickson, Esq. manager Kealakekua Ranch, HI.

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Publications, forms and websites:

Forest Guild: http://www.forestguild.org\

http://www.forestguild.org/publications/research/2006/Forest_Conservation_Easements_ Forest_Guild.pdf

Land Trust Alliance: http://www.landtrustalliance.org/

CAL FIRE:http://www.fire.ca.gov/resource_mgt/resource_mgt_forestryassistance_legacy.php