The California State Coastal Conservancy (CSCC, SCC) is a non-regulatory
state agency
A government or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government
The machinery of government (sometimes abbreviated as MoG) is the interconnected structures and proc ...
in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
established in 1976 to enhance coastal resources and public access to the coast. The CSCC is a department of the
California Natural Resources Agency
The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) is a state cabinet-level agency in the government of California. The institution and jurisdiction of the Natural Resources Agency is provided for in California Government Code sections 12800 and 128 ...
. The agency's work is conducted along the entirety of the California coast, including the interior
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
and is responsible for the planning and coordination of federal land sales to acquire into state land as well as award grant funding for improvement projects. The Board of Directors for the agency is made up of seven members who are appointed by the
Governor of California
The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard.
Established in the Constitution of California, the g ...
and approved by the
California Legislature
The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legisla ...
, members of the
California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.
The A ...
and
California State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, Cal ...
engage and provide oversight within their legislative capacity.
Goals
The agency's official goals are to:
*Protect and improve coastal
wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
s, streams, and
watersheds
*Improve access to coasts and shores by building trails and stairways and improving the availability of low cost accommodation including campgrounds and hostels
*Work with local communities to revitalize urban watersheds
*Assist in resolving complex land-use problems
*Purchase and hold environmentally valuable coastal and bay lands
*Protect Agricultural lands and support coastal agriculture
*Accept donations and dedication of land and
easement
An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a propert ...
s for public access, wildlife habitat, agriculture and open spaces
Since its establishment, the Conservancy has completed over 4,000 projects along the California coastline and San Francisco Bay, restored over 400,000 acres of coastal habitat, built hundreds of miles of new trail including the
Bay Area Ridge Trail
The Bay Area Ridge Trail (Ridge Trail) is a planned multi-use trail along the hill and mountain ridgelines ringing the San Francisco Bay Area, in Northern California. Currently, have been established. When complete, the trail will connect ov ...
, Santa Ana Parkway Trail, and partnered on over 100 urban waterfront projects. The Conservancy has spent over $1.8 billion on projects. It works in partnership with other public agencies, nonprofit organizations and private landowners, employing 75 people and overseeing a current annual budget of 53 million dollars.
The Conservancy was created by the legislature as a unique entity with flexible powers to serve as an intermediary among government, citizens, and the private sector in recognition that creative approaches would be needed to preserve California's coast line.
The Conservancy provides technical assistance and grant funding to local communities, nonprofit organizations, other government agencies, businesses, and private landowners to implement multi-benefit projects that:
* Protect the natural and scenic beauty of the coast
* Enhance wildlife habitat help the public to get to and enjoy beaches and parklands
* Keep farmland and timberlands in production
* Improve water quality
* Revitalize working waterfronts
* Prepare communities for the impacts of climate change
Projects
The conservancy has completed more than 2,400 projects along the California coast line and in the
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
bay.
These projects have included preserving almost of wetlands, dunes, wildlife habitat, recreation lands, farmland, and scenic open space, building hundreds of miles of access ways and trails along the coastline, and assisting in the completion of more than 100 urban waterfront projects.
The Conservancy has hundreds of ongoing projects including:
California Coastal Trail
Once completed, the California Coastal Trail (CCT) will extend from
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
to
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, making it one of the longest trails in the United States. While informal trails along our coast have been used for centuries, CCT was initiated in 1972 when Californians passed Proposition 20 recommending that a trails system be established along or near the coast. In 1999, the CCT was designated at the state and federal level as Millennium Legacy Trail, and in 2001 state legislation called for its completion. Roughly half of the CCT was complete in 2009.
Enacted in 1976, the State Coastal Conservancy Act (Division 21 Section 31000 et al. of the Public Resources Code) calls for the Coastal Conservancy to have a principal role in the implementation of a system of public accessways to and along the state's coastline, including development of the CCT. The Coastal Conservancy pursues this mandate in part by awarding grants to public agencies and nonprofit organizations to acquire land, or any interest therein, or to develop, operate, or manage lands for public access purposes to and along the coast, on terms and conditions the Coastal Conservancy specifies. In addition, the Coastal Conservancy works with other state agencies including the
California Department of Parks and Recreation and the Coastal Commission to coordinate trail development.
In 2001, the Governor signed Senate Bill 908 directing the Coastal Conservancy to report back to the Legislature on progress made completing the trail. In 2003, the “Completing the California Coastal Trail” Report described the status of the trail and outlined strategies for its completion. SB 908 also directed the Coastal Conservancy to provide grants and assistance to establish and expand inland trail systems that may be linked to the trail, and directed agencies with property interests or regulatory authority in coastal areas to cooperate with the Coastal Conservancy with respect to planning and making lands available for completion of the trail.
In 2007, the Governor signed SB 1396 directing the Coastal Conservancy to coordinate development of the Coastal Trail with the
Caltrans
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...
. This bill also required local transportation planning agencies whose jurisdiction includes a portion of the Coastal Trail, or property designated for the trail to coordinate with the Coastal Conservancy, Coastal Commission, and Caltrans regarding development of the trail.
Napa Sonoma Marsh Restoration Project
The
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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, anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day)
, battles =
, battles_label = Wars
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, commander1 = ...
, the Conservancy, and the
California Department of Fish and Game
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), formerly known as the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), is a state agency under the California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Wildlife manages and protect ...
conducted a feasibility study and preparing an Environmental Impact Report / Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS), which involves the technical
Analysis of Alternatives The Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) in the United States is a requirement of military acquisition policy, as controlled by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the United States Department of Defense (DoD). It ensures that at least three fea ...
for the restoration of of wetlands and associated habitats within the former Cargill salt pond complex in the North Bay.
The goals of this project are to restore large patches of tidal marsh that support a wide variety of fish, wildlife and plants, including special status mammals and water birds – specifically the
salt marsh harvest mouse
The salt marsh harvest mouse (''Reithrodontomys raviventris''), also known as the red-bellied harvest mouse, is an endangered rodent endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area salt marshes in California. The two distinct subspecies are both endangere ...
,
California clapper rail
Ridgway's rail (''Rallus obsoletus'') is a near-threatened species of bird. It is found principally in California's San Francisco Bay to southern Baja California. A member of the rail family, Rallidae, it is a chicken-sized bird that rarely fli ...
, and
black rail, endangered fish – specifically the
delta smelt
The delta smelt (''Hypomesus transpacificus'') is an endangered slender-bodied smelt, about long, in the family Osmeridae. Non-Indigenous to the upper Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary of California, it mainly inhabits the freshwater-saltwater mix ...
,
Sacramento splittail
The splittail (''Pogonichthys macrolepidotus''), also called Sacramento splittail, is a cyprinid fish native to the low-elevation waters of the Central Valley in California. It was first described by William O. Ayres in 1854. It is the sole li ...
,
steelhead trout
Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and N ...
and
Chinook salmon
The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...
, and aquatic animals. They will also be managing water depth to maximize wildlife habitat diversity, with shallow-water areas for migratory and resident shore birds and deep-water areas for diving ducks.
Carmel River Reroute and San Clemente Dam Removal Project
The project involves the Conservancy,
National Marine Fisheries Service
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the stew ...
(NMFS), the Conservation League Foundation and the Californian
American Water company (CalAm) working together to remove the
San Clemente Dam
The San Clemente Dam was an arch dam on the Carmel River about southeast of Monterey in Monterey County, California of the United States. It was located just downstream of the Carmel River and San Clemente Creek confluence. Completed in 1921 to s ...
. Since the dams construction in 1921, the
Carmel River has suffered from accelerated erosion, and the once vibrant steelhead trout run has dramatically decreased.
The benefits of the dam removal include recovery of central coast steelhead trout (a threatened species) by proving unimpaired access to over of
spawning
Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquat ...
and rearing habitat, expansion of public recreation by preserving over of coastal watershed lands, restoration of a natural sediment regime improving the habitat for steelhead trout, reducing
beach erosion that now contributes to destabilization of homes, roads and infrastructure, and improvement of habitat for the threatened
California red-legged frog
The California red-legged frog (''Rana draytonii'') is a species of frog found in California (USA) and northern Baja California (Mexico). It was formerly considered a subspecies of the northern red-legged frog (''Rana aurora''). The frog is an IU ...
.
The total project cost for the project is estimated at $83 million.
According to the implementation agreement, CalAm will pay an amount equivalent to the estimated cost of buttressing the dam, or approximately $49 million.
The Conservancy, with assistance from the NMFS, will secure the additional $34 million from state, federal, and private foundation sources.
Construction of the project is expected to take three years – activities will be restricted to approximately April to November to avoid the rainy season and impact to migrating steelhead. During years two and three of construction, the Carmel River and San Clemente Creek will be diverted around the reservoir and dam site, and the reservoir will be emptied.
Integrated Watershed Restoration Program (IWRP)
The Integrated Watershed Restoration Program (IWRP; pronounced "I Werp") for
Santa Cruz County was formed in 2002 as a county-wide effort to prioritize watershed restoration. The IWRP's objectives are to:
* Coordinate agencies on the identification, funding and implementation of watershed restoration projects
* Target proposals to critical projects supported by the resource agencies
* Facilitate higher quality designs at lower costs
* Simplify the permit process for watershed restoration
* Effect institutional change to improve watershed restoration efforts
* Develop a countywide outreach and education program
* Develop a monitoring program geared toward future project identification needs
* Develop additional assessments and plans
* Serve as a water restoration information hub for Santa Cruz county.
The Conservancy awarded $4.5 million to the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County in June 2003 to initiate Phase 1 of the IWRP
focused on pre-implementation activities including designs and permits for nearly 100 critical watershed restoration projects in Santa Cruz County
including expansion of rural roads, technical assistance programs, comparative lagoon ecological assessment projects, countywide outreach and education program development, watershed education activity and resource guides, and coordination of resources: annual watershed partner forum, reporting, website and technical assistance.
South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project
![Eden Landing Ecological Reserve San Francisco Bay Area](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Eden_Landing_Ecological_Reserve_San_Francisco_Bay_Area.jpg)
The project is being headed by the state of California and the federal government to restore of Cargill's former salt ponds in San Francisco Bay.
In October 2000,
Cargill
Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...
proposed to consolidate its operations and sell lands and salt production rights on 61 percent of its South Bay Operation area. Negotiations were headed by Senator
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...
and a framework agreement was signed in May 2002 by the conservancy, the
California Resources Agency
The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) is a state cabinet-level agency in the government of California. The institution and jurisdiction of the Natural Resources Agency is provided for in California Government Code sections 12800 and 1280 ...
, the Wildlife Conservation Board, the California Department of Fish and Game,
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
, Cargill and Senator Feinstein.
California approved the purchase of the property on February 11, 2003.
Invasive Spartina Project
The Invasive Spartina Project is a coordinated regional effort among local, state and federal organizations dedicated to preserving California's extraordinary coastal biological resources through the elimination of introduced species of
Spartina
''Spartina'' is a taxon of plants in the grass family, frequently found in coastal salt marshes. Its species are commonly known as cordgrass or cord-grass, and are native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean in western and southern Europe, nort ...
.
Cordgrasses are highly aggressive invaders that significantly alter both the physical structure and biological composition of our tidal marshes, mudflats and creeks.
The control program is the "action arm" of the San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project, a project of the conservancy. The program uses an Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) approach to prioritize and implement control efforts.
Applying this approach, the control program uses all available scientific information regarding the San Francisco Estuary, the invasive cordgrasses, and the likely economic, sociological, and ecological consequences of both the invasion and the treatment program, to develop a management strategy that is effective, economical, and protective of public and environmental health.
To implement the site-specific management strategies, the program relies heavily on partnerships developed with the landowners and managers around the Bay that have non-native Spartina growing on their lands. The conservancy provides treatment and eradication grants to these partners, who subsequently select an appropriate aquatic vegetation control contractor through a competitive bid process, or utilize their own equipment and crews in the case of flood control and mosquito abatement districts.
These partners are ultimately responsible for the success of the project through the long-term commitment to monitor and maintain the eradication efforts, and ensure that Spartina is not reintroduced to the system.
Explore the Coast program
The Conservancy's Explore the Coast Grant program is a small grants program supporting programs that encourage all Californian's to explore and experience the coast, with a focus on under-served communities and young people. Since 2013, the Conservancy has awarded over $4 million in 150 separate grants for programs that bring people to the coast, increase stewardship of coastal resources, and provide educational opportunities. These grants prioritize projects that achieve one or more of these objectives:
* Provide coastal experiences to lower-income or other underserved populations;
* Increase the number of people visiting the coast;
* Improve barrier-free access for persons with disabilities; and/or
* Provide a valuable recreational, environmental, cultural or historic learning experience;
* Increase stewardship of coastal resources; or
* Enhance the public's coastal experience in a way that does not currently exist.
Explore the Coast Overnight program
In 2019, the Conservancy introduced it
Explore the Coast Overnightprogram to fund projects and programs to increase Californians' opportunities to stay overnight near or on the coast. The program allocates funding from
Proposition 68, the Parks and Water Bond Act of 2018, to support the construction of cabins, campsites and other lodging as well as overnight programming at the coast. The Explore the Coast Overnight grant program and the Conservancy'
Explore the Coast Overnight Assessment were developed in response t
AB-250 State Coastal Conservancy: Lower Cost Coastal Accommodations Program(
Gonzalez Fletcher).
Leadership
The Conservancy's Executive Officer is Amy Hutzel who also serves in the same capacity for the
San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority
The San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority (SFBRA) is a government agency dedicated to preserving and restoring San Francisco Bay and its shoreline. SFBRA was created by the California legislature in 2008. It is headquartered in Oakland. In 201 ...
The Deputy Executive Officers are Mary Small and Helen Kang. The Chair of the Conservancy's Board is
Douglas Bosco.
References
Additional References
*
Hikers Guide, California Coastal Trail info, Coast Walk, 2003Los Angeles River Wetlands in the City of Long Beach: A Feasibility Study, City of Long Beach Department of Parks Recreation and Marine May 2002
{{authority control
State agencies of California
Environment of California
Ecology organizations
Government agencies established in 1976
Hiking trails in California
1976 establishments in California