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March 2002
California Oak Report
Yes on Prop 40
Proposition 40, the Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Act, will provide $75,000,000 for grants for the preservation of agricultural lands and grazing lands, including oak woodlands. On March 5 please vote yes on Proposition 40.
Oak Symposium
The following abridged policy paper was presented at the recent Symposium on Oak Woodlands: Oaks in California's Changing Landscape. This study illustrates the need for a statewide measure to conserve oak woodland ecosystem values. All papers presented at the oak symposium will soon be available at http://danr.ucop.edu/ihrmp/.
Inconsistent application of environmental laws and policies to California's oak woodlands
Gregory A. Giusti and Adina M. Merenlender
University of California
Abstract
We examine inconsistencies in the application of environmental laws and policies to California's oak woodlands and associated resources. Specifically, large-scale vegetation removal receive different levels of environmental oversight depending on location, tree species, and the final land use designation. Hence, situations arise where the scale of impacts to the ecosystem can be similar but are regulated differently depending on forest type. These inconsistencies can lead to environmental impacts, confusion, and inherent inequities among private landowners. The historical, institutional, and political climate under which the Forest Practice Act and California Environmental Quality Act were developed has resulted in the dichotomy that oak woodlands face. We use agricultural development in California's North Coast watersheds and the potential impacts to anadromous fish conservation to illustrate the problem. Examining this scenario provides a better understanding of how and why oak woodland resources continue to diminish in some parts of California.
Summary
The current forest policies and conservation strategies for California's forests fail to recognize the natural continuum between conifer and hardwood types. As a consequence, a dichotomy has developed between statewide and local conservation strategies that creates a double standard for environmental protection and regulatory burden to landowners. Examining the North Coast case of anadromous fish and their biological dependence on oak dominated forest landscapes illustrate the need for consistent environmental protective measures regardless of forest type. Given commonly expressed policies to move toward watershed level planning, ecosystem management, and sustainable land use practices, the differential treatment of conifers and hardwoods based on economic value should be reexamined.
Current statewide forest policy relegating all oak woodland protection to local control, while maintaining regulatory oversight of conifer-dominated forests is insufficient to protect California's ecosystems. Furthermore, it continues a trend of shifting environmental planning obligations from the state to local level without the counties being provided with the necessary resources to adequately evaluate their programs. While local oak protection policies encouraged by the Board of Forestry may have been well intentioned it is becoming apparent that where in place, these usually provide only limited review of the potential environmental impacts that can occur when extensive amounts of native vegetation are removed. As we discuss, the existing regulatory structure neglects environmental review of many large conversions of wildland due to agricultural development and makes cumulative impact analysis impossible.
The current expectation that counties will be able to protect oak woodland ecosystems and evaluate cumulative environmental impacts due to deforestation is unrealistic given that even CDF had not been able to implement such an analysis. County planners are overloaded trying to assess project impacts to the environment in developed areas, and rarely have the jurisdiction, resources, or expertise to protect whole ecosystems. Even in Lake County, where extensive native vegetation removal may trigger CEQA review, the scope of review is often limited and demonstrates that a local grading ordinance may not be the best planning mechanism to address wildland conservation and cumulative impacts. The lack of local resource protection is forcing Federal Resource Agencies to step in and take actions that are often extremely unpopular with the local citizenry making meaningful dialog for conservation even more difficult.
As demands on California's forestlands increase and become more varied, using commercial timber growing potential value to set the level of state funded environmental regulation is turning out to be insufficient. In an attempt to address some of the environmental concerns regarding watershed conditions the Resources Agency has enacted the North Coast Watershed Assessment Program. The approach is a good first step toward developing a centralized database aimed at a better understanding of the existing conditions that may be limiting anadromous fish recovery on a watershed-wide basis. Making this information available to local interest groups and government will enhance their ability to put local land use decisions in a broader environmental perspective. However, as it stands now in the North Coast, future land use can continue to go unchecked across a large extent of our coastal watersheds not defined as timberland.
Herein lies the need for statewide conservation planning and environmental review beyond timberlands into oak woodlands in order to protect California's wildlands and associated resources such as anadromous fish. A first step might be a centralized repository of information to assess environmental impacts of proposed large?scale oak woodland removal. While limited in scope, locally based oak conservation measures should also be encouraged to protect oaks within developed areas of cities and counties. Without addressing oak woodland conservation at these two scales, the current inconsistencies in forest management and local oak policies will continue to fuel the intense debate throughout the oak regions of California as land?use increases in scope and magnitude. Perhaps a blend of State oversight to ensure our oak woodland landscapes are protected and local policies that can account for resident differences in oak distribution and land use policies could improve the environmental review process that is currently lacking. Improving our ability to address landscape level oak woodland conservation would lessen the burden on small landowners who can sometimes find themselves regulated tree by tree.
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Merchandise
Native Oaks of California Poster http://www.californiaoaks.org/html/merch2.html, designed by Good Nature Publishing. The "botanically correct" renderings are bordered by drawings of each species' leaf and acorn. Also shows locator maps. Full-color; 24" x 36". $15.99, members $14.39.
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