Ranchers say final bypass plan still threatens grazing

Continued concerns emerged about a mitigation plan for a Highway 101 bypass project around the city of Willits, during a public meeting last week at which the California Department of Transportation finalized the plan and presented it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"We are not opposed to this project, but we are opposed to the overexpansion of the mitigation and the impacts to agriculture in Mendocino County and elsewhere," said Mendocino County Farm Bureau Executive Director Devon Jones. "For every acre that the project is impacting, they've had to mitigate 30 acres, so it is crazy. The actual footprint of the project is only around 65 acres, but they are mitigating close to 1,800 acres."

The proposed Caltrans highway project would affect 65 acres of wetlands, 45 acres of which would be permanently converted, with the remaining 20 acres being temporarily impacted during construction. To offset these impacts, Caltrans must create new wetlands and enhance existing wetlands. Caltrans purchased $16 million worth of mitigation properties totaling about 1,800 acres, nearly all of which are currently grazed.

"We are concerned about what the ultimate plan will allow for," Jones said. "We are also concerned about the broader implication to agriculture in California if wetlands mitigation within the (Clean Water Act) Section 404 permit process begins to follow this model."

California Farm Bureau Federation Associate Counsel Jack Rice said environmental reports completed in 2006 did not analyze the impacts to the nearly 2,000 acres of farmland affected by the project.

"There has been no analysis of the environmental impacts of mitigation requirements," Rice said, noting that the 2006 reports looked only at the project's potential to impact around 100 acres of farmland. "Had it analyzed the actual impacts, Caltrans may have recognized that another route should have been used in order to minimize the impacts to agriculture. They need to go back and take into account these extremely onerous mitigation requirements in order to minimize the impacts to agricultural land."

Local residents said they understood that grazing would be allowed on mitigation land since the beginning of the project, but the Army Corps of Engineers called late last year for eliminating grazing, which has typically been used as a tool to manage wetlands.

Rice said Farm Bureau is concerned with the lack of evidence produced by the Army Corps to support its position that such extraordinarily high mitigation ratios are required and that grazing on the mitigation land should be eliminated.

"It is not clear what science the Army Corps is relying on to determine that the way to fix these wetlands is to eliminate grazing or all agriculture from the parcels. Our understanding has always been that properly managed grazing is important for properly functioning wetlands," Rice said.

Rancher Cheryll Dennis of Willits said she would be directly affected by the project, losing nearly 200 acres of land that she has leased for close to 18 years.

"This is pretty much going to put me out of business. I'm probably going to have to leave the area," Dennis said. "I have no problem with the freeway being here, but I don't like them changing the feed ground. Being on the place, managing this ground, is what has improved it and attracted plenty of wildlife."

Rancher John Ford of Willits said the sale of his land to Caltrans included the assurance that he would be able to lease back the land for grazing.

"I am pro the freeway, but I'm not going to give up my livelihood for the sake of the freeway," Ford said.

Much of the land purchased by Caltrans for the project was acquired from willing sellers, and Williamson Act contracts are still in place that bind the land to remain in agricultural production until the contracts expire, Rice said.

Public comment for the Caltrans mitigation and monitoring plan is due by Nov. 9. Comments may be mailed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Attn.: David Wickens, Number 1991-19470N; San Francisco District, Regulatory Division; 1455 Market St.; San Francisco, CA. 94103-1398. Emailed comments should be sent to: david.m.wickens@usace.army.mil.

A copy of the mitigation plan is available online at www.dot.ca.gov/dist1/d1projects/willits/reports.htm.

(Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)