Feds, locals partner for fish, wildlife 

John Driscoll

The Times-Standard

November 26, 2007

A federal program quietly operating locally for the past seven years is focused on improving fish and wildlife habitat through cooperation instead of regulation.

It may put a new twist on the phrase, “I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Partners Program is a kind of bottom-up approach to conserving sensitive species, bringing substantial expertise to landowners who don't have the time, the know-how or the patience to wade through paperwork and project designs.

Rio Dell rancher Steve Hackett was presented an award in Oklahoma this summer for his work with the program on his family's 3,600-acre ranch.

”They have absolutely the right approach,” Hackett said of the partners program.

The program thrives on mutual respect and personal relationships, Hackett said, and gets far more done with less money than other efforts. While the program at its local inception got off the ground slowly, he said, it is now in demand.

Hackett also works with the North Coast Regional Land Trust, whose Six Rivers to the Sea program has helped a number of local ranchers put conservation easements in place with the intent of allowing them to continue working on the land.

Landowners, cities and land trusts can use the program to help with permitting, design and funding, taking advantage of its two biologists, Paula Golightly and Greg Gray. They have helped landowners put in livestock fencing along creeks, designed stream improvement projects, and found other state and federal funding to assist.

”What we're trying to do is make it as simple as possible to do these projects,” Golightly said.

It's not a program administered from afar. Golightly and Gray have wide latitude to run the program in Humboldt , Del Norte, Mendocino and Trinity counties, and are deeply involved with the projects they work on.

Golightly said that involvement makes them mindful of what's happening on properties they've worked on. It's also begun to gain the program traction among landowners, earning trust uncommon for a government effort.

The partners program stretches back 20 years to a group of biologists in the Midwest , who recognized that protecting sensitive species would have to include private lands. The program's accomplishments have ballooned to include restoration efforts on 800,000 acres of wetlands, 2 million acres of uplands and 6,500 miles of stream habitat -- and working with 41,000 private landowners, according to Fish and Wildlife.

Landowners share the costs of a project with Fish and Wildlife, and agree to maintain the project for at least 10 years.

For more information, go to http://www.fws.gov/arcata/restoration/partners/default.htm, or call 822-7201.

Box:

Partners Program Accomplishments

Local restoration efforts include:

* Restored 26 miles of stream

* Reopened 12 miles of stream to fish

* Protected 320 acres of coastal dunes

* Restored 70 acres of wetlands

* Contributed $1.2 million to 43 projects

Source: U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife

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Source:  http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_7560047