The Board of Supervisors heard an update last week on the non-lethal wildlife exclusionary program. They also proceeded with the development of a pilot program that would ask voters to approve the creation of a benefit zone to assess residents of Brooktrails and surrounding areas to maintain evacuation routes on private roads. And, while supervisors concluded that the county is not in a position to craft an ordinance to protect riparian areas and wetlands, they agreed to have Supervisor Glenn McGourty work with relevant agencies to collect maps of Mendocino County to organize the information about those areas.
The county no longer has a contract with USDA’s Wildlife Services, which offered non-lethal as well as lethal solutions to problems people have with wild animals. Citizens groups complained that Wildlife Services killed hundreds of animals that did not present a problem, while the agency itself insisted that the majority of its calls resulted in non-lethal assistance.
Acting Ag Commissioner Andrew Smith told the Board that members of the public can contact either his department or county Animal Services for small wildlife nuisance animals. California Fish and Wildlife deals with larger nuisance animals or sick, injured, or orphaned wild animals. CDFW is the only agency that can issue a depredation permit for wildlife conflicts. The UC Cooperative Extension offers education and surveys about non-lethal wildlife control.
Maps were key to the next two discussions. Residents in Brooktrails have already used the private FirCo road to evacuate during the Oak Fire. There are memorandums of understanding in place to continue using that road as well as the sewer easement road, but Department of Transportation Director Howard Dashiell said that LAFCO, the Local Agency Formation Commission, was seeking a durable written recorded right, plus a district boundary map to form a community services district. He confessed that his figures were “spitball numbers,” but he estimated that the cost of that would be about $100,000. Ongoing maintenance, he estimated, would be $45-50,000 a year. The aim is to cover the costs by assessing each parcel that would use the evacuation route a certain fee, perhaps $30 a year.
Keith Rutledge, of Sherwood Firewise communities, told the Board he’s confident that residents would vote to approve the benefit zone to maintain the evacuation routes.
“These access routes can be used by CalFire or the sheriff or any emergency personnel, with or without maintenance, with or without access agreements for public emergency purposes,” he said. “We’re not talking about permission for use for emergency access. We’re talking about permission to maintain the vegetation along those routes so they can be used for evacuation. When CalFire comes through and bulldozes through an area to get access to something they don’t currently have, they will come back and repair that. Typically, they’ll come back and do the wattling and the stream restoration. It takes a long time, but they do take responsibility for the damages they cause. So if there were some terrible situation where there were damages caused, that would be the case. However, what we’re trying to do is create a road surface that can be used by emergency vehicles that has the clearings and turnouts and all the safety features so that there won’t be those damages, and they can quickly respond, like they did during the Oak incident.”
The Board voted to send Dashiell back to LAFCO with a revocable license for the project, and to proceed with a ballot.
In environmental policy, the Board heard from senior CDFW scientist Jennifer Garrison about the need to establish protections for riparian, stream and wetland areas. She began by summing up their fragility, and their role in the ecosystem.
“California has lost 91% of its wetlands,” she said. “And in CDFW’s northern region, which induces Mendocino County, it is estimated that only 25% of riparian habitats remain, due to land conversion and development…wetlands and riparian corridors benefit us all, humans, wildlife, and the environment. They contribute to the scenic value of Mendocino County and are host to many recreational activities. They store floodwater, protect land and structures against erosion, storm surges and flooding. Wetlands recharge groundwater and riparian corridors, trap sediment, and filter pollutants, preventing those substances from entering streams. Wetlands are habitat for over half of the listed threatened and endangered species in California. These areas are vital habitat for the majority of wildlife species as they provide water, food, and movement corridors. They are also the primary habitat for many mammal, bird, and amphibian species.”
Garrison said CDFW supports setbacks from waterways, but that would reduce the amount of usable land on riparian or streamside parcels.
Supervisor John Haschak siad the proposal was to seek a grant to hire a consultant who could figure out how to balance environmental and developmental interests. Interim assistant planning and building services director Nash Gonzalez said the earliest the county would be able to start crafting a protection policy would be 2026.
“For an ordinance like this, the function is, you have to develop a scope of what it is that you want to achieve,” he told the Board. “You have to look at the big picture. And the big picture is, the protection of riparian resources. Well, you have to do the mapping. You have to look at someone to manage the project. Obviously, the Executive Office can work with the grants writer to look for a grant. But once you find the grant, who’s going to manage the project? Because there’s no free grant money out there. Somehow you have to bring some money, and that match might be from the General Fund…The other thing, too, is, it’s been my understanding from this Board and previous Boards, is that the county’s priority right now is housing. As you start limiting development on parcels, you are also going to start limiting the availability of housing in those areas. At what point do you say, this works, or this doesn’t work. And that’s part of the scope.”
In light of funding and staffing shortages to proceed with a robust policy at this time, the Board tapped McGourty to identify what kinds of high-quality LIDAR and GIS maps already exist for Mendocino County.
