Conservation strategy successfully completed for Santa Rosa Plain

News Release

December 7, 2005

Santa Rosa Plain Conservation Strategy

Santa Rosa Plain wetlands

Contact: Ed Brauner (Santa Rosa Plain Conservation Strategy Team) 707/479-1852

Provides Plan to Protect Salamander and Plants, Allow Range of Activities on Santa Rosa Plain

A 21-month planning effort by a team of local environmental and development interests, and local, State and Federal officials has resulted in the release of a comprehensive plan to protect imperiled species and their habitat on the Santa Rosa Plain.

When implemented, the Santa Rosa Plain Conservation Strategy would establish eight conservation areas for the endangered Sonoma population for the California tiger salamander totaling between 3,450 acres and 4,250 acres on the Plain. The Strategy defines additional protection standards for four endangered plants within the same areas, as well as a conservation area for endangered plants in the vicinity of Windsor. It also identifies a salamander and plant preserve system in Southwest Santa Rosa. The Conservation Strategy defines standards for protection, management, and funding of preserves for the salamander and plants.

The plan is available in local libraries and also online.

Santa Rosa City Councilmember Mike Martini said “The listing of the California tiger salamander 41 months ago caused concern for land owners, local jurisdictions, and developers. An unprecedented cooperative effort of Federal and State agencies, County and City Governments, environmental representatives and property owners produced a Conservation Strategy sufficient to mitigate the adverse effects of future development while ensuring the recovery of the species.”

“The Conservation Strategy is the biological framework upon which future regulatory actions will be based,” said Keith Kaulum, representative of the environmental community on the team that developed the Strategy. "We are concerned that the local Implementation Plan to be developed over the next months may seriously undermine critical elements of the Strategy, if local officials do not commit at a minimum to fully implement all the elements of the strategy."

“The Conservation Strategy is intended to provide consistency, timeliness and certainty for permitted activities,” according to Carolyn Wasem, who represents the development community on the team.

The Santa Rosa Plain is located in central Sonoma County. It is characterized by vernal pools, seasonal wetlands and associated grassland habitat. These support the endangered California tiger salamander and four endangered plant species: Burke's goldfields, Sonoma sunshine, Sebastopol meadowfoam and many-flowered navarretia.

Urban, rural, and agricultural activities have occurred on the Plain for over one hundred years, and growth has encroached into areas inhabited by the protected species. The loss of seasonal wetlands due to development led to declines in the populations of the listed plants and salamander, resulting in the 2002 listing of the salamander as endangered. Soon after, representatives of local groups met with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies to discuss possible cooperative approaches to protecting the species, while allowing planned land uses to occur within the range of the salamander.

The result of those initial discussions was a 21-month effort that developed the Conservation Strategy. The Conservation Strategy provides a plan for protection of the endangered species while providing the biological basis for a permitting process for projects that are in the potential range of listed species on the Plain.

The team that developed the Conservation Strategy included representatives of the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, the environmental community, the private landowner community, the County of Sonoma, three cities--Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Cotati -- the Town of Windsor, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, the California Department of Fish and Game, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Army Corps of Engineers, and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The five local agencies recently passed resolutions supporting and endorsing the biological principles and the biological approach to the conservation and protection of the salamander and listed plant species set forth in the Strategy. These local jurisdictions, along with the participating State and Federal agencies sill prepare a plan to implement the Conservation Strategy. The local jurisdictions have committed to vote on actions to implement the Conservation Strategy within two years.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has completed its process for determining critical habitat for the salamander. It will publish that decision in the Federal Register on Dec. 14.

Top of Page

Home Page for News Releases

Home