California Coast & Ocean

Contra Costa County's study will provide information on the distribution, type, and size of habitats found in the county over the past 150 years. SFEI will use Mexican rancho documents from the 1840s and 1850s, early aerial photos, and other records from historical societies and city and county archives. This information will be synthesized, analyzed, and aligned with current known locations and latitude/longitude to create maps and documents describing how habitat patterns and natural physical processes have changed in the county.

Information gleaned from the study will help to guide the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservation Plan/Natural Communities Conservation Plan, which calls for spending up to $350 million to acquire and conserve 30,000 acres for 28 rare, threatened, or endangered species. It will also help in the design of individual watershed restoration projects, including those planned for Marsh Creek, Walnut Creek, and Mount Diablo Creek. The Contra Costa Watershed Forum, a partnership of watershed groups, government agencies, and other interested groups and individuals, will use the maps and reports to improve current projects and to foster greater public awareness of creek and watershed issues.

In collaboration with local partners, SFEI has produced detailed views of landscape change throughout San Francisco Bay and along the California coast (see www.sfei.org/HEP). Some of this work was recently featured on KQED-TV's Quest and can be viewed at www.kqed.org/quest/television/view/416.

Progress on the Coastal Trail
In May, the Conservancy approved $1,052,000 for California Coastal Trail projects along the length of the coast. These funds will provide for the building of new trail segments in Humboldt, Sonoma, and San Mateo counties; reconstruction of a stretch of existing trail on the University of California Santa Barbara campus; and for planning and feasibility studies for future segments in Mendocino and San Mateo counties.

In the Lost Coast Headlands of Humboldt County, south of the town of Ferndale, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will build nearly a mile of new trail on 400 acres of former ranchland, enabling the public to reach a sandy beach. The pathway will begin at a recently constructed parking area and travel along a blufftop and down to the beach near the mouth of Fleener Creek. Along the way, hikers will be able to enjoy extensive ocean views, open grasslands, and several streams that cascade over steep bluffs to the ocean. BLM will use $75,000 granted by the Conservancy for this project.

The two properties that comprise the Headlands, Lost Coast Ranch and Barri Ranch, were acquired by the Conservation Fund with the help of $1,970,000 from the Conservancy and transferred to the BLM in 2001 and 2003, respectively. The new Fleener Creek Trail will be designated a spur trail of the Coastal Trail if future acquisitions of public rights make it possible to extend the Coastal Trail through this area.

In Sonoma County, at the southern edge of Bodega Harbor, two popular regional parks will be linked, closing a gap in the Coastal Trail. The Sonoma County Regional Parks Department will use $305,000 approved by the Conservancy to install a 110-foot prefabricated metal bridge over Cheney Creek Gulch and build 1,654 feet of wheelchair-accessible trail. The bridge will connect Bird Walk Coastal Access Park with popular Doran Beach Park. This project is part of the 2005 County trail plan, which calls for a safe route away from Highway 1 for bicyclists and pedestrians. Eventually the trail will extend south from Salmon Creek, just north of Bodega Bay, to the Marin County border, five miles away.