Ventura County Civic Alliance — Livable Communities Newsletter for Aug. 15, 2021

The Santa Clara River Parkway – A Local Vision and Collaboration for the Sustainability of Agriculture, Environment and Livelihoods

By Candice Meneghin

The California Natural Resources Agency is rolling out Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-82-20 which aims to accelerate climate action on California’s lands by building resilience and climate smart land management needed to sustain livelihoods; protect food production, water security and biodiversity; and achieve carbon neutrality. Sister agencies and stakeholders aim to deliver a natural and working lands climate smart strategy, a 30×30 Strategic Pathways Document and a State Climate Adaptation Strategy and Scoping Plan. The California State Coastal Conservancy established the Santa Clara River Parkway in 2000 after discussions with river corridor landowners and local governments. The primary goal of the Santa Clara River Parkway Project is the acquisition, conservation, and restoration of floodplain lands within the Santa Clara River corridor. Twenty years later, the Parkway Project remains a critical local strategy to support 30×30 (a science-based initiative to conserve 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030).

As currently envisioned, the Parkway project will result in the acquisition and restoration of a 25 mile-long, or 6,000-acre, corridor from the mouth of the Santa Clara River to the Ventura County line and into Los Angeles County. The Coastal Conservancy partnered with The Nature Conservancy’s LA-Ventura Project to acquire, manage, and restore Parkway lands. The Parkway was established to achieve three goals: a) conserve and restore aquatic and riparian habitat for native species, and the hydrologic and geomorphic processes that create and maintain those habitats; b) provide enhanced flood protection for adjacent private land and public facilities; and c) provide public access and environmental education, including the creation of a continuous public trail system along the length of the Parkway.

Planning for Parkway management and restoration began with the Santa Clara River Parkway Floodplain Restoration Feasibility Study. The Feasibility Study was designed to assist the Coastal Conservancy and its partners with the development of restoration and management strategies for acquired Parkway lands. Parkway planning also developed a strategic plan for nonnative invasive Arundo donax (giant reed) treatment, a recreation and public access plan, and modeling of levee setback scenarios on acquired Parkway lands.

The Friends of the Santa Clara River (FSRC) has been involved in the biological and cultural protection of the river resources since 1993 and was the first entity to acquire land with State Coastal Conservancy funds to purchase the Hedrick Ranch Nature Area (HRNA) —formerly part of the Valley View Ranch— in 2001. Biodiversity, both natural and agricultural, is essential in building climate resilience and sustaining our cultural heritage: farming, fly fishing, hiking and being outdoors. For over 20 years, the Friends have stewarded the land and worked with partners such as the University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Clara River Conservancy, California Trout, and Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology to do so. More recently, the Santa Clara River Conservancy that was established in 2009 has taken on a project management role for Arundo donax and other non-native invasive plant removal along with restoration of riparian forest at HRNA. While the Friends of the Santa Clara River provides stewardship of HRNA, the Santa Clara River Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy support additional land acquisitions and stewardship on the Parkway, and all three entities aim to enhance public access and environmental education opportunities. While these entities have similar goals and collaborate, FSCR is differentiated by its advocacy role in river protection through deliberately engaging in the environmental review process and taking litigation action when appropriate. The conservancies provide long-term organizational options to establishing conservation easements along the river for those parcels that may better serve riparian habitat, functional floodplain, groundwater recharge and recreation areas. In some cases, a conservation easement may allow a parcel to stay in active agricultural production, creating a buffer zone between urbanization and critical habitat for sensitive species. This is how environmental organizations collaborate with the farming community.

The long-range vision of the Parkway is to find mutually and multi-beneficial solutions to land use and management that allow the river to continue to provide essential environmental services that underpin biodiversity, agriculture, and our livelihoods. By protecting water resources and exercising floodplain management, cooperating groups will build resilience and climate smart land management such as sustainable groundwater management, regenerative and organic agriculture, diverse climate resilient crops, carbon sinks and biodiversity protection. Twenty years ago, the Ag Futures Alliance (a county-based collaboration among farmers, ranchers, farm workers, conservationists, and civic leaders) was formed around a desire to build a vibrant, healthy, and durable food system. That food system, along with our federally endangered Southern steelhead (a flagship species) and populations of many other local Southern California fauna and flora, are all at a critical tipping point.

The future of our agriculture, environment, and public health at large are all intrinsically intertwined. Thus, our hope is that the Parkway and Ag Futures Alliance goals can be converged into a Ventura Climate Future Alliance as the County of Ventura’s Climate Emergency Council oversees implementation of the 2040 General Plan. We, therefore, invite the Civic Alliance to join with us in furthering and implementing the above vision and goals.

You can engage in the 30×30 stakeholders focused workshops at: https://www.californianature.ca.gov/

Candice Meneghin is a Board Member for watershed advocacy organization Friends of the Santa Clara River. Friends of the Santa Clara River is a member of the Santa Clara River Steelhead Coalition, Santa Clara River Environmental Groundwater Committee, and the California Non-Governmental Organizations Groundwater Collaborative, and represents environmental stakeholder interests on the Fillmore and Piru Basins Groundwater Sustainability Agency and Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency.

Candice Meneghin (805) 628-2250, contact@fscr.org

[Author’s Note: The author wishes to thank the Watersheds Coalition of Ventura County for permission to use information and photographs from: http://parkway.scrwatershed.org/parkwayplanning.html]

Candice Meneghin (805) 628-2250, contact@fscr.org