Here and there, perhaps, a few hardy green blades poke from the parched, cracked mud. But most vestiges of verdant and aquatic life have vanished under the searing sun, grasses have burnished, and all seasonal wetlands seemingly disappeared.
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Regulatory Maze
As wetlands, vernal pools are protected by an array of agencies and statutes, including the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act, which can create a confusing and frustrating regulatory maze for
property owners.
Landowners cannot dredge, fill, or otherwise degrade vernal pools without a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a process that also involves other agencies. Mitigation usually is required when permission is granted for vernal pools to be filled, particularly if listed species dwell there.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with the Corps to ensure that activities allowed under the permit comply with the Endangered Species Act and can impose conditions on the permit to protect them. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which plays a role in administering the Clean Water Act, has authority to review and veto permit applications and responsibility to pursue non-permitted violators.
The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) has a say in the process to safeguard water quality, and the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) plays an advisory role, informing permit applicants of a project's potential conflicts with the California Endangered Species Act. The only state listed species found in vernal pools are plants.
Framework Agreement
This spring, the 11 agencies that regulate or protect vernal pools are working on a framework agreement, the Interagency Vernal Pool Stewardship Initiative, to streamline overlapping regulatory functions of the permitting process and serve as the basis for a coordinated, cooperative, ecosystem-based approach to conserving and managing vernal pools.
The agreement, like Governor Pete Wilson's 1993 Wetlands Conservation Policy, calls for fostering an ecosystem-based approach to protecting vernal pools that permits necessary economic development. "Vernal pools are an irreplaceable part of the complex ecosystem in which we live," EPA Regional Administrator Felicia Marcus said. "Though time is running out, the framework agreement presents us with an opportunity to protect these habitats as part of California's rich natural heritage."
Where Pools Are Found
Thousands of vernal pools are scattered up and down the state, but primarily in the grasslands of the Central Valley, the Santa Rosa and Modoc plateaus, marine terraces above San Diego, and coastal range valleys.
While some occur on public or nonprofit lands (The Nature Conservancy conducts tours to view some of the more spectacular pools during their spring blooming), most are located on private land. Vernal pools are complex ecosystems that contribute to California's rich biodiversity. Some are 10 acres or larger, while others are barely bigger than an average dining room table.
They abound with aquatic life that feeds waterfowl and provide habitat for freshwater crustaceans and amphibians. Vernal pools sustain some 200 plant species, about half of which live only in California.
Conflicting Views
Vernal pools are a topic of conflict over how many and which ones should be preserved, and at what cost to developers. Conservationists tend to favor preserving as many as possible, particularly larger, vernal pool complexes with greater ecological value in areas most likely to sustain them.
But what about vernal pools that lie in the path of urbanization and are vulnerable to development activities, even if the pools themselves are not destroyed? Is the preservation of such threatened pools worth economic loss to landowners?
John Lambeth, project manager of a Fairy Shrimp Study Group representing cattlemen, growers, the California Farm Bureau, and various private landowners, says it's time to take a big-picture view.
"Vernal pools are certainly a valuable natural resource," Lambeth said. "The big question is, how much do we need to protect, and in what areas? We think vernal pools are a very plentiful resource in California. It makes sense to protect them in areas that can truly sustain the habitat, not when they're in the path of urbanization. If you preserve vernal pools outside areas being developed, they will be there for years to come."
Lambeth said when property owners are forced to donate land with patchy vernal pool habitat to mitigate for development, "The result is degraded habitat not large enough to sustain itself."
He said there has been no widespread loss of vernal pools in recent years, and by the study group's way of reckoning, mitigation has actually provided a net gain. "We want the agencies to look at the big picture. What makes sense in the long-term is to protect the resources with an overall plan instead of trying to take a pound of flesh out of each project," Lambeth said. The California Chamber of Commerce formed Lambeth's study group after three species of fairy shrimp and a tadpole shrimp made the federal Endangered Species List in 1994. The group has petitioned the Service to de-list two species of fairy shrimp on grounds the small freshwater crustaceans are hardy, plentiful, and turn up in tire tracks, potholes, and industrial areas.
Living in Seasonal Pools
Inhabitants of vernal pools grow and reproduce while the pools are wet. Some species, such as spadefoot toads, burrow into the mud to wait out the dry summer. Native solitary bees bury eggs and pollen balls that feed their larvae, which grow underground and emerge in spring as adults to restart the species' life cycle.
Some plants and aquatic creatures live only in vernal pools and soon would become extinct without these come-and-go ponds.
The endangered Butte County Meadowfoam, a small white flower with dark yellow veins, is found nowhere on earth except in vernal pools in a 25-mile strip along the eastern edge of the Central Valley in Butte County. Sacramento Orcutt grass, listed as a state endangered plant, grows naturally in vernal pools only in Sacramento County.
"Vernal pools are not only one of California's oldest and rarest ecosystems, but also among the most endangered," said Wayne White, state supervisor for the Service, which protects endangered plants and animals that inhabit vernal pools. "These seasonal ecosystems harbor unique plants and animals that have adapted ingeniously over millennia to the annual cycle of their habitats," White said.
Assessing Vernal Pools
No one knows precisely how much vernal pool habitat has disappeared since European settlers arrived in California, but estimates have ranged from 90 percent to 50 percent.
Creating new vernal pools is expensive and biologically difficult. They form on hard soils such as volcanic or heavy clay, which has an impervious underlayer that holds water, and the natural hydrology that creates and sustains them cannot be replicated easily, if at all.
To find out how much vernal pool habitat remains, a federal-state interagency assessment team is compiling the latest information, assisted by a scientific peer review group of academic and consultant biologists and soil scientists and computerized Geographic Information System (GIS) data layering. The DFG's Natural Heritage Division, with funding from the EPA and the Service, is assembling aerial photos, soils, and species data on vernal pool habitats using GIS that will provide information on the amount and types of vernal pools remaining.
"There's a great need to get a better handle on the scope of vernal pools," said Craig Denisoff, deputy assistant secretary for the California Resources Agency and coordinator of its wetland programs. "The inventory will assist us in better decision-making and enable us to be more helpful to local planning efforts."
Goals of the Agreement
The Framework Agreement proposes moving from a case-by-case to a comprehensive approach to resolving permit enforcement cases and developing a long-term strategy for conserving, protecting, and managing vernal pool ecosystems and their watersheds. It also acknowledges the role of agriculture in protecting open space and requires the signatories to consult the California Department of Food and Agriculture on aspects that affect ranchers' concerns.
The agreement calls for signatures of the EPA, SWRCB, Corps, DFG, Service, Resources Agency, California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA), U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the U.S. Forest Service.
Its goals are to minimize loss and degradation of vernal pools, protect diverse vernal pool ecosystems, foster an ecosystem-based approach to protection while permitting necessary economic development, increase regulatory effectiveness and consistency, provide greater certainty for applicants and communities, continue to develop reliable data on remaining habitat, build partnerships, and manage vernal pools to lessen the need for endangered species listings and to promote recovery.
The signatories agreed to integrate their regulatory and planning activities, promote a more flexible, cost-effective approach, and to support local planning efforts and permanent community based stewardship of vernal pool ecosystems.
They recognized a need for public-private partnerships in coordinating management activities to safeguard resources, to address social and economic concerns, to encourage public involvement throughout the process, and to provide a higher degree of certainty for permit applicants.