First Regional Conservation Investment Strategy Approved by CDFW
The first of its kind Santa Clara RegionalConservation Investment Strategy (RCIS) was approved by California’s Departmentof Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) last month. The Santa Clara RCIS covers theentirety of Santa Clara County and identifies conservation goals, priorities,and actions to protect endangered species such as the San Joaquin kit fox,Swainson’s hawk, and Central California coastal steelhead. The RCIS alsoidentifies planned infrastructure works in the County, including majortransportation, water, transmission, and renewable energy projects. Takentogether, the RCIS provides valuable information for infrastructure agencies toconsider how strategic conservation investments could be made in advance offuture project impacts to fulfill mitigation requirements, expedite projecttimelines, and generate truly effective conservation outcomes at a regional scale.The Santa Clara RCIS is sponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Open SpaceAuthority in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, Valley TransportationAuthority, Conservation Strategy Group, and others. For a copy of the SantaClara RCIS, see CDFW’s website here.
Regional Conservation Investment Strategies
RCISs are voluntary, non-regulatory, andnon-binding conservation plans designed to incentivize and guide investments inresource conservation. The RCIS program went into effect on January 1, 2017, andis administered by CDFW. Further background regarding RCISs can be found here.There are a number of draft RCISs currently being reviewed by CDFW which arewell-progressed and on-track to being approved in early 2020:
Yolo RCIS covers all of Yolo County and includesa variety of natural communities such as cultivated lands, chamise and mixedchaparral, and wetlands. This RCIS has received public and CDFW review commentsand is being prepared for final CDFW review and approval.
East Bay RCIS covers all of Contra Costa andAlameda counties and includes a variety of bayland and inland habitats. ThisRCIS has received public and CDFW review comments and is being prepared forfinal CDFW review and approval.
Mid-Sacramento Valley RCIS covers portions ofColusa and Sutter counties and includes farmlands and rangelands. This RCIS hasreceived public and CDFW review comments and is being prepared for final CDFWreview and approval.
Antelope Valley RCIS covers lands within LosAngeles County and includes a variety of rural open space. A draft version ofthis RCIS has been deemed ‘complete’ by CDFW. The draft RCIS will now undergo a60-day public review period and detailed CDFW review.
The above are the most progressed draft RCISs inthe state. Additional RCISs currently being drafted include Monterey, SanBernardino, and Santa Cruz RCISs.
Mitigation Credit Agreements
The Santa Clara County RCIS approval comes onthe heels of the release of the draft Mitigation Credit Agreement Guidelines(Guidelines) in August of this year. Mitigation Credit Agreements (MCAs) are acomponent of the program set up by AB 2087. MCAs are the crediting mechanismwhereby habitat improvements or similar conservation actions can be quantifiedand used to fulfill compensatory mitigation requirements established understate and federal environmental laws. With the draft Guidelines developed, CDFWwill work collaboratively with stakeholders as part of an MCA pilot period todevelop initial MCAs. The overarching objectives of the pilot period are tocomplete three MCAs before the summer of 2021, as well as the first MCA by thesummer of 2020. Key goals of the pilot period include developing a programmaticapproach for the creation of mitigation credits, which poses a key incentivefor infrastructure agencies, outreach and a high degree of coordination withrelated federal and state agencies, as well as trialing innovative approachestowards credit creation, including for short-term habitat enhancement andmulti-benefit projects. The learnings from the pilot period will inform theprocess CDFW chooses to adopt in relation to MCA development.
For more information on the RCIS program or MCA pilot period, please contact Graham Chisolm at graham@csgcalifornia.com or Sam Uden at sam@csgcalifornia.com.