Endangered Species Recovery Program

3. Conservation Efforts at the Community Level

Past Conservation Measures.-- Specific and important general conservation measures for one or a few species are briefly mentioned in individual species accounts. Highlighted here and in Table 2 are the most significant large-scale natural community acquisitions and habitat conservation planning efforts involving the species covered in this document. The California Energy Commission has conducted two important large-scale natural community and species surveys. The first was The Southern San Joaquin Valley Ecosystem Protection Program (Anderson et al. 1991, Spiegel and Anderson 1992), wherein surveys of quarter-sections of natural lands in most of the Tulare Basin were made. Later, California Energy Commission conducted quarter-section surveys on the Carrizo Plain Natural Area with funding provided by the Bureau of Land Management (USBLM; Kakiba-Russell et al. 1991). These two programs have collectively provided more information on extant biotic communities and habitat distribution and quality for listed species than all others combined. The California Energy Commissions Southern San Joaquin Ecosystem Protection Plan (Spiegel and Anderson 1992) has provided the framework on which the resource management agencies have developed their mitigation and conservation strategies.

Several wide-area multispecies (i.e., community level involving thousands of acres) Habitat Conservation Plans are in various stages of development in the San Joaquin Valley as conditions of incidental-take permits under section 10 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (P.L. 93-205, 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). Under section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Endangered Species Act, the USFWS can authorize the taking of federally listed fish and wildlife by nonfederal entities if such taking occurs incidentally during otherwise legal activities. An applicant for an incidental take permit submits a Habitat Conservation Plan that specifies, among other things, the impacts that are likely to result from the takings and the measures the permit applicant will undertake to minimize and mitigate such impacts. Many of these Habitat Conservation Plans are an important component of recovery strategies, from protecting specific habitats to restoration to focusing habitat acquisitions to lands identified as important for recovery. The Metropolitan Bakersfield Habitat Conservation Plan has been implemented, and the Kern Valley Floor, and San Joaquin County Habitat Conservation Plans are in active development stages. The other large conservation efforts in the Valley include the Carrizo Natural Heritage Program (USBLM, California Department of Fish and Game [CDFG], The Nature Conservancy), California Energy Commission mitigation programs, the CDFG mitigation program in the Allensworth Natural Area (Spiegel and Anderson 1992), the endangered species habitat protection programs in the Elk Hills (Department of Energy), Occidental of Elk Hills, Kern and Pixley National Wildlife Refuges (Table 2), and the National Wildlife Refuge programs (Kern and San Luis refuge complexes). Several mitigation banks, (i.e., large blocks of land preserved, restored and enhanced for purposes of consolidating mitigation for and mitigating in advance of projects that take listed species) are prt of existing or developing Habitat Conservation Plans in the San Joaquin Valley. These include the ARCO Coles Levee, Kern Water Bank, and Chevron Lokern Habitat Conservation Plans, all in Kern County.

Appropriations from Congress and money provided by the California Wildlife Conservation Board and raised by The Nature Conservancy have resulted in about 83 percent of the 102,640-hectare (253,628-acre) Carrizo Plain Natural Area being in public or The Nature Conservancy ownership. Congressional appropriations and Federal land exchanges were used to acquire 26,102 hectares (64,500 acres) between 1988 and 1995 to add to the 54,442 hectares (134,528 acres) already in Federal ownership. These properties are managed by USBLM. The CDFG has management responsibility for the 2,574 hectares (6,360 acres) the State has purchased, and The Nature Conservancy owns and manages another 2,577 hectares (6,369 acres). The Carrizo Plain Natural Area is a relatively large area, but thousands of acres were farmed for decades and a large proportion is steep, mountainous terrain; less than about 30 percent provided natural habitat for listed species at the time of establishment.

Another large scale program of acquisition, directed by USBLM, is the land purchases and exchange in the western Fresno and eastern San Benito Counties, mainly involving properties known as the Martin or Cantua Creek and Silver Creek ranches (hereinafter called the Ciervo-Panoche Natural Area). Acquisitions in these two programs (Carrizo Plain Natural Area and Ciervo-Panoche Natural Area) collectively have done more to advance the recovery of the San Joaquin Valleys listed species than all others combined. Acquisition will continue to be a major element of recovery processes, but will play a lesser role than in the past.

The third large-scale program by the Federal government has been the acquisition of fee title and easements to natural and farmlands in Stanislaus and Merced Counties to add to existing and create new National Wildlife Refuges. Refuge programs have been directed at waterfowl and other wetland species though substantial areas in Merced County are upland communities. With some change in management objectives and habitat restoration, upland areas could support a significantly larger population of kit foxes than currently. Easement lands support a small population of San Joaquin kangaroo rats with a unique genetic constitution, though its subspecies taxonomy is unclear (Johnson and Clifton 1992, Endangered Species Recovery Program unpubl. data). In both counties some riparian areas on existing and planned refuge lands could provide habitat for viable populations of riparian brush rabbits and woodrats.

Additions to the Pixley National Wildlife Refuge, Tulare County, have protected significant habitat for blunt-nosed leopard lizards, Tipton kangaroo rats, San Joaquin kit foxes, and mountain plovers (a candidate species not featured in this plan, but a large proportion of its total population winters in the area covered in this plan). Addition of the Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge (foothills and mountains at southwestern edge of the Valley, mostly in Kern County) to the Hopper Mountain refuge complex, though targeted for recovery of the California condor, also provides protection of some habitat for the San Joaquin kit fox, San Joaquin antelope squirrel, Tulare grasshopper mouse, and possibly the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, giant and short-nosed kangaroo rats, mountain plover, and San Joaquin Le Contes thrasher.

Acquisition of properties in the Allensworth Natural Area of Tulare and Kern Counties and the Semitropic Ridge and Lokern Natural Areas (natural areas defined by Spiegel and Anderson [1992]) by CDFG, California Energy Commission, and Center for Natural Lands Management have been from a variety of funds, both public and private (Table 2). To date, the conservation parcels are relatively small and scattered, but each of the three areas is critical to the recovery of some species. Dedicated conservation lands in each area should expand as the Habitat Conservation Plans are completed and implemented, and if the ongoing planning for a mitigation bank in the Lokern Natural Area by the agecies and Chevron, Inc., is completed and a mitigation bank established.

Several agency management plans and management agreements, which define and commit an agency to managing property in specified ways, exist or are being developed to protect listed species habitat in the San Joaquin Valley. The primary goal of these plans is to ensure that properties with value as habitat for listed species are managed and monitored to preserve, protect, or enhance populations of those species while protecting other societal interests. Plans of this sort represent the principal mechanism for protecting listed species on public lands. Common shortcomings, however, of these plans are lack of adequate information on which to base habitat management actions, and few or no provisions for obtaining needed information. The exceptions are several recently-developed plans that make provisions to conduct research as high priorities (e.g., Center for Natural Lands Management 1993, USBLM et al. 1995).

Table 2. Summary of larger and community-level conservation efforts in the San Joaquin Valley planning area. See Appendices B and C for abbreviations of species and agency names, respectively.

Project	Purpose	Location	Mgmt.Agency	Target Species	Other Species	Size(Acres)	YearAcquired
T & E purchase	nonmitigation	Alkali Sink ER	CDFG	bnll fkr	pbbb hws	930	1978-85
T & E purchase	nonmitigation	Kerman ER	CDFG	bnll fkr	bss lhsb	1,775	1987-88
T & E purchase	nonmitigation	Panoche Hills ER	CDFG	bnll gkr sjkf		595	1985
T & E purchase	nonmitigation	Buttonwillow	CDFG	bnll sjas sjkf tkr	hws	1,350	1991
T & E purchase	nonmitigation	Allensworth ER	CDFG	bnll sjkf tkr		2,924	1980-95
T & E purchase	nonmitigation	Pixley Conservation Easement	KNWR	bnll tkr		10	??
Carrizo NA-CDFG	nonmitigation	Carrizo Plains Natural Area	CDFG	bnll gkr sjas sjkf	sjwt	6,060	1988-89
Carrizo NA-TNC	nonmitigation	Carrizo Plain Natural Area	TNC	bnll gkr sjas sjkf	lhsb	7,428	1987
Lokern-TNC	nonmitigation	Lokern	CNLM	bnll gkr sjas sjkf	hws km lhsb	2,047	1993-94
Sand Ridge	nonmitigation	Sand Ridge	TNC	bc	sjwt tkr	285	??
Semitropic Ridge-TNC	nonmitigation	Semitropic Ridge	CNLM	bnll tkr sjas sjkf	cjf hws sjwt lhsb	598	1993
Pixley NWR	nonmitigation	Pixley NWR	FWS	bnll tkr sjas sjkf		1,244	??
CEC Sycamore Cogeneration	mitigation	Semitropic Ridge	CEC	sjkf tkr		1,924	1988-92
Misc. mitigations < 100 acres	mitigation	Semitropic Ridge	CEC	sjkf tkr		311	1988-92
CEC Midway/Sunset Cogen.	mitigation	Lokern	CEC	bnll gkr sjkf		883	1989-92
Misc. mitigation < 150 acres	mitigation	Lokern	CEC	bnll gkr sjkf		284	1989-91
Metro Bakersfield HCP	mitigation	Coles Levee EP	CLEP	bnll gkr sjas sjkf tkr	hws	2,000	1992
Metro Bakersfield HCP	mitigation	Elk Hills	CDFG	bnll gkr sjas sjkf		515	1994
Hollister Resource Area	nonmitigation	Panoche Hills	BLM	bnll gkr sjkf	hws jpg sjwt	26,412	??
Hollister Resource Area	nonmitigation	Griswold/Tumey Hills	BLM	gkr sjkf	jpg	51,461	??
Hollister Resource Area	nonmitigation	Ciervo Hills/Joaquin Rocks	BLM	bnll gkr sjdb sjkf	jpg	23,711	??
Hollister Resource Area	nonmitigation	Coalinga	BLM	bnll sjkf	cjf	14,660	??
Caliente Resource Area	mitigation	Elk Horn Plain	BLM	bnll gkr sjkf	hws sjwt tbw	160	1983
CVP CA Aqueduct	mitigation	CA Aqueduct/Region 4	CDFG	bnll gkr sjkf tkr	bc hws sjwt	115	1975
Coalinga Gravel Operation	mitigation	Semitropic Ridge	CDFG	bnll sjkf		200	1993
McKittrick Lateral	mitigation	Lokern	CDFG	bnll sjas sjkf		60	1993
Caliente RA-Interim Grazing Plan	mitigation	Carrizo Natural Area	BLM	bnll gkr sjas sjkf snkr	cjf hws lhsb jpg mtt sjwt	103,102	1988
Coalinga Cogeneration	mitigation	Pleasant Valley	CDFG	bnll sjkf		316	1991
Fiber-Optic Cable	mitigation	Lokern	CDFG	bnll sjas sjkf		267	1993
PGE/PGT Pipeline	mitigation	Jasper Sears Mitigation Parcel	CDFG	sjkf		160	1992
PGE/PGT Pipeline	mitigation	Palm Tract	CDFG	sjkf		1,076	1994
PGE/PGT Pipeline	mitigation	Tracy Hills	CDFG	sjkf		443	1993
Safeway/Patterson Pass	mitigation	Tracy Hills	CDFG	sjkf		627	1992
PG&E Stan Pac II & Stockdale Ranch	mitigation	Allensworth ER	CDFG	bnll sjkf tkr	sjas	126	1991
CSU Bakersfield	mitigation	Allensworth ER	CDFG	bnll sjkf tkr	sjas	20	1991
Delano Prison	mitigation	Allensworth ER	CDFG	bnll sjkf tkr	sjas	106	1991
Oceanic Communities Dev	mitigation	Allensworth ER	CDFG	bnll sjkf tkr	sjas	120	1991
Delano Prison	mitigation	Allensworth ER	CDFG	bnll sjkf tkr	sjas	530	1991
Oceanic Communities Dev	mitigation	Allensworth ER	CDFG	bnll sjkf tkr	sjas	272	1992
CSU Bakersfield	mitigation	Allensworth ER	CDFG	bnll sjkf tkr	sjas	40	1991
Badger Creek Limited	mitigation	Allensworth ER	CDFG	bnll sjkf tkr	sjas	30	1992
McKittrick Limited	mitigation	Allensworth ER	CDFG	bnll sjkf tkr	sjas	18	1992
PG&E Line #2 Gas Replacement	mitigation	Allensworth ER	CDFG	sjkf		36	1995
Laidlaw Pipeline	mitigation	Lokern	TNC	bnll km sjkf		3	1993
Kettleman Hills Waste Fac.	mitigation	Semitropic	TNC	sjkf		80	1993
PSE inc.	mitigation	Carrizo Plains Natural Area	BLM	bnll sjkf		3,048	??
Fort Hunter Liggett	mitigation	US on-site management	DOD	sjkf		??	??
Camp Roberts	mitigation	US on-site management	DOD	sjkf		40,000	??
CEC	mitigation	State on-site management	CEC	sjkf		0	??
Ca. Aqueduct Em. Op & Mt. '91	mitigation	Kern Fan Element	DWR	bnll sjas sjkf tkr		118	*
Coastal Branch Phase II Pipeline	mitigation	Kern Fan Element	DWR	bnll gkr sjas sjkf	hws sjwt	1,661	*
CVP San Luis Dam	on-site mitigation	US.-O'Neill Forebay Wildli Area	BR	sjkf		700	1976
CVP San Luis Dam	on-site mitigation	US-San Luis Reservoir Wildl Area	BR	sjkf		846	1976
O'Neill Dam Safety Project	on-site mitigation	I5 corridor	BR	sjkf		171	1964
Delano Prison	on-site mitigation	US on-site management	DOC	bnll sjkf tkr		348	1990
Los Vaqueros Watershed	on-site mitigation	Los Vaqueros Watershed	CCWD	sjkf		4,150	1994
Unimin	on-site mitigation	Unimin Property	owner?	sjkf		50	??
Cowell Ranch	on-site mitigation	Cowell Ranch Property	owner?	sjkf		??	??
Byron Airport	on-site mitigation	Byron Airport Property	owner?	sjkf		821	??
Ca. Aqueduct Em. Op & Mt. '93	on-site mitigation	SJ Field Division	DWR	bnll sjkf tkr		212	1963
Coles Levee Ecological Preserve	mitigation bank	Coles Levee Ecosystem Preserve	CLEP	bnll gkr sjas sjkf tkr	hws	6,020	1993
Tule Vista Farms Conviction	Plea agreement	Pixley NWR	FWS	bnll sjkf tkr		160	1994
J. G. Boswell Co.	canceled	Kern Lake Preserve	TNC	bss	bvls	83	1984
Metropolitan Bakersfield HCP	mitigation	Metropolitan Bakersfield	NA	bc hws sjwt bnll sjkf tkr		262,000	NA
Kern Co. Valley Floor HCP	mitigation	Kern Co. San Joaquin Valley Floor	NA	undecided		1,920,000	NA
Tulare Co. HCP	mitigation	Tulare Co. Valley Floor	NA			1,088,000	NA
Pleasant Valley HCP	mitigation	Pleasant Valley, Fresno Co.	NA			160,000	NA
San Joaquin County HCP	mitigation	San Joaquin Co.	NA				NA
CDWR Aqueduct HCP	mitigation	CA Aqueduct in San Joaquin Valley	NA			12,000	NA
Project	Purpose	Location	Mgmt.Agency	Target Species	Other Species	Size(Acres)	YearAcquired
Kern Fan Water Bank	on site mitigation	Kern River Fan, W. Kern Co.	CDWR	bnll gkr sjkf tkr	bss hws sjwt bvls sjas	23,800	1990
Celeron All-American Pipeline	mitigation	CPNA	BLM	bnll, sjkf, gkr		140.08	1988
PG&E UltraPower Ogle Transmission LIne	mitigation	CPNA	BLM	bnll, sjkf		30	1990
PSE Sierra, Double C and Kern Front Cogen	mitigation	CPNA	BLM	sjkf		137.42	1991
Valley Waste BV-2	mitigation	CPNA	BLM	bnll, sjkf, gkr		88.23	1991
So Cal Gas North Midway Sunset Pipeline and Buena Vista Pipeline	mitigation	CPNA	BLM	bnll, gkr, sjkf		228.34	1991
Celeron Pentland Pipeline	mitigation	CPNA	BLM	bnll, sjkf		21.33	1991
PG&E UltraPower Ogle Gas Line	mitigation	CPNA	BLM	sjkf, bnll		14.86	1991
Chalk Cliff ???	mitigation	CPNA	BLM	sjkf		20.97	1991
Mt. Poso Cogen	mitigation	CPNA	BLM	bnll, sjkf		40	1993
So Cal Gas South Midway Sunset Pipeline	mitigation	Coles Levy Ecosystem Preserve	ARCO, CDFG	bnll, sjkf		5.67	1994
LWCF	nonmitigation	CPNA	BLM	bnll, sjkf, gkr, cjf, sjwt, hws	sjas, mopl	87,123.02	1988-95
North Cousins Exchange	nonmitigation	CPNA	BLM	bnll, sjkf, gkr, cjf, sjwt, hws	sjas, mopl	4,519	1989
Goodwin II Exchange	nonmitigation	CPNA	BLM	bnll, sjkf, gkr, cjf, sjwt, hws	sjas, mopl	6,899	1989
Goodwin I Exchange	nonmitigation	CPNA	BLM	bnll, sjkf, gkr, cjf, sjwt, hws	sjas, mopl	1,200	1993
Taft Exchange	nonmitigation	CPNA	BLM	sjkf, bnll, gkr		2,403.15	1993-94
Mobil Oil	mitigation	CPNA, BV Valley	BLM	sjkf, bnll, gkr		1,140	1992

* currently under negotiations

Critical Needs Analysis.-- The status of 32 of the 34 species included in this recovery plan was examined for critical needs as part of the Friant Biological Opinion Critical Needs Analysis (Colliver et al. 1995). Additional species of the Sierra foothills also were included in the analysis, but are not discussed here. The other two species of this recovery plan, the San Joaquin kit fox and the palmate-bracted birds-beak, were not included, by agreement with the USFWS, because they were dealt with in the critical needs analysis for the contemporaneous Biological Opinion for Interim Contract Renewal (USFWS in litt. 1995a). That analysis found that both the San Joaquin kit fox and palmate-bracted birds-beak had critical needs.

Of the 34 species examined in the two analyses, 12 have critical needs. These species are: palmate-bracted birds beak, Kern mallow, Bakersfield cactus, Bakersfield smallscale, Vaseks clarkia, oil neststraw, Fresno kangaroo rat, riparian woodrat, Buena Vista Lake shrew, riparian brush rabbit, San Joaquin kit fox, and Doyens dune weevil. A critical need is defined as any intrinsic state or external situation that threatens a species with extinction or preclusion of recovery and requires action during the next year to improve or avoid a further deterioration of that species chances of survival and recovery. The critical threats and actions needed for each of the 12 species are reflected in the recovery tasks and priorities established in this recovery plan for these species.