Former foes pen resolution for working landscapes

Ali Bay
Capital Press Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO — It’s not often conservation groups and ranching organizations agree on much of anything.

But this week in Sacramento, former foes – environmental groups and ranching interests – announced the beginning of what once might have been seen as an unusual alliance.

More than 31 agricultural groups, environmental organizations and state and federal agencies signed a resolution Jan. 11 recognizing the importance of California’s rangeland in supporting imperiled species – largely thanks to cattle grazing and the land stewardship practices of ranchers.

“Ranchers in the past have not seen eye-to-eye with many signatories of the California Rangeland Resolution,” said Mark Nelson, president of the California Cattlemen’s Association. “In light of these past conflicts, we are excited to be standing upon common ground here today. Through this partnership, we feel we have the opportunity to not only protect imperiled species, open space, and rangeland, but also our uniquely American way of life.”

As part of the new alliance, the signatories of the California Rangeland Resolution have pledged to work together to preserve and enhance the rangeland landscape for protected species and common species, ultimately supporting the long-term viability of the ranching industry.

Conservation and ranching groups will help make better use of state and federal conservation programs to protect habitat on working landscapes through conservation easements and safe harbor agreements. They have also committed to working together with state and federal agencies to better coordinate endangered species consultations, and other regulatory requirements, to encourage habitat improvements.

“We’ve really sort of come to realize that we need to develop partnerships as much as we can with the ranching community,” said Kim Delfino, California program director for the Defenders of Wildlife in Sacramento. Her organization has focused on protecting native grasslands and vernal pools in the Central Valley.

“Grazing is a really important way of controlling non-native plant species,” Delfino said. “It’s a good management tool – and it’s certainly a lot better than new housing tracts.”

Essentially, they’re choosing cows, not condos.

While the ranching community struggles to keep the industry viable with booming land costs and increasing regulations, an alliance of this sort is a win-win partnership, Delfino said.

Other environmental groups couldn’t agree more.

Urban development is not only impacting the environment, but other communities and industries as well, said Barbara Vlamis, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council, which focuses on vernal pool, water quality and groundwater protection issues.

As a result, “people can start looking for allies in unusual places,” Vlamis said.

Agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are pleased to see the environmental and ranching communities find common ground.

“We tend to focus on the 5 percent of the stuff that we don’t agree on,” said Alex Pitts, a spokeswoman for Fish and Wildlife in Sacramento. But those conflicts tend to take up 100 percent of the agency’s efforts, she said.

Pitts said the Fish and Wildlife Service was a sort of catalyst for the alliance, but the resolution isn’t about the government agency.

“It’s about the environmental community and the ranching community finding a lot of common ground,” she said. “They’ve done all the hard work. We’ve been a catalyst and support – the entity that was reassuring both sides that this wasn’t a setup.”

In fact, this is a huge milestone for conservationists and the ranching community, CCA’s Nelson said.

“The protection of our state’s most valuable natural resources is highly dependent on working partnerships between conservation interests and landowners,” he said.

Organizations that signed the resolution include CCA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Defenders of Wildlife, Butte Environmental Council, California Farm Bureau Federation, California Department of Fish and Game, California Wildlife foundation, Environmental Defense, The Nature Conservancy and California Audubon Society.

Ali Bay is based in Davis. Her e-mail address is abay@capitalpress.com.