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April 2008
California Oak Report
Preserving Placer County Oaks
Placer Land Trust, in partnership with the California Wildlife Foundation, COF, Emigrant Trails Greenway Trust and others, announced the completion of its largest conservation project to date, the 912 acre Garden Bar Preserve, situated along the Bear River in rural Lincoln.
Garden Bar Preserve is part of Placer County’s largest remaining contiguous oak woodlands. The conservation easement will permanently protect the property's diverse natural and agricultural values, including two miles of Bear River frontage, rangeland and oak woodlands.
"Oak woodlands make up the greatest habitat biodiversity in the foothills, including over 350 vertebrates," said Jeff Darlington, the trust's executive director. "The landowner had an interest in seeing this land continue to be open space long after they were gone."
Funding for the conservation easement and ongoing land stewardship was provided by the California Wildlife Foundation, working with partner organizations like Placer Land Trust to protect the state's rich diversity of wildlife species by acquiring, restoring, and managing sufficient habitat to sustain healthy wildlife populations over time.
Cashing In On Carbon
The following steps demonstrate how to merge conservation easement discussions with participation in the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR) oak woodlands carbon dioxide credit offset market:
1. Hire a Registered Professional Forester (RPF) certified by the CCAR to conduct an oak woodlands inventory and eligibility review (including 100 or more woodland acres). The RPF will use the inventory data to estimate current carbon stock values and carbon credit market potential.
2. If the preliminary findings are positive, hire the RPF to initiate the CCAR registration process. Once the RPF has generated the required information, a pre registration form is completed for the landowner to base a final decision regarding CCAR participation.
3. COF is hopeful that the CCAR will soon provide incentives to plant trees on existing oak woodlands, which would mean the above landowner could increase his/her carbon credits by planting additional oaks if their woodlands were under-stocked with trees. Most oak woodlands are currently under-stocked. COF has sent the following email to CCAR’s update workgroup supporting new oak planting incentives:
April 4, 2008
Forest Protocol Workgroup
California Climate Action Registry
523 W. Sixth Street, Suite 428
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Dear Workgroup Participants:
The California Oak Foundation (COF) appreciates the opportunity to comment on the forest protocols update. COF believes that two minor additions to the forest project protocols will lead to much greater landowner participation in the carbon dioxide offset market and significant improvements in oak woodlands contribution to moderating climate change.
Forest Reforestation
The priority of the Forest Protocols regarding oak woodlands must be to maintain and enhance existing oak carbon pools over time. The forest project conservation protocols recognize this fact; the present reforestation protocols don’t.
The current reforestation criteria excludes participation by owners of existing oak woodlands, which substantially reduces the ability of woodlands to contribute to carbon sequestration. Currently millions of oak woodland acres are significantly under-stocked with oak trees by historical standards or relative to maximum oak stocking capacity.
For over 20 years the lack of oak woodlands regeneration has been a major focus of scientific study. A March 2007 press release from the University of California announcing the donation of the new Blue Oak Ranch Reserve, an undeveloped 3,260 acre property in Santa Clara County, succinctly captures the oak woodlands under-stocking problem.
"At a time when California's cherished oak woodlands are in danger of lapsing into senility, a new University of California reserve will support research to discover why these trees are failing to thrive or regenerate.
'We are not getting new seedlings in the oak woodlands and oak savanna ecosystems, which means that ultimately we are losing oaks from California,' said biology professor Todd Dawson. Blue Oak Ranch Reserve provides an excellent opportunity for starting investigations to find out why the oaks are not regenerating and why the woodlands are declining throughout the state.'"
Unfortunately, further studies won’t maintain oak woodland carbon pools; planting oaks on existing oak woodlands will.
Recommendation: Update the reforestation protocols to include the planting of oaks on existing woodlands currently under-stocked with trees. This action will greatly increase CO2 offset market participation by landowners and maintain enhance oak woodland carbon pools over time.
As a means to pay for the initial cost and maintenance of planting oaks a landowner could: (1) contact local city and county planning departments to let them know that land is available for California Environmental Quality Act off site oak planting mitigation, which includes seven (7) years tree maintenance and monitoring, plus replacement of planted trees that die; (2) if the landowner lives in one of the 16 counties that have qualified for grant funding under the Wildlife Conservation Board's Oak Woodlands Conservation Program, he/she can work with county officials to draft a land improvement grant proposal for submission to this Proposition 40 funded program. As of September 2007, the WBC oak program had $16 million available for grants.
Thank you for your consideration and cooperation in conserving oak woodlands to improve air quality for future generations.
Respectfully,
California Oak Foundation Staff
cc: California Rangeland Conservation Coalition
New to Our Website (Oak Tree Care Page)
Out on a Limb with Mistletoe
By David Lukas, Published by Bay Nature Magazine October-December 2007
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