The San Joaquin Valley has been described as the nation’s most transformed landscape. It has been industrialized with agriculture, resource extraction and spreading urbanization. It has been called a sacrifice zone in the service of industry, with indelible impacts on the environment and people who live here. Within that vast matrix of farmland and sprawling cities, nature still abides.
Viewed on a map, the Valley is part of a larger ecoregion that includes the mostly natural Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges. Looking more closely at the Valley floor, there are remnants of the ancient landscape along river corridors, in wetlands and oak woodlands where indigenous flora and fauna thrive.
Recognizing the urgency brought on by climate change and rapid population growth, the Gavin Newsom administration launched the 30×30 plan to save, restore or enhance 30% of California’s terrestrial and coastal landscape by 2030. The California Natural Resources Agency is taking the lead. It is an ambitious goal, but the state has a head start since much of the landscape is already under some form of protection by the federal and state governments.
There are also numerous private lands such as nature preserves owned and operated by nonprofit groups. In fact, state agencies are depending on extensive collaboration with community organizations for success.
Since its inception in 2020, the state has conserved 1.5 million acres of land. That brings the total to a little more than 25% of the terrestrial landscape and 16% of the coast. With five years left, there are still nearly five million acres of land that must be preserved to reach the state’s goal.
Our region plays an important role in reaching the 30×30 target. That is why state Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot convened a get-together at the River House on the San Joaquin River to explain the plan, share information and get feedback from the many thoughtful and expert individuals in attendance.
Crowfoot outlined three priorities for the project: confronting the existential crisis of climate warming and instability, developing outdoors accessibility for all, and protecting nature and restoring biodiversity.
“California is considered by scientists as one of 36 biodiversity hotspots in the world, which means this richness of life that we have of animals, plants and other life forms is globally unique in the Central Valley and in the mountains.
“So those big three priorities lead me to why we’re here today. What we’re trying to do is build a movement, a movement of entities like your organizations that are actually achieving those conservation wins in your backyard.”
Secretary Crowfoot underscored the main reason for the event was to learn from the work of Valley conservationists. “The goal is frankly, for some of us from Sacramento to learn about what’s important to you, what are the projects that you’re working on that we should be supporting. How do we lift up and support each other and build our network?
“Remarkable things are happening in the Central Valley.” To keep those remarkable things happening will require cooperation and money. While the state allocated more than $1 billion of the 2023 budget for nature-based projects, funding partnerships with the private sector will be essential to achieve the 30×30 goals in the real world.
One real world example is Dos Rios, California’s newest state park. Although they are dammed, constrained and bent to human purposes, rivers still run through the Valley. Dos Rios sits at the confluence of the San Joaquin River and Tuolumne River several miles west of Modesto. Its location amid the confluence of working farmland and a natural floodplain makes it a unique state park.
Dos Rios is an example of partnership between public, private and nonprofit actors coming together. Both rivers have been tamed, some would say enslaved, and much of the surrounding landscape dedicated to agriculture.
Thanks to River Partners and the Tuolumne River Trust, the land was purchased in 2012. Since then, some 350,000 native trees and vegetation have been planted along an eight-mile stretch of the rivers amounting to 1,600 acres of restored land. It is now a large and vibrant habitat for numerous species of mammals, birds and fish.
That is only one of the conservation projects River Partners has embraced. They were formed by farmers in the Sacramento Valley in 1998 and now have a footprint from Redding to Bakersfield.
Director of Planning Bill Eisenstein pointed out that they have restored 20,000 acres of floodplain habitat throughout the Valley, “We work with willing sellers and we purchase land generally with public money and restore land and then deed those properties over to an entity like a land trust or like a state park system or like the National Wildlife Refuge System. So that that entity then is the long-term steward of those lands.”
Eisenstein explains that River Partners is a restoration organization taking land that is in another use, generally irrigated agriculture and converting it back to native habitat, “The core and the backbone of the Central Valley and the San Joaquin Valley in so many ways is the rivers. The Dos Rios restoration project is illustrative of so many of the dynamics that are really important to understand about how land is restored and can be restored in the San Joaquin Valley.”
The San Joaquin and the Kings are both working rivers with most of their waters serving humankind. Each has its protectors and habitat restoration enterprises. The San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust has been engaged for decades, transforming a stylish but worn farmhouse into a beautiful and useful educational center. Outside, trails and picnic areas adorn the recreation area. A large barn hosts community functions.
It is the result of local women who long ago wanted to save the river bottom from becoming another suburb. A fully restored San Joaquin has been an elusive work in progress for many years facing a variety of challenges, including the ever-present gravel mining quarries.
Likewise, the Kings River has its advocates and protectors working on projects of environmental enhancement on the segment below Pine Flat dam. They recently received an “Outdoors for All” grant for establishing a youth leadership program to encourage young people getting outdoors and learning about nature and science firsthand. Greater public access to natural areas is one of the prime goals of the 30×30 plan.
Other regional conservation projects are due to the efforts of the Sequoia Riverlands Trust. It protects nearly 42,000 acres of land around the Kaweah, Tule, Kern and Kings rivers. It also helps farmers create conservation easements to preserve farmland from development.
Since 2000, it has created and managed seven open space preserves in the Valley. Kaweah Oak Preserve near Visalia is a magical woodland featuring majestic valley oaks in a wildflower-strewn grassland rich with wildlife.
Dry Creek Preserve just east of Woodlake is a unique alluvial Sycamore woodland stretching for miles through the pastoral foothill rangeland. The group also helps preserve vernal pools and Carrizo Plain National Monument, a relic landscape reminiscent of the ancient San Joaquin Valley.
Once upon a time, extensive San Joaquin Valley wetlands hosted millions of migratory birds and indigenous species along with other species in a corridor of biodiversity. Only a small fraction remains, but that vestige is impressive. Just ask Ric Ortega. He is general manager of the Grassland Water District, which oversees a massive wetland habitat in the heart of the Pacific Flyway.
Ortega explained that in the 1930s the farming area became the first major land retirement and repurposing project in the state. “Ever since then our focus has been on preserving that wetland complex and that habitat complex. It’s now 240,000 acres, over 300 square miles.”
Some of the territory, Ortega points out, is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service but most is privately held. “It is a mix of managed wetlands and riparian forest and uplands pasture land with beneficial wildlife, and the private landowners there have remained incredibly dedicated to the cause.
“Collaboration amongst agricultural conservationists, state and federal agencies led to the establishment of over a dozen state and federal wildlife refuges there.”
Ortega described a bold vision initiated by Merced area groundwater users “partnering with nonprofits and landowners to develop a plan for land retirement that would create a wildlife corridor from the Sierra foothills linking down to the grassland complex and then ultimately to the Coast Range.”
There is ample opportunity to advance the goals of 30×30 according to Ortega, but receiving adequate surface water from the federal government is an ongoing challenge. That means more groundwater pumping is needed to supply the wildlife refuges. He adds that groundwater depletion in the region and the state’s groundwater management law could put even more stress on wetlands habitat.
Partnerships with Native American tribes is an integral part of the 30×30 plan. So far, the Newsom administration has given back more than 49,345 acres of land to California tribes. The state has also committed more than $100 million to provide funding for tribal priorities, technical assistance and support to foster tribal partnership and collaboration in California’s conservation and climate goals. It includes the establishment of a tribal committee to help the administration implement the program.
This happened on the ground recently at the Tule River Indian Reservation. Beavers were reintroduced to a land where they used to live.
Julie Vance, regional manager of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, emphasizes why this is important. “What beavers do in addition to chewing trees, they make beaver dams and they make ponded areas and water, and it turns out when you have ponded slower water, that actually helps with groundwater recharge, it makes more wetland habitat, it diversifies habitat within streams.”
Vance emphasized the significance of working with the Tule River people. “It was a really important partnership with the tribe because tribes and the state government have a not great historic relationship for important and real reasons. And so, it’s neat to be able to partner with them on something that they’re interested in because of the history of beaver with them and their stories and lore.”
Pictographs created hundreds of years ago by Indian ancestors depicting beavers in their ancient home affirm the magnitude of this effort.
Julie Dick Tex also spoke of Indian traditions. She is Western Mono raised in Dunlap. Trained as an anthropologist and a social worker, she observed that the value of access to traditional lands is a cultural imperative.
“I’m very proud to live in the United States. It’s not mine anymore. You guys are the stewards. It’s still my land in my heart. I want you to be educated so that you can take care of my land because I’m watching.
“So, when we’re looking at the San Joaquin River, the Kings River, or any other small creek that is a tributary, we need basket material. We lost our areas to gather. Our elders can’t access the rivers. We need good access. We need places to take our youngsters.”
Mountain landscapes are largely public lands: national parks, national forests, national monuments and some state parks. One aspect of the 30×30 strategy is to provide greater protection for those public lands. One proposal that has simmered for years under the radar is the Range of Light National Monument. It would cover what is currently Sierra National Forest. Then U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier introduced a bill in Congress to do that in 2022, but it died in committee.
Now a letter authored by Assembly Member Joaquin Arambula (D–Fresno) is rounding up support for the idea, “I have spent a significant amount of time this year getting almost half of the legislature to sign onto a letter to open up 1.4 million acres between Yosemite and Sequoia national parks. It’s the largest contiguous wilderness that we have in the lower 48 states and would move us a tremendous step forward to getting to 30 by 2030.”
The letter is aimed at federal action to create the Range of Light Monument by the Interior Department and by Presidential decision to give that critical piece of the Sierra Nevada a higher level of protection.
The Range of Light Monument has been pursued by Unite the Parks, a nonprofit based in Mariposa. It has been working to gain wider support for the project for more than seven years, pointing out that it is endorsed by 153 businesses and organizations, 200 scientists, 20 members of the House, the Democratic National Committee and the California Democratic Party. Earlier this year, President Biden expanded two existing monuments in the state: San Gabriel in the south and Snow Mountain Berryessa in the north.
There are many opportunities to achieve the 30×30 goals and many challenges. Will there be adequate funding? Will there be enough water for habitat restoration because of climate change or government decisions? How will issues around access be resolved in such a large region? Those quandaries will be dealt with in time. For now, the special places to appreciate nature in our region are all over the map for those who have the curiosity to explore.
