Conservation land purchases along river announced
Chico Enterprise Record- 4/2/02
By Heather Hacking, staff writer

The Nature Conservancy has announced plans to buy four more pieces of property along the Sacramento River, eventually to restore the 261 acres to habitat or recreation areas and turn the land over to public agencies.

Over the years the Nature Conservancy has worked to convert 18,000 acres of land to habitat in the inner-river zone of the Sacramento River.

Sam Lawson, director of the Chico office of the Nature Conservancy, announced the acquisitions at the Thursday meeting of the Sacramento River Conservation Area in Los Molinos.

Typically, the Nature Conservancy buys the land and often keeps it in agricultural production until long-term restoration plans are completed. Often grant money, such as from CalFed, is used for the projects.
The deals on three of the properties will close within the next several weeks. The fourth, a property located in Colusa County, is expected to close this week.

The parcels include:
* The Singh property, along the Sacramento River at the washout. This 40 acres and is now planted in walnuts, with about six acres in riverside habitat. The appraised value is $318,000.
The Nature Conservancy is interested in buying it because it is good fish habitat. The owner wants to sell because development upstream has created faster flows of the Sacramento River and the land floods frequently, Lawson said.
* The Shahi property, just north of where Bayliss Blue Gum Road veers off of Highway 45. That 20-acre parcel is now planted in almonds and the appraised value is $95,000.
The plan for that property is to create bank swallow habitat but the Nature Conservancy will continue to grow almonds.
* The 72-acre Altube property downstream from the Red Bluff diversion dam. It's currently part of a larger ranch. Of the 72 acres, 52 is planted in walnuts and 20 are riparian habitat.

The appraised value is $490,000 and half of the purchase price comes from the mitigation settlement set up after the Dunsmuir chemical spill.

The area has public use-recreational opportunities, Lawson said, and is also a good spot for steelhead fish.
He said the property is on a low terrace and is flood prone. The farmer battled disease and erosion since the land is within the inner river zone.

The Nature Conservancy will hold title to the property until a long-term management plan is developed. Then they'll decide which public agency will be chosen to take over management. Lawson said that might be Fish and Game, it might be State Parks, it might be U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

* The Boeger property in Colusa County. This 129-acre parcel is currently planted partly in walnuts, but 74 acres of it is riparian habitat. The project is appraised at $400,000.

Lawson said the Nature Conservancy is hoping to secure some CalFed funding to restore the land to some sort of Savannah habitat.

Colusa County is working on an ordinance that would require zoning changes, and a full hearing before the Board of Supervisors, before land can be converted from agriculture to habitat. But the language isn't finished yet so the new rules may or may not apply to the Nature Conservancy purchase.

At the SRCA meeting Family Water Alliance spokesman Tom Evans raised concerns that cumulative habitat conversions could have an affect on other areas of the river and could exacerbate flood problems.
Evans said he hopes the Nature Conservancy has a chance to study this before going ahead and changing the land use on those properties.

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