August 19, 2009
"My first trip to the Mattole Valley was in 1949, when there were still old-growth forests throughout the watershed; where there were still an abundance of fish in the river; when the river was still deep and cold and the channel narrow. And I was there after the clear-cutting and saw the devastating results of that destructive practice; and I never wanted it to happen again on any of my land."
Those are the words of Francis Scarpulla, who was motivated to protect his ranch near Honeydew with a conservation easement prohibiting its subdivision and protecting its old-growth Douglas-fir. The grove of old growth sweeps up above a meadow dominated by native bunchgrasses that lies astride one of the oldest orchards in Humboldt County. These resources are striking to behold. To have ancient forest immediately adjacent to native prairie provides a rare opportunity to glimpse the extraordinary potential for beauty and biodiversity on this landscape.
Conserved properties--though their terms vary--generally benefit the landscape of the Mattole by preserving open space, maintaining forest cover, and often restricting development. Subdivision can place more of a burden on resources such as water supply and water quality--more property owners using water for their residences and more roads altering natural hydrologic flows.
Another way easements can benefit the Mattole is by preventing the spread and introduction of invasive plants. Some easements explicitly forbid the introduction of invasive exotic species. Others may help simply by restricting the creation of new roads or restricting other activities that could lead to soil disturbances (and most weeds thrive in disturbed soil). Thanks to a grant through the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation's "Preserving Wild California" program, the Mattole Restoration Council's Invasive Plants Program has been able to help get a handle on invasive plants occurring on conserved properties in the Mattole. On many conserved properties, invasive plants present a significant threat to the very resources that conservation easements seek to protect.
For example, though the lovely old growth and grassland on the Scarpulla property has escaped destruction via clear-cut logging and overgrazing, they are currently threatened by a large stand of French broom. The plant is spreading over the grassland and into the openings between the old trees. If the broom were to continue to spread through the grassland it would completely out-compete the more sensitive, and rare, native prairie species. Beneath the old growth trees, the greatest threat the broom presents is in changing the behavior of a wildfire. Because it grows densely and is composed of highly flammable material, the chief concern was that a wildfire consuming that material could burn so hot as to damage the cambium of the trees, or act as a ladder fuel allowing flames to climb into the forest canopy.
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On another conserved property, the Sweet Ranch near downtown Petrolia affords the public with scenic open space and contiguous habitat for wildlife. Unfortunately, Scotch broom threatens to convert this biologically diverse and economically valuable grassland/pasture into a monoculture of exotic shrubs that also present a serious fire danger to other nearby residents.
MRC has collaborated with landowners Francis and Lorana Sweet and CAL FIRE to contain the stand through a coordinated approach. A prescribed burn has been planned to reduce the standing vegetation on an area small enough that follow-up treatments would not be prohibitively costly or complex. Through the Vegetation Management Program, the landowner and CAL FIRE have worked out a cost-share on the burn and MRC has contributed labor hours for a crew of weed pullers to remove small outlier patches adjacent to the burn area. The burn is scheduled for fall of 2009. MRC has been eager to test the use of prescribed fire to control invasive brooms on a pilot project such as the Sweet Ranch. Large stands on steep terrain are impractical to treat by other common methods such as manual removal or heavy equipment. Fire is therefore an appealing tool that, if applied smartly, could effectively favor grassland species over such exotic woody shrubs. Interestingly, ranchers in this area used to set fire to their grasslands regularly, understanding that recurrent fire could effectively control woody species that otherwise tend to invade the grassland setting. This integrated approach is meant to protect the myriad values inherent in the conserved property as well as provide a template for land stewardship strategies on a larger landscape scale.
The work done on these properties has immense importance for the Mattole, as their conserved status means they will continue to exist in perpetuity as places to observe ecological processes and model stewardship techniques. We hope that other landowners are inspired by what has been taking place on these two ranches, and may consider undertaking land conservation and stewardship projects on their own.
A conservation easement is a voluntary, private agreement between a landowner and a land trust, such as the local Sanctuary Forest, that limits certain uses of a property in order to protect its conservation values. These conservation values are the specific ecological, scenic, cultural, or natural resource features that give the land its special character, and provide enduring benefit to people and the larger ecosystem. Conservation easements are permanent and run with the land. As easement lets owners continue to own and use their land, eventually passing it onto heirs or selling it, but present and future owners are bound by the easementís terms. Each easement is tailored both to the unique properties of the land and to the specific wishes of its owners.--Sanctuary Forest's Conservation Easement Information Guide
For more information: www.mattole.org
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TOC for Forest & River News, Summer 2009