The California Naturalist Handbook by Greg de Nevers

Author:Greg de Nevers
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520274808
Publisher: University of California Press

Urban and agricultural landscape, Sonoma County. Vineyards, orchards, pastures, reservoirs, and roads penetrate and replace oak woodlands. Dense industrial and housing development on the flat valley margins. Animals and plants are separated into fragments of natural habitat. Photo by Adina Merenlender

Private land conservation tools can provide incentives to prevent habitat loss and fragmentation while maintaining compatible land-use practices and revenue from compatible activities such as sustainable forestry or livestock production. One such commonly used tool is the conservation easement, an incentive-based approach that relies on continued private ownership and management of land with an easement attached to the title that limits some development or other activities on the land. Easements typically cost less than fully acquiring the land for protection purposes and perhaps more importantly leave the management costs and opportunities for other activities on the land to the private landowner while at the same time maintaining most of the land as undeveloped.

Zoning laws that require large minimum parcel sizes in wildland areas also help protect forests. But as more and more people move into California, there is greater pressure to change zoning and to fragment the forests. In Nevada County, for example, the median size of landholdings in 1957 was 551 acres, but by 2001 it was only 8.9 acres. The pressure to change zoning is particularly intense where large sums of money can be made by the sale or development of land. Improved landuse planning, acquisition of conservation easements, and other private land-conservation tools are needed if large forest and woodland parcels are to be protected, allowing them to continue to provide critical goods and services to the people of California.

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