Apple orchard in Cupertino?

Take a look at this Youtube video of a presentation by Steve Jobs to Cupertino City Council, discussing a potential new campus for Apple that would bring back plum orchards and natural landscaping.

The new jobs could also have a lot of impacts that need addressing, but the proposal is interesting.

-Brian

CGF Comments on the draft Stanford HCP and EIS

(We submitted the comments below on the draft Stanford HCP.  -Brian) 

August 30, 2010

Sheila Larsen

Gary Stern

Fish and Wildlife Service and

National Marine Fisheries Service

            Re:  Comments on the Draft EIS and HCP/ITP for Stanford University

Dear Sheila and Gary:

Committee for Green Foothills (CGF) submits the following comments on the Draft EIS (DEIS) and HCP/ITP (HCP) for Stanford University:

I. Relationship to Searsville Dam and operations

The EIS, on pages 3-24 and 3-25, discusses an alternative that covers modifications to Searsville Dam and Reservoir for Flood Control, and concludes that this alternative was rejected from further consideration because no specific modifications have been evaluated for feasibility, and there is a large array of flood control measures that the Army Corps and the JPA will be analyzing and considering in the future.  The EIS does not discuss an alternative that covers modifications to Searsville Dam and Reservoir for the purpose of benefitting steelhead.  The HCP (Section 1.3, page 11) states that future structural changes to the dam could be covered by an addendum to the HCP.

Potential removal or modifications of Searsville dam to allow fish passage, while potentially beneficial for fish, could also have potentially adverse impacts to steelhead downstream of the dam due to increased sedimentation of the main stem of San Francisquito Creek. The large sediment load that originates in the Corte Madera Creek sub-watershed currently accumulates in large part behind the dam.  Searsville Lake and associated marshes and riparian areas provide habitat for species that would be greatly altered if the dam were removed.  These unknown impacts, particularly to aquatic avian species and bats, could outweigh the benefits of increased spawning and rearing habitat for steelhead upstream of the dam.   Downstream sedimentation associated with removal or modification of Searsville and potential increases in flood hazards in East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Menlo Park is another complex issue that must be carefully studied and thoroughly evaluated.

CGF supports a comprehensive study of options for Searsville Dam and Lake in collaboration with Stanford and other stakeholders.  Such a study should include analysis of beneficial and adverse impacts to species as well as downstream flood hazards.  CGF does not oppose inclusion of a sufficiently-comprehensive study in this HCP, even recognizing that such a study would necessarily delay the HCP.  CGF further believes, however, that a comprehensive study could also be done as an amendment to the HCP/ITP.

II. The HCP and DEIS fail to address the Stanford Sustainable Development Study

The wholesale failure to include discussion or analysis of the Stanford Sustainable Development Study (Sustainability Study) constitutes a significant oversight in the HCP and environmental review.  Stanford authored both the Sustainability Study and the Draft HCP, making the oversight particularly jarring.  Correcting this oversight will require significant rewriting of the HCP and EIS to reflect the Sustainable Development Study's conclusions about the amount of campus development that will be needed to occur beyond the Academic Growth Boundary (AGB).

The land outside the AGB and subject to the Sustainability Study analysis is likely to contain the majority of habitat potentially affected by the HCP, so conclusions in the Sustainability Study about level of anticipated development should weigh heavily on the assessment of anticipated impacts from the HCP.  Historically, the level of development of Stanford land in San Mateo County has been quite small – most development occurred in Santa Clara County.  The vast majority of habitat in Santa Clara County is outside the AGB.  Important exceptions occur in the vicinity of San Francisquito Creek and Lake Lagunita, but both of those areas will be subject to special restrictions in the HCP. 

The Sustainability Study analysis covers approximately half the time period of the proposed HCP, also making it highly determinative of projections for the second half of the HCP time period.  There is no reason for assuming a sudden explosion of development after the current General Use Permit and Sustainability Study analysis end, so the best practice would be to rely on these existing analyses to project outward for an additional 25 years.

III. The HCP and DEIS overestimate the amount of habitat that Stanford may want to impact

HCP and DEIS should examine actual habitat development rates under the GUP for purposes of projecting future needs.  The DEIS states that under the existing GUP, Stanford "could" develop up to 30 acres of potential habitat.  DEIS at 3-2.  No citation is given for this statement, and the GUP in any event is not the final word on new development at Stanford.  To assess future habitat development rates based on the GUP, the HCP should instead examine what acreage of habitat has been developed in the nearly 10 years that the GUP has been in place.

The 180-acre estimate double-counts the 30 acres for the GUP.  As discussed below, the projection of 50-150 acres of anticipated development overstates the existing trends and contradicts Stanford's own analysis.  Even if the trend of 1-3 acres annually were correct, however, that would cover the time period and geographic area of the GUP.  There is no analysis supporting the conclusion that Stanford would damage habitat at its pre-GUP rate, and then in addition to that impact, would destroy another 30 acres through the GUP.  The already-inflated and incorrect 150 acre estimate of habitat impact forms a ceiling.

The Sustainability Analysis estimates significant constraints on future development that need to be included the HCP analysis.  To our knowledge, the Sustainability Study is left unmentioned in the HCP and DEIS, especially its conclusion that essentially no development need occur beyond the AGB in Santa Clara County.  While it is not binding, the Sustainability Study is Stanford's own analysis of future impacts that it should not ignore simply because it is not currently discussing the sustainability of development patterns.

The Sustainability Study indicates the level of impact on acreage beyond the AGB should be near zero for the 25 years covered by the Study, and the HCP impact levels should be adjusted to the reflect that fact.  The Sustainability Study further indicates a likely constrained level of development in other habitat areas and constrained development in the area beyond the AGB after 2035.  No evidence has been provided for a different trend in the future than the trend anticipated by Stanford itself in its own study.  That trend should be extended forward to cover the period of the HCP.

Simply put, the HCP and DEIS provided an incorrect trend line for anticipating future habitat development that would require a permit.  It has not provided a habitat development rate for recent years under the GUP, nor has it included the constraints on development that Stanford itself acknowledged in the Sustainability Study.  Reduced impact figures should therefore be included as constraints on the terms of the HCP.

IV. Stanford's authority over the land trust significantly reduces the trust's ability to do its job and avoid conflicts of interest.

The land trust that is to be the recipient of conservation easements from Stanford needs to be completely independent of Stanford and ready (if needed) to even bring legal action against Stanford to enforce the easements, yet Stanford is given authority to set up the trust with no details on how that will happen.   Establishment of a trust directed in whole or even in part by persons receiving paychecks from Stanford would create irreconcilable conflicts of interest, as Stanford's ability to exercise control over its employees could influence whether the trust could exercise its legal obligation to protect the conservation easements.  Disclaimers that "Stanford would never do such a thing, even 50 years from now" are wholly irrelevant, whether such disclaimers are accurate or not.  The conflict of interest exists regardless of good intentions.

The trust also needs sufficient resources to monitor and defend the easements that it owns.  This could include litigation both litigation and ability to call on independent scientific expertise.  The land trust needs to be adequately funded by Stanford[1], and run by worthy people nominated by Stanford in advance of approval, who are not Stanford employees, and who appoint their own replacements so that Stanford has no subsequent appointment power.

V. Additional issues

            CGF provides the following short-but-important comments:

The HCP needs to integrate and work with downstream impacts of San Fracisquito Creek on endangered species.  The San Francisquito Creek flood control project in particular should be discussed in the HCP as an opportunity for potential cooperation.

The HCP needs further specificity in describing areas that are to be preserved away from the riparian zones.

            Undevelopable areas placed under conservation easements should not be credited to Stanford as mitigation for development elsewhere.  In particular, streambeds are essentially undevelopable.  Stanford will never have an opportunity to develop those areas and creation of conservation easements therefore does nothing to mitigate impacts elsewhere.  The conservation easements should have to extend an additional distance away beyond streambeds to include areas that have some potential for development in order to act as real mitigation.

            As the red-sided garter snake habitat is unprotected and increasingly likely to be destroyed south of Stanford, it is also likely that intergrade garter snakes at Stanford will increasingly belong to the San Francisco garter snake gene pool and should be treated as a listed species.

Conclusion.

            We urge the HCP and DEIS be revised to reflect the comments in this letter.

            Please contact us with any questions.

Sincerely,

Brian A. Schmidt                                                                                    Lennie Roberts

Legislative Advocate, Santa Clara County                                                 Legislative Advocate, San Mateo County

---

[1] One possibility is a funding agreement with Stanford that allows the trust to obtain funding from Stanford for consultants and even to oppose the university, such as in an enforcement action.  This agreement would have to be clear in that there could be no possibility for Stanford to evade its responsibilities, and also requires a truly independent trust to function.

Tiger Salamanders Return to Historical Marsh Site to Breed Where Lake Lagunita Now Sits

(Another helpful guest post by CGF Intern Anthony Aerts.  I had wondered about this issue for a while.  -Brian Schmidt)

While looking through the “Creek & Watershed Map of Palo Alto & Vicinity” created by Janet M. Sowers and published by the Oakland Museum of California (2004), I came across the following information: “Historian Alan K. Brown observed that in 1857, a natural marsh occupied the depression that is now the lake.”  While Stanford’s Lake Lagunita was originally built as a livestock watering hole, it appears that a natural wetland predated this artificial lake. This fact is significant given the debate around the vulnerable California tiger salamander population that uses Lake Lag as a winter breeding ground.

Some people have stated that the salamanders are simply benefiting from a lake that Stanford created.  They therefore resent the obligation they consider imposed on Stanford, or they think Stanford hasn't received credit it deserves for its good work.  However, the existence of a natural marsh prior to the lake might suggest otherwise. In fact, the tiger salamander may merely be returning to a spot used as a breeding ground long before Stanford came into being.

"Extinct" native plant rediscovered in San Francisco

While extinction is forever, rediscovery can be the one reprieve:

A San Francisco native plant thought extinct by botanists has been discovered near the Golden Gate Bridge.

The last, wild Franciscan Manzanita was believed to have perished in the 1940s when the city cemeteries where it grew were moved south to allow for neighborhood expansion.

But when construction crews recently cleared eucalyptus trees in the city's Presidio area, it exposed the only specimen known to exist in the wild.

While it appears that cultured varieties of the plant have been kept alive in nurseries, it's even better to have non-domesticated, wild individuals to re-establish the plant in its habitat.

Good news for the beginning of the week.

-Brian

CGF Comments on Admin Draft County Habitat Plan

(Below are CGF's comments on the Santa Clara County Habitat Plan's Second Administrative Draft. They're imported from an Excel file so may be hard to understand the context, bu the first number refers to the Draft Chapter number (e.g., Chapter 9), and further numbers if any refer to chapter sections (9.2.1) and/or page numbers in a particular chapter (page 9-27). Then the comment follows. -Brian)

9 There is a systematic problem with Chapter 9 failing to distinguish between funding for enhancement and funding for impact mitigation. For example,.page 9-7 discusses the possibility of donated lands to reduce costs. Any sophisticated donor will require the donation be used for enhancement only. Funding partners such as the Open Space Authority and non-profits will similarly limit their contribution to enhancement components only. Whether the budget is sufficient to pay for mitigation is unclear, and needs a separate accounting for mitigation and funding for enhancement.

9 3.2 45 Open Space Authority section should contain language similar to County Parks language, that the value of the OSA contribution can be used only to offset OSA impacts and to provide environmental enhancement.

9 3.2 9-44 Committee for Green Foothills and other environmental organizations do not support using Parks Charter fund acquisitions to offset mitigations that would otherwise be required of County Roads and Airports. We note that this is an unstable source of funding as it expires in 2021 and environmental organizations that have supported the Parks Charter fund will oppose use of parkland to mitigate road and airport impacts at the time of reauthorization. Furthermore, County Supervisors approved use of Parks funding for road mitigation in 2008 by a 3-2 vote which indicate the close margin could be reversed by a future Board of Supervisors. At a minimum, therefore, the Habitat Plan should discuss what funding sources would be used in case Parks Charter fund acquisitions cannot be used for Roads and Airports mitigation.

9 3.2 9-44 Amount of land and monies from Park Charter fund for land acquisition are based on historical acquisition rates and the 2003 Strategic Plan, but the 2006 reauthorization reduced the percentage required to be spent on acquisition. I don't know if the 2003 Strategic Plan anticipated this reduction, but if not, the "conservative" estimates need to be reworked.

9 Costs of mitigation of impacts should be identified separately from the costs of environmental enhancements

9 Costs to mitigate impacts caused by each permittee should be identified for each permittee

9 Costs to mitigate impacts caused by private development operating under the authority of each permittee should be identified as separate total amounts for each permittee (separate from the costs to mitigate that permittee's impacts). If costs exceed development impact fees, that excess cost should be identified.

9 9.1 9-1 "Adaptive management" should be reinserted as a bullet point, either independently or together with "remedial measures"

9 9.2.2 9-7 fn 5 The best use of sites with haz mat present may be as wildlife habitat. Suggest changing to "will not be added to the Habitat Plan Reserve System IF CLEANUP WOULD BE LEGALLY REQUIRED."

9 9.2.11 9-56 Creation of an endowment fund from cost savings over estimated Plan costs should be mandatory until and unless a funding plan for costs in perpetuity has been approved by DFG, USFWS, and NMFS.

9 9.2.11 9-56 One of the conditions of approval of the Plan should be acceptance of the post-Permit funding plan by the wildlife agencies.

9 general All cost savings over estimated Plan costs should be used for adaptive management or for an endowment fund for permanent reserve management. No fees should be reduced until a permanent funding plan for reserve management has been approved by wildlife agencies.

8 8.6 8-24 Draft says Stay-Ahead "will only apply two years after the last local ordinance takes effect." A time-certain deadline is needed or delays in local ordinances could postpone Stay-Ahead indefinitely. We suggest three years from Habitat Plan approval and permit issuance.

8 8.6.1 to 8.6.2 8-28 The "Jump Start" provision conflicts with the Stay-Ahead concept unless the baseline for measuring Stay-Ahead starts at the same time as Jump-Start, in October 2005. Failing to do so means the negative impacts of since 2005 are ignored while positive enhancements are counted, and a false impression of net benefit created. If this is rejected, planners should indicate what degree of uncompensated impact degradation is expected between October 2005 and plan issuance.

4 4.2 4-2 There is a conceptual gap between the definition of "permanent" and "temporary" impacts, because temporary impacts are defined as lasting less than three years. "Permanent" impacts should be defined as "impacts that permanently, OR FOR MORE THAN THREE YEARS, remove or alter a land cover...."

5 Table 5-14 and elsewhere I may have missed where the Plan discusses mitigating for temporary impacts, but fn1 to Table 5-14 states impact estimates are based on permanent impacts only. Temporary impacts also require mitigation. We suggest mitigation should at a minimum be dependent on the amount of time of impact in relation to the permit term, so that a one-year impact requires zt leasts 1/50th the mitigation of a permanent impact.

4 4.4.1 4-44 parcels "anticipated to be permitted by the time of Plan implementation" and excluded from impact analysis provides no context for analysis and could be extremely large. Only previously-identified interim projects that are still under consideration (thereby excluding the now-withdrawn Coyote Valley Specific Plan) should fit this category. Absent such a change, there should be identifying information about what parcels and projects form part of this category.

4 4.4.1 4-44 Regarding permitted parcels and anticipated permitted parcels, there should be clarification that because these parcels are excluded from impact analysis, these parcels and any future permits issued are not covered by the Habitat Plan and take permits. This discusssion should specifically reference the Coyote Valley Research Park (note this is not the Coyote Valley Specific Plan) and any potential reauthorization permits for the Research Park.

News roundup

Haven't done one of these in a while:

Home Buyers Are Drawn to Nearby Organic Farms - more evidence that urban edge agriculture has a niche:

Increasingly, subdivisions, usually master-planned developments at which buyers
buy home sites or raw land, have been treating farms as an amenity. “There are
currently at least 200 projects that include agriculture as a key community
component,” said Ed McMahon, a senior fellow with the Urban Land Institute.

Careful though - the technique could be used as an excuse for sprawl, saving only a part of a farm while dividing the rest up in subdivisions.

Controlled Burn Planned - good use of prescribed fire:

The burn is similar to four others that have occurred since 1998 at Russian
Ridge, a 1,978-acre preserve known for its wildflowers and raptors, such as
red-tail hawks. The goal is to reduce overall fire risk by removing dead and
dying brush and grasses under controlled conditions. Controlled burns also can
limit the spread of non-native weeds and other invasive vegetation that choke
out native plants, thus providing more food and habitat for native wildlife as
well as improving spring wildflower displays.

Big plans for a little butterfly - endangered species reintroduction:

A team of researchers is proposing reintroducing a vanished butterfly
to the hills above Stanford University, a biological experiment with both
promise and peril.

If the experiment succeeds, it would return Bay checkerspot
butterflies to Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve and offer important lessons to
the fledgling science of species reintroduction, which aims to save thousands of
plants and animals from extinction.

No guarantee it will work, but the risk - losing a small number of butterflies - may well be worth it. We'll watch this with a lot of interest.

-Brian

Opposing the Bush Administration attempt to weaken the Endangered Species Act

We sent out an Urgent Alert to supporters over the weekend, asking them to contact the Bush Administration and announce their opposition to proposed rules that would weaken the Endangered Species Act. We contacted the Interior Department as well, and wrote the following.

The Committee for Green Foothills represents over a thousand families in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties in its mission of protecting open space and natural resources in those counties. We at the Committee oppose the proposed revisions to Section 7 consultations. These revisions will reduce the use of valuable expertise and bias evaluation of endangered species impacts against their actual import, as the action agencies will be inclined to downplay environmental impacts. For the above reasons, we oppose the proposed rule revisions.

Below is a copy of the Urgent Alert:

The endangered species of the Bay Area and of the rest of the country need your help. In its last months in office, the Bush Administration proposes to dramatically weaken the Endangered Species Act by letting federal agencies considering actions that harm species avoid consultation and oversight from with expert wildlife agencies. This reverses 30 years of federal regulation designed to restrain federal agencies whose mission and political culture is focused on other things besides protecting species. Please use the website below to submit a comment opposing the proposed changes. Comments must be submitted by Monday, September 15, to be considered.

What's Happening

The Interior Department has proposed the change to limit "Section 7" consultations between federal agencies considering an action ("action agencies") and the expert wildlife agencies (the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service).

Why This is Important

Contrary to Administration claims, the action agencies do not have the same level of expertise about effects on endangered species as the wildlife agencies. In addition, the action agencies inevitably prioritize achieving their main missions over endangered species so they will often interpret evidence in such a way as to reduce its significance. Locking out the agencies with the most expertise and the most interest in protecting species will mean more species will fall through the cracks.

What You Can Do

In another change to previous policy, the Interior Department refuses to accept emailed comments on its proposed rule, but it will accept comments submitted on a government website. Tell them you oppose the proposed new rule and that the Endangered Species Act should be strengthened, not weakened.

To submit the comments, click on this link:

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=09000064806c5826

You will need to fill out the submitter information at the top of the web page, and then at the bottom of the page you can inform them of your comment opposing the proposed rule.

For more information, see the Sierra Club's Take Action webpage:

http://action.sierraclub.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ProtecttheEndangeredSpeciesAct

Thanks for speaking up for our coastal wetlands and environmental protections! Your voice does make a difference!

- The folks at Committee for Green Foothills

Ten of the most endangered charismatic megafauna

Scientific American has a nice post and slideshow about ten endangered animals that may go extinct in the next 10 years. They all are found outside of the US (except for the leatherback turtle that occasionally enters US waters) and so the Endangered Species Act does relatively little to help them. Still it might indicate something about the ESA that no domestic species is shown.

It might indicate something else about the ESA and about the slideshow that the animals are charismatic megafauna. Species that are less charismatic, like endangered mussel species, have done less well, because they get less attention.

Our area has its share of endangered species. We like the term "charismatic microfauna" for the federally-threatened Bay checkerspot butterfly, and we're working hard to protect it.

-Brian