by Jeff Walker
Today the Ventura County Board of Supervisors is considering changes to the County’s Initial Study Assessment Guidelines. These guidelines determine the scope of environmental impacts that must be considered in approving new building permits.
The most controversial element of the proposed guidelines is the Biological Resources section which establishes “wildlife corridors” in county. New construction projects within these areas must consider the impact to wildlife movement within these corridors.
Most are the guidelines for wildlife corridors were based on report prepared by South Coast Wildlands entitled South Coast Missing Linkages: A Wildland Network for the South Coast Ecoregion. In order to protect biodiversity in the region, the report recommends establishing an interconnected regional wildland network.
This network would consist of open spaces and improved connectivity across man-made barriers such as highways, agriculture and urban development. According to the study, the wildlife corridor is critical to quality of life in the region:
This strategy represents the best hope for maintaining what remains of southern California’s wildlife legacy, while ensuring quality of life for our citizens via clean air, clean water, and recreational opportunities.
Without a wildland network, the region risks open spaces becoming “pathetic remnants that sustain few species and provide little ecological value.”
The study covered most of southern California and its proposed network would extend from Ventura County down to Mexico. Most of its findings recommend the construction or renovation of bridges, culverts and tunnels that cross man-made barriers in region. However, razing buildings in these corridors such as the Tejon Ranch Headquarters in Kern County is also part of the strategy:
we recommend removal of several buildings of the Tejon Ranch Headquarters (two administrative buildings, about a dozen homes, and an old school), and the associated mile of Lebec Road. The area vacated by these buildings should be restored to native vegetation.
The report suggests that strong protection of open space in these corridors is essential otherwise the significant investment in constructing wildlife crossings will be “meaningless”.
The resolution has the support of many environmental groups in the region including Friends of the Santa Clara River, Environmental Defense Center and Endangered Habitats League. Ventura County Chapter of the Citizens Alliance for Property Rights opposes the resolution. The CAPR specifically is concerned on the effect of the changes to farms and ranches in the county.
As a result, when farms and ranches in the County seek discretionary authorizations from the County for any of a number of typical activities associated with Agricultural Operations, such as brush clearing, erosion control, barn construction, grading, fire control, road construction and planting of new crops, those Agricultural Operations and agricultural lands will be subject to these new, low thresholds of significance.
The debate over the environmental significance and protections neccessary for wildlife corridors is similar to that of wetlands many years ago. If this resolution is approved, many Ventura County property owners will have the equivalent of a protected marsh on their land.
