Training

See also: Maritime Chaparral, Habitat Restoration

On January 20, 2005, the coastal training program sponsored a workshop on "Mitigation-Related Restoration and Management of California's Maritime Chaparral". This workshop was a follow-up to a workshop held in 2003 on the "Ecology and Conservation of California's Maritime Chaparral". The workshop was specifically directed at consultants and land-use planners grappling with how best to protect maritime chaparral in the short and long term, or, when the habitat is damaged, what would constitute appropriate mitigation and/or restoration. The workshop focused on several questions including: * How is maritime chaparral regulated, and what do agencies suggest for analysis of impacts and protection? * How has maritime chaparral fared in conservation easements set aside for its protection in northern Monterey County? * What are some methods for maritime chaparral restoration and recovery? * How might regulators and practitioners help advance the science of restoration through the principles of adaptive management? The workshop featured presentations by Grey Hayes (CTP Coordinator), Deborah Hillyard (Dept. of Fish & Game), Rosemary Thompson & Tamara Klug (SAIC), Tami Nakahara (San Jose State University), and Mike Vasey (San Francisco State University). Grey opened with a presentation that re-introduced many of the topics discussed in the first maritime chaparral workshop including how is maritime chaparral defined and what are the major conservation concerns about maritime chaparral. He then outlined some of the positive steps that have occurred to help conserve maritime chaparral since the last workshop as well as some of the continued threats facing this habitat on the central coast. Deborah Hillyard followed with a presentation that helped us to better understand the purpose and implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). She emphasized the goal of the act: to maintain a high quality environment now and through the future by providing transparency in the planning process, as well as mitigation requirements specified by the act. Rosemary Thompson and Tamara Klug from SAIC presented a detailed case study of a mitigation project that had recently been completed. The overall project goal was to initiate and facilitate the recovery of a non-native annual grassland habitat to habitat dominated by native species characteristic of Burton-Mesa chaparral. They presented a thorough look at each phase of their project, including planning, planting, monitoring, and results. Tami Nakahara, a recent graduate of San Jose State University, gave a presentation titled "Management Strategies for Central Maritime Chaparral", in which she presented some of the main results from her graduate research. The main goals of Tami's project were to 1) gather comprehensive scientific and regulatory information on central maritime chaparral, 2) look at conservation easements and develop guidelines to improve how they are implemented. To do this, she conducted easement surveys and interviews about management concerns. One of her key results was the strong correlation between an easement's area to perimeter ratio and the percent cover of invasive vs. native species. Mike Vasey from San Francisco University concluded with a presentation on "Maritime Chaparral and Adaptive Management". He began with an overview of the defining characteristics of maritime chaparral and its distribution and a brief discussion about why it is important habitat and why it should be conserved. One of the key points of Mike's presentation was that conservation requires understanding the system and preserving not only the assemblage of species but also the ecosystem processes that lead to that assemblage. Adaptive management is a management philosophy based on this idea. Mike proceeded to expand on how he views adaptive management and broke it down into four required elements: planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. He concluded with a focused description of the processes involved in each of these four elements. The presentations were followed by a roundtable discussion between workshop participants and the speakers. Some of the main themes of the discussion included the definition of "feasibility" and "potential for success" for mitigation and how they are interpreted by the government agencies. Several other questions involved the logistics of the Santa Barbara county case study such as cost, planting methods, and choice of species. The day concluded with a field trip led by Bruce Delgado (BLM Botanist) to Fort Ord. During the field trip we discussed road reclamation and looked at several areas where the project has been successful and others where it had not. In summary, workshop participants gained a better understanding of how state regulations apply to the management and conservation of maritime chaparral. They also learned about how management options such as the use of easements for mitigation can be better designed and managed. They were given a framework for conducting adaptive management and how this can lead to more effective conservation. This workshop provided the opportunity for policy makers, land managers, researchers, and others interested in maritime chaparral to continue a dialogue about its conservation and proper management. The coastal training program will continue to offer opportunities like this to bring the best, most current science together with local decision makes to better our management practices and conservation of the natural resources of the central coast. For more information about past and present workshops visit our website at www.elkhornsloughctp.org or contact Grey Hayes at grey@elkhornslough.org.