Aug. 13: New Plan Seeks To Guide Ecosystem Restoration In The Valley

Support for this podcast comes from the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative, connecting communities with the resources, infrastructure, and networks to ensure a vibrant local free press. From KVPR in Fresno, this is Central Valley Daily. It's Thursday, August 13th. I'm Elizabeth Arcadian in for Sarith Hawk. could more natural ecosystems return to the San Joaquin Valley? A newly released plan lays out a path for that to happen. We wanted to be able to provide a vision and to provide opportunities for people who are considering transitioning their land to another possible use. We speak with the executive director of the group behind the plan. We'll have that conversation in just a moment, but first, these headlines. A series of major oil pipelines that closed last year could be revived by the state's largest oil producer. California Resources Corporation has agreed to pay $63 million for the pipelines that connect the Port of Long Beach to the Bay Area. According to the Bakersfield Californian, the pipelines span thousands of miles and can transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil each day. The California Public Utilities Commission will vote on the purchase. later this week. The Fresno Unified School District is rolling out new student safety initiatives this year. As KVPR's Israel Cardona Hernandez reports, one of them is a new bus tracking app. Fresno Unified is using an app called Zoom for the first time this school year. The app is designed to track students when they are on the bus. Superintendent Mr. Hur said at a press conference on Wednesday that it will act as the district's own transportation app. Now you can actually see whether your child got on the bus, where they are in route, and when they're going to get off the bus. She says students have to be enrolled in school bus passes by September 28th in order to register with Zoom. Fresno Police Chief Mindy Castro says student safety is a top priority. We stand ready to keep Fresno students safe with everything we have. Every one of our officers is dedicated and they stand ready to serve you. She says officers will be enforcing speed limits around school zones. Officers will also continue to enforce a 10 p.m. curfew for minors. For KVPR News, I'm Israel Cardone Hernandez. Fresno Unified begins its new school year on Monday.

The state will not prosecute police officers involved in a 22 deadly shooting in Bakersfield. California Attorney General Rob Bonta office announced that the department has reviewed Juan Carlos Chabell Oriano's case. He was shot by an officer in December of 2022 during an encounter at a homeless encampment. The state DOJ said the officers acted out of self-defense and that there was not enough evidence to pursue criminal charges. A total of eight officers were cleared. Kern County residents will have a chance to vote on a new tax measure this November. A sales tax amounting to a penny out of every $8 would help fund the California Living Museum. That's the county zoo, where leaders say decades of repairs are needed to keep operations running. The tax is estimated to generate $24 million a year. The measure qualified for the ballot after more than 32,000 residents signed on. KVPR's $10,000 drawing is underway. Support KVPR by purchasing your $100 ticket for a chance to win the grand prize of $10,000. Only 800 tickets will be sold. Purchase tickets now at kbpr.org slash 10K. And now to our main story. If you were to teleport back to the Central Valley a few centuries ago, it would have looked vastly different. Unlike today, the valley was not checkered with farm fields and orchards. Rather, it was made up of wetlands, including to Larry Lake. While it's certainly unlikely that this region will ever fully return to wetlands, A new plan aims to guide some local landowners in restoring natural ecosystems. Titled the ecosystem restoration plan for the Central San Joaquin Valley, the plan was put together by the Sequoia Riverlands Trust in partnership with the Bryn School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara. And a quick note, the Sequoia Riverlands Trust is a financial supporter of KVPR. This restoration plan comes as many local farmers leave their fields fallow or empty. One major contributor is the lack of available water and the continued rollout of Sigma, or the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. It's a state law designed to prevent the overdrafting of water basins across California. To learn more about this restoration plan, Central Valley Daily host, Sarith Hawke, sat down with Logan Robertson Hecker. She's the executive director of the Sequoia Riverlands Trust. In this plan, you know, you're really setting up a vision for the future of the region in terms of restoring natural land. And I wanted to understand when you use the term natural land, what does that mean? I would say that when we think about natural land, one of the first things that comes to mind is the way that the land was 150 years ago, more than 150 years ago. But when we think about the valley now, we are definitely thinking about a landscape that involves obviously urban development, involves agriculture, which is the core of our regional economy.

And where possible, lands that have been either preserved in a state that's sort of akin to what they were a couple centuries ago or might be restored to that state. And, you know, you focus on really eight ecosystems here when you're talking about this land. What are some of the characteristics of these ecosystems that made you guys focus on them? Well, these ecosystems actually came to us from some documents within the state of California, some work that had already been done that we wanted to build upon. And so in looking at this four-county region, we wanted to focus on the existing ecosystems that had already been identified. And so that was really just building on previous work. So this plan focuses on four counties. You mentioned four counties, Fresno, Madera, Tulare, and Kings counties. And they're also the most critically overdrafted water basins in the state. How does this restoration address the issue of groundwater in those areas? The genesis of this plan is actually because of the issue of groundwater in these areas. So the plan was funded by a grant. from the Central Valley Community Foundation as part of their Sierra San Joaquin Jobs First initiative. And it's dedicated to that four-county region. So that's the reason for that particular focus. But when we first conceived of the idea for this project, what we were concerned about is the land transition that is related to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. It's starting to happen already. We all see more of it coming. We don't know exactly how much or when or where. And so we wanted to be able to provide a vision and to provide opportunities for people who are considering transitioning their land to another possible use and tools for them to be able to do so. I see. So this is almost working in tandem then with Sigma, which is the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act that seeks to basically reducing overdraft. Yes, we definitely see our work as being working in tandem with the need to reduce the use of groundwater across the region. As an organization, we kind of work on, I like to say, both sides of the Sigma coin. So we work to preserve working and agricultural lands permanently. That's something that's very important to us. It's core to our mission. But we do understand that. given the realities of our region, that's not going to be able to happen for so many different lands. And we know that farmers and growers out there are looking at some really difficult decisions. And so acknowledging that, we're looking at the other side of that coin as well. And how can we as a conservation partner and also all of the other conservation organizations that we work with, how can we all bring more tools to the toolbox for folks who are finding themselves in those situations? And, you know, this plan mentions, you know, when you're talking about working in tandem with this big policy at the statewide level, this plan talks about how there's really this gap between what the state is trying to achieve and also regional objectives. How do you sort of bridge the gap between those? Well, this document, this plan is intended to help begin to make the case for bridging that gap.

What our hope is is that we'll be able to share with funders, be they public funders or private funders, the need and the opportunity in this region and be able to help make that case, help our partners make that case, help landowners make that case so that we can bring more funding for this type of work to the region, since it is a historically underfunded region as far as restoration and conservation. This just makes me think of the Tilleri Basin, you know, where all this farmland is happening where the Tilleri Lakebed is. Would this be something that could be a model for transitioning something like that? I see it as providing opportunity and providing options for those landowners. We're definitely not looking at any of the land that is in this four county region and saying this should. that anything should happen. So all of this is really looking at those folks who know their land and know their land best and what they might want to do as they're looking at their future. I can give an example if you like. Yeah. So imagine a pistachio grower who's sort of southeastern Tulare County and they're looking at a really, really tight water budget and they're knowing that it just doesn't pencil out for them to keep all of their acreage in production. What they can do is look at this plan and see where they are and what some potential restoration options might be for their area. Maybe it could be restoration to upland habitat that's compatible with grazing. So they'd still be able to get some income off that land. And then they can reach out to us or to our other partners for information about how we might be able to help, what funding sources might be able to be available. We can add it to a potential project inventory so that when all of us are going out to look for more funding to bring to the region, we're able to have this project in mind and we're able to help folks who are in that situation. And, you know, when you're talking about sort of, it's like a guide almost, right? Like this is what you could do with your land. But there's also a bit of uncertainty as well, right? There's weather is a tough thing to predict. And when you're talking about restoring land, you're talking probably planting, right? New species. And how did you guys consider kind of that unpredictability? Well, I mean, the plan does incorporate models for a change in climate. And so thinking into the future with the information that we currently have available, trying to do the best that we can, there is a lot of uncertainty. There is climate uncertainty. There is economic uncertainty. And so I think all of us in this region are really looking to pull on the best available data to be able to help guide our next steps going forward. And for people who may not understand, you know, why do we want to convert our land to be restored? Shouldn't it be, you know, kept as farmland where it can create jobs and produce food? What are the benefits that you see with moving forward with this kind of work? Well, I mean, I think I should start by saying most people don't, like they would really like to be able to stay in ag and we would like to be able to support them to remain in ag.

But if they are looking at an option where it's just not working for them and they're looking for other uses for their land, as so many people are now, we see this ecosystem restoration as a type of option. And certainly we've also been looking at the workforce implications for that as well. That's kind of part of this funding stream was to consider workforce implications, which is part of what makes the plan unique. And so... As a project adjacent to this plan, we had two internship programs at our nature preserves in Tularee County. One was working with interns to develop their skills in management of open space grazing lands, such as our nature preserves, and the other was working at our native plant nursery and learning what is needed in order for native plant propagation. And that's another piece that we see as being a real need. If there are going to be lands that are restored to native ecosystems or native habitat, there's a need for native plants. And so part of this grant from Central Valley Community Foundation helped to invest in our native plant nursery to get it ready to provide plants for potential projects. Logan Robertson Hecker, executive director of the Sequoia Riverlands Trust. Thank you so much for making time to join me today. Thank you so much, Sarith. That was Central Valley Daily host, Sarith Hawke, speaking with Logan Robertson Hecker. And that is today's show. Have a story idea for Central Valley Daily? Maybe feedback. Reach out to us. Just email podcast at kvpr.org. Today's episode was produced by Jonathan Linden and KVPR. I'm Elizabeth Arcalion. Find the latest local news anytime at kvpr.org.

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