🚀 go-pugleaf

Vernal Pools Mitigation sell-out by EPA, F&WS, Ca DF&G, Sonoma Co.
and others!

We're down to the last little bit, but still we wish to trade HALF of
it away (to save half). Half now, half of the remainder later. Half
of that yet later. There's an old story --If I let you walk half the
distance to the wall, and then half the remaining distance to the wall,
and then half that distance, ..., that you will NEVER arrive at the wall.
Now, that is a true, "un-mitigated" fact. So, I guess we're in luck.
We'll never lose our wetlands; half will always be there, wisely
monitored by the EPA, F&WS, Ca DF&G, etc. We can all relax now....

The plight of our scarce remaining wetlands is not made better by
the terrible comrpomises made by Federal and State agencies running
scared from our current Congress. In their attempt to appear "cooperative"
and "to be working together with the 'community'" they've sold out,
turning a totally rotten deal into "just" a very bad one.

We all lost, again!
Peter
- - - -
"You Need A Strong Environmental Plank To Get My Vote!"
- - - -

FROM: 
The San Francisco Chronicle Friday, August 18, 1995 : Page A19 �1995
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/old/aug-18-95/MN6410.html
Size: 151 lines
  _________________________________________________________________
           `MITIGATION BANK' FORMED TO SAVE BAY AREA WETLANDS
                1ST PROJECT -- VERNAL POOLS NEAR WINDSOR

Glen Martin, Chronicle North Bay Bureau 

Government officials and a Sonoma County developer Wednesday unveiled
the Bay Area's first ``mitigation bank'' -- a pilot project designed
to offset the loss of wetlands by creating man-made marshes.

If successful, proponents say, the project will also reduce the level
of acrimony over wetland issues that has existed for years between
environmentalists and developers.

Wednesday's dedication focused on a 12-acre parcel near the booming
northern Sonoma County community of Windsor.

Six acres of the land will be restored as wetland by Wikiup Builders
Partnership of Santa Rosa, which owns the property.

The partnership will sell ``credits'' on this land to developers
intending to build on property west of Santa Rosa, where scarce,
seasonal wetlands known as vernal pools exist.

Vernal pools are characterized by seasonal flooding and rare
``endemic'' species of flora and fauna.

The remaining six acres of the Wikiup parcel will be managed as drier
``upland'' wildlife habitat. Although they will be preserved as open
space, they are not a direct part of the mitigation bank.

If a developer proposes a project that would destroy vernal pools in
the Santa Rosa Plain, said Wikiup manager and principal partner Ilan
Silberstein, credits could be purchased for an equal amount of acreage
in the mitigation bank.

The bank will be monitored by state and federal regulating agencies,
including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the
California Department of Fish and Game.

If successful, it will be used as a model for establishing similar
mitigation banks in Northern California.

Although new to the Bay Area, mitigation banks have been established
elsewhere in the state, including the Sacramento Valley.

``The goal is no net wetland loss,'' said Silberstein, a former rocket
scientist who worked on the Apollo space projects.

Such transactions should speed up development permits from the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, which must review and approve any project
that destroys wetlands.

Wikiup will make money by selling wetland mitigation credits to
developers, and developers presumably will profit because the
currently laborious and expensive permit process will be streamlined
when they buy into the bank.

Wikiup spokeswoman Sara Silberstein, Ilan Silberstein's wife, said
credits should sell for around $200,000 an acre, but the price could
go higher.

``It could depend on the development plan,'' she said. ``A very small
wetland could conceivably affect not just one parcel, but five or 10
parcels. In that case, it might be worth a significant amount of money
to the developer to obtain credits.''

Jeff Rosenbloom, the western regional chief of wetlands and sediment
management for the EPA, said his organization ``fully supported'' the
project.

``It's an excellent example of a strong partnership between the public
and private sectors to deal with development issues,'' said
Rosenbloom. ``The planning process now under way in the Santa Rosa
area addresses both the preservation and creation of vernal pools, and
this bank is a critical component of that planning.''

Homer Perkins, a spokesman for the San Francisco district of the Army
Corps of Engineers, said the project is in line with the Corps'
mission of wetland protection and enhancement.

``It allows developers to mitigate without using part of their own
projects,'' said Perkins. ``And because it's the first one in the
area, it will be monitored very closely.''

California Department of Fish and Game environmental specialist
Caitlin Bean said mitigation banks are important because they can
potentially preserve large acreages of wetland.

``In the past, developers would mitigate right in their own
developments,'' said Bean. ``You ended up with small, low-quality
wetlands scattered throughout housing or commercial projects. A large
mitigation bank should have much higher wildlife value.''

Not everyone is enthusiastic about the project, however.

``We think mitigation banks are a dangerous precedent for continuing
wetland loss,'' said Barbara Salzman of the National Audubon Society.
``We're not even sure if the wetlands created in the mitigation area
will be biologically functional. We should wait to see if they are
successful before the OK is given to destroy the natural vernal
pools.''

Salzman said vernal pools are especially scarce in the North Bay.

``There just wasn't the will to protect them locally,'' said Salzman.
``To praise the project at this point is highly unrealistic.''

EPA wetlands chief Rosenbloom acknowledged the ``extreme difficulty''
of creating viable vernal pool habitats, but said the profound
development pressures now imposed on the 55,000- acre Santa Rosa Plain
make immediate mitigation efforts necessary.

``For this place at this point in time, the bank appears one of the
best ways to ensure the continued existence of vernal pools,'' said
Rosenbloom. ``We're willing to take the chance.''

U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, who secured $500,000 in
federal money to study and help preserve Santa Rosa's vernal pools,
praised the project but said it does not do enough to ensure wetland
protection in the North Bay.

``The success of the whole process depends on creating a system of
vernal pool preserves,'' said Woolsey. ``This is just the start. We
need several vernal pool mitigation banks.''

Wikiup manager Ilan Silberstein said the current benign feelings over
the project may be short- lived.

``Everyone is falling all over each other to praise it now,'' said
Silberstein. ``But we'll see how it works.''
  _________________________________________________________________
San Francisco Chronicle : All Rights Reserved : All Unauthorized
Duplication Prohibited
-- 

Peter
- - - -
"You Need A Strong Environmental Plank To Get My Vote!"