{"id":6695,"date":"2016-08-15T11:49:06","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T15:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=6695"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:13:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:13:25","slug":"the-snake-at-the-crux-of-californias-wildlife-challenge-and-the-policy-that-can-solve-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2016\/08\/15\/the-snake-at-the-crux-of-californias-wildlife-challenge-and-the-policy-that-can-solve-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The snake at the crux of California’s wildlife challenge, and the policy that can solve it"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Giant<\/a>
Giant garter snake (license)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Enter the giant garter snake. The giant garter snake is an aquatic species native to California and a federally-listed \u201cthreatened\u201d species that largely persists today \u2013 along with many other critters \u2013 in the vast acreage of Central Valley rice fields and water distribution canals.<\/p>\n

In the past, seasonal floods would transform California\u2019s Central Valley into a great inland sea of floodplain habitats teeming with fish and wildlife, including the giant garter snake.<\/p>\n

Over time,\u00a0development of the flood and irrigation systems that enabled the Central Valley\u2019s $17 billion agricultural economy has led to the destruction of 95 percent<\/a> of the region\u2019s historic wetlands, putting countless California wildlife at risk of extinction.<\/p>\n

For example, ongoing flood system operations and maintenance activities\u2014required to protect farms and communities in the floodplain\u2014continue to disrupt giant garter snake habitat. What\u2019s more, when drought or fallowing reduces water deliveries to rice growers, the snake\u2019s remaining habitat can dry up.<\/p>\n

We need a better way to protect and restore habitat for wildlife like the giant garter snake, before it’s too late.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A balancing act<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/a>
Biologists and conservationists examine\u00a0giant garter snake habitat at Davis Ranch in Colusa, California. Read more<\/a> about conservation activities at Davis Ranch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

California policymakers are facing a dilemma: how does the state\u00a0continue to grow its economy, manage its water supply and build necessary infrastructure without eliminating wildlife from the landscape?<\/p>\n

Currently, local agencies have to mitigate for impacts to listed species like the giant garter snake when necessary measures\u2014like levee repairs\u2014degrade its habitat. Only with great expense and significant time investment can agencies complete these routine activities due to the planning, permitting and paperwork required to meet species\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, new tools and policies are emerging that can bring more efficiency and certainty to mitigation efforts.<\/p>\n

New tools can help<\/strong><\/p>\n

For starters, a multi-stakeholder effort has been underway for the last several years in California with the goal of improving the process for protecting and restoring wildlife habitat. It\u2019s called the Central Valley Habitat Exchange<\/a>, also described as \u201cAirbnb for wildlife<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The core of the Central Valley Habitat Exchange is the habitat quantification tool, which has been designed for multiple species.<\/p>\n

\"EDF<\/a>
EDF staff join farmers and other conservation collaborators in the field to test the habitat quantification tool.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To extend the Airbnb analogy, the giant garter snake habitat quantification tool is like the set of preferences the snake would fill out to find its perfect home. The tool takes into account the snake\u2019s most vital habitat needs in order to rigorously measure or predict habitat quality at various sites. The outcome? Everyone from farmers to flood agencies is equipped with the information they need to manage their lands and projects in a way that would earn them a five-star review from the snake (and fish and wildlife agencies).<\/p>\n

Flood agencies, for instance, can use the tool to guide the design and implementation of a multiple-benefit flood protection project<\/a>. These projects reduce flood risk and<\/em> enhance species habitat in one fell swoop.<\/p>\n

Levee set-backs are a perfect example. These projects can expand floodplain habitat that is beneficial to the snake. Instead of shuttling water downstream, they allow it to spread over land to mimic the historic conditions giant garter snakes loved so much. The tool can help predict exactly how much this new inundation will help the snake, as well as other species like salmon.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, even with this methodology available, there is limited incentive for agencies to pursue such projects in a way that provides the greatest habitat benefit.<\/p>\n

A policy to align incentives<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ordinary mitigation practices require local agencies to make up for habitat lost, or debits, on a project-by-project basis, often by buying credits from third parties. There is thus little motivation to plan for future mitigation needs ahead of time, even though investments in species improvements on farmland can more than make up for the impacts of ongoing farm activities.<\/p>\n

Because costs of habitat restoration can be high, if landowners and agencies can\u2019t get certain credit for maximizing species components\u2014like replanting or grading habitat areas for frequent inundation\u2014they have no economic reason to do so.<\/p>\n

\"California<\/a>
California State Capitol (license)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A concept called advance mitigation could change this paradigm by allowing agencies to proactively develop and preserve the best habitat to mitigate for future projects.<\/p>\n

Assembly Bill 2087 (Levine)<\/a>, which passed out of the California Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday and is headed to the Senate floor, creates guidelines for regional conservation frameworks that would enable agencies to pursue advance mitigation projects on land that they or their ratepayers own. The habitat quantification tool is uniquely suited to help these projects demonstrate progress towards the measurable restoration objectives integral to these frameworks.<\/p>\n

By combining new tools with new policy, California is creating a win-win for the economy and the environment.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

How can we better target public funds for wildlife conservation? Look to Elliott Ranch >><\/a><\/p>\n

Birds, snakes and butterflies: Farming for more than crops and cash >><\/a><\/p>\n

Why two California farms give me hope for the monarch butterfly >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enter the giant garter snake. The giant garter snake is an aquatic species native to California and a federally-listed \u201cthreatened\u201d species that largely persists today \u2013 along with many other critters \u2013 in the vast acreage of Central Valley rice fields and water distribution canals. In the past, seasonal floods would transform California\u2019s Central Valley …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71922],"tags":[84993,84988,200,71775,71776,668,84957,71613,918,67798,84989,71853,44,84991,569],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water","tag-advance-mitigation","tag-assembly-bill-2087","tag-california","tag-central-valley","tag-central-valley-habitat-exchange","tag-endangered-species","tag-giant-garter-snake","tag-habitat-2","tag-infrastructure","tag-irrigation","tag-levine","tag-mitigation","tag-policy-tag","tag-rice-fields","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15806,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6695\/revisions\/15806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6695"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}