California Forest Legacy Program expands statewide

Constance Best
The Pacific Forest Trust

Private forests--about 15 million acres throughout the state--play a vital role in California's ecology and economy. They provide clean water, protect watersheds, reduce the buildup of greenhouse gases, and conserve fish and wildlife habitat. Forests check urban sprawl and provide recreational opportunities. They also provide jobs for thousands of Californians, and the backbone of the state's timber industry.

But private forest lands in California are in jeopardy. Between 1992 and 1997, preliminary data from the USDA National Resource Inventory show that California lost its private forests at an average rate of 77,000 acres per year. Further, this trend is accelerating. California lost twice as much forest in the five years from 1992-1997 as it did in the previous decade.

California's Forest Legacy Program was created in 1995 under the auspices of the national Forest Legacy Program to help address these threats through a non-regulatory, incentive-based strategy. A state/federal cooperative program, Forest Legacy protects forestlands threatened by development by funding the purchase of forest conservation easements. In 2000, California expanded the program's reach from the original six counties to virtually every county in the state with private forests, while the legislature passed the California Forest Legacy Program Act to authorize the program's full implementation by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in partnership with the USDA Forest Service. Now forest owners across the state can take advantage of Forest Legacy if they so desire.

By providing funding for conservation easements, Forest Legacy provides an incentive to forest owners to protect the forest land base, as well as forest resources such as fish and wildlife habitat and water quality so important to the people of California, while ensuring the continuance of traditional uses and protection of landowners' property rights. California's program can pay for the fair market value of the conservation easement, as well as some of costs associated with its creation, such as forest management plans, surveys, and project management.

Forest Legacy is a cost-effective program built on partnerships, providing three dollars of federal matching funds for every one dollar of state or private money. It is also a flexible program that can draw on the resources of federal, state, and local agencies, private nonprofit organizations, and private landowners to conserve forest resources that would otherwise be lost.

Specifically, the conservation goals of California's Forest Legacy Program are:

To prevent future conversions of forestland and forest resources.

• To protect wildlife habitat, rare plants, and biodiversity.
• To maintain habitat connectivity and related values needed to ensure the viability of wildlife populations across landscapes and regions.
• To protect riparian habitats, oak woodlands, ecological old growth forests, and other key forest types and seral stages which are poorly represented across landscapes and regions, and which play a key role in supporting biodiversity.
• To protect water quality, fisheries, and water supplies.
• To maintain and restore natural ecosystem functions.

These goals were established through an extensive public process in 1995, and were confirmed by the legislature last year.

Conservation easements under Forest Legacy

Conservation easements are permanent deed restrictions that a landowner voluntarily establishes, that limit land uses for conservation purposes such as those listed above. Such easements are well established in California law (Section 815 of the California Civil Code) and have been in use across the U.S. for 60 years.

Land under a conservation easement stays in private ownership and productive use. Public access is not a requirement, although it can be granted as part of a regional trail system for instance. Rights not restricted by the landowner are retained. While its terms are binding on future owners, the easement does not restrict the resale or transfer of the property. In essence, the conservation easement expresses a landowner's right not to develop a property. By stripping off speculative development rights from forestland--and by guiding land use and forest management to protect sensitive resources--the easement reflects a landowner's long-term vision of stewardship.

The landowner conveys the conservation easement to a selected government agency or nonprofit land trust that holds the restricted rights "in trust" and is empowered by the landowner to ensure the easement terms are adhered to through time. The landowner retains all management rights and responsibilities--the government agency or land trust, as grantee of the easement, have none. There is no third party involvement in monitoring or enforcing the easement.

If federal funds are used for the acquisition cost of the easement, the federal program requires that a federal, state, or local government agency act as grantee. If the easement is charitably gifted and federal funds are only used for associated costs, or if state funds are used for the easement purchase, then a nonprofit conservation organization can hold the easement.

How landowners can participate in the program

Landowners are eligible to participate in Forest Legacy on a strictly voluntary basis if they own forestland in one of the 34 counties designated "Forest Legacy Areas;" if protection of their forestland helps meet the program's conservation goals; if their forestland is threatened by potential conversion; and if traditional uses, whether for forestry or habitat, will be continued. Each property enrolled in Forest Legacy is required to have a stewardship plan or similar multi-resource forest management plan, such as an NTMP (the costs of which can be covered by program funds).

Landowners nominate their properties to CDF, and proposed projects are reviewed regularly by the department, in consultation with the state Forest Stewardship Coordinating Committee and the U.S. Forest Service. Even with increasing state and federal funding for the program, the selection process will be a competitive one both statewide and nationally. Projects that include funding from a variety of sources, including landowner contributions, and that provide the greatest protection to the most threatened resources are likely to be more highly ranked than others.

The California Forest Legacy Program is managed by Jeff Calvert, Forest Stewardship Program Manager, for the California Dept. of Forestry & Fire Protection. Details of California's Forest Legacy Program can be found in the program's Assessment of Need (as amended), available from Jeff. He can be reached at CDF, PO Box 944246, Sacramento, CA 94244-2460; 916-653-8286; or by email at jeffrey_calvert@fire.ca.gov.

Other resources:
For information on land trusts and conservation easements:
The Land Trust Alliance
1331 H Street NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005-4711
202-638-4725
http://www.lta.org

Author Constance Best works with the Pacific Forest Trust land trust. She can be reached at 416 Aviation Blvd., Suite A, Santa Rosa, CA 95403; 707-578-9950; pgodar@pacificforest.org.