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January 2009
California Oak Report
Maximizing Oak Woodland Conservation Incentives
Listed below are the major oak woodland conservation incentives available to California landowners. These economic benefits can be combined in many ways to capitalize on the inherent ecological value of oak woodlands. Under the right circumstances, a landowner could use all of these conservation incentives in a phased implementation to maximize and extend oak woodland economic-ecological benefits through the 21st century - while continuing grazing or other compatible economic activities.
Conservation Easement Tax Benefits
This is the final year that family farmers, ranchers and other moderate-income landowners can receive substantially increased tax benefits for making the charitable donation of a conservation easement. An expiring 2006 tax credit raised the deduction a landowner can take for donating a conservation easement from the standard 30% of their income in any year to 50%, allows qualifying farmers and ranchers to deduct up to 100% of their income and extends the carry-forward period for a donor to take tax deductions for a voluntary conservation agreement from 5 to 15 years. These augmented tax incentives only apply to easements donated by the end of 2009 - unless Congress extends the benefit. All potential donors should seek professional tax and legal advice.
Wildlife Conservation Board
The WCB provides substantial funding for counties that have qualified for its Oak Woodlands Conservation Program. Moneys from the state Oak Woodlands Conservation Fund are available for purchasing local conservation easements, educational outreach and oak woodlands restoration. Most grant funds are used to acquire easements.
Carbon Credit Market
Under the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR) Forest Protocol, eligible landowners with 100 or more oak woodland acres pay a small registration fee to participate in the carbon dioxide credit market. Landowner registration directs buyers of carbon credits to oak woodlands carbon credit sellers verified by a CCAR-accredited third party. Landowners may pool their oak woodlands for CCAR purposes and conservation easements are required for "avoided conversion" projects but not for "reforestation" projects. Oak woodland carbon credits are earned for:
- Avoided Conversion - Specific actions that prevent the conversion of native forest to a non-forest use, i.e. residential or commercial development or agriculture.
- Reforestation - The establishment and subsequent maintenance of native tree cover on lands that were previously forested but have had less than 10% tree canopy cover for a minimum time of ten years, or have been subject to a significant disturbance [20%] within the last ten years that is not the result of intentional or grossly negligent acts of the landowner. Fires, disease, and pests are examples of agents that reduce forest carbon stocks and are often beyond the control of humans.
Note: A separate Urban Forest Project Reporting Protocol addresses greenhouse gas emission reductions associated with a planned set of tree planting and maintenance activities to permanently increase carbon storage in municipal trees. The U.S. Forest Service is providing free online software that can show users how much carbon dioxide an urban tree in California has sequestered in its lifetime and the past year. Known as "The Tree Carbon Calculator," the software is programmed in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that provides carbon-related information for a single tree in one of six California climate zones.
CEQA Mitigation Banks
These private conservation banks serve CEQA project applicants seeking off-site oak woodland mitigation options, either through the restoration planting of oaks off-site or the purchase of off-site conservation easements on existing woodlands. Local or state conservation organizations would administer the oak woodland easements.
For CEQA (county) off-site mitigation planting, the project applicant is responsible for seven years maintenance of planted oaks and any planted trees that become diseased or die during this period must be replaced. CCAR-registered oak woodland owners with property available for such CEQA mitigation planting can increase their carbon stocks and credits over time at virtually no cost. Landowners with burned over woodlands could also use this option to restock oaks.
Vineyards Must Mitigate Carbon Emissions
California’s official greenhouse gas policy specifically places a premium on conserving and enhancing native forests carbon sequestration over the next 100 years. Dual oak woodland CO2 emission effects must be considered for vineyards that convert native forests to non-forest use: Direct CO2 emission impacts from dead tree disposal and cumulative impacts due to the loss of future increases in live tree carbon sequestration.
An example of how native forest to vineyard conversions are properly addressed under CEQA is the proposed Preservation Ranch project in Sonoma County. Preservation Ranch seeks to convert 1,671 acres of conifer timberlands to vineyards and its application remarks to Sonoma County apply equally to oak woodlands conversion:
"The policies and regulations that will be adopted to implement the AB 32 strategies have yet to be determined and therefore, some uncertainty exists as to how best to quantify GHG impacts for Preservation Ranch or any other current project. Regardless, it is expected that an analysis of the immediate emissions of CO2 associated with the conversion of forests to other uses and the associated loss of carbon sequestration potential will be conducted during the California Environmental Quality Act process." (emphasis added)
For CEQA, neither retaining on-site oak woodlands nor planting oaks are valid CO2 biological emission mitigation measures. Residual on-site oaks can never biologically mitigate for carbon emissions resulting from the woodlands sequestration capacity permanently destroyed. Planting oaks is of negligible CO2 mitigation value under Assembly Bill 32 (2020/2050) reduction targets. This absence of value and timeliness are why oak woodlands on-site retention or the planting of oaks do nothing to proportionally mitigate project woodland carbon biological emissions. Only the off-site preservation of oak woodlands at least equivalent in ecological function and quality to the woodlands impacted will provide meaningful CEQA CO2 mitigation.
California has designated CO2 emissions a grave human health risk. Consequently, local jurisdictions cannot invoke ministerial or overriding considerations in determining proportional mitigation for carbon biological emissions due to oak woodlands conversion to non-forest use. It would be an abuse of discretion to declare an inadequately mitigated oak woodland conversion a public benefit when in fact woodland conversion represents a demonstrable public health hazard.
Announcement
The Oak Habitat Restoration Project, a program of the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation, is currently planting acorns in an attempt to increase the number of seedlings, sapling and young oak trees that survive in Walnut Creek’s open spaces. We commend Ralph Kraetsch and the other volunteers on their efforts and invite you to visit their website and see what they are doing. Ralph publishes a periodic Oak News newsletter with information about upcoming oak restoration events and short articles about oaks and other open space topics. Leave your name and mailing address and Ralph will see that you receive Oak News.
Merchandise
The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada by John Muir Laws
published by the California Academy of Sciences and Heyday Books, 366 pages of 2,800 original watercolor illustrations. Over 1,700 species of Sierra trees, wildflowers, ferns, fungi, lichens, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, insects and other small animals have been catalogued. Paperback, $24.95, members 22.46, plus tax, shipping and handling.
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Fax: 510-208-4435 oakstaff@californiaoaks.org
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