Saving the Heart of Watsonville Slough

This article originally appeared in our newsletter, Landmarks, Winter 2009

When the Gold Rush – and people rush – began, California didn’t have a lot of wetlands and since then we've lost 90% of what we had. Those few wetlands that remain play an outsized role in the natural order. They provide habitat for a vast array of birds and other animals, they protect water quality and the health of the Monterey Bay, and they recharge our depleted underground aquifers, the source of the water we drink and use for crops. Acre per acre, wetlands are our rarest habitats and probably our most important.

The Watsonville Sloughs are the largest freshwater wetlands in Santa Cruz County, which is why their protection is such a high conservation priority. The six sloughs are like fingers that drain a 12 mile watershed that stretches into the City of Watsonville and up into Larkin Valley. The overlap of wetlands, marsh, and grasslands creates a diverse ecosystem that provides rare foraging, nesting, and breeding habitats for a rich variety of wildlife, including five federally-listed species and 16 state-listed species of special concern.

In November the Land Trust launched a campaign to purchase 485 acres at the heart of the Watsonville Slough. The land lies just west of Highway 1 and south of Pajaro Valley High School and will link 350 acres of wetlands already protected by state and federal agencies. This acquisition will create a 900 acre block of protected land at the heart of the Watsonville Slough system. One of the six sloughs is entirely surrounded by the land we are protecting, three other sloughs border the land, and the entire slough system drains through the property.

This acquisition will be innovative in many ways, including the fact that the Land Trust will own and lease out 400 acres of farmland. The revenue from the farmland will be used to support the stewardship and restoration of the wetlands. We plan to work closely with our conservation neighbors, including Watsonville Wetlands Watch and the Fitz Wetlands Educational Resource Center at Pajaro Valley High School.

How the Slough is being saved

One of the exciting things about this project is the many stories you can tell about it. It is about protecting rare wetlands and the rich diversity of life they support. It is also about protecting productive farmland and how farming and natural resource protection can go hand in hand. Then there is the innovation of having a nonprofit land trust own farmland and use the revenues to care for the land and support environmental education.

Another story is the story of the long process by which land gets protected. Many people and organizations worked to protect this land long before the Land Trust got involved and our transaction is built upon all that work. This story could begin as far back as 30 years ago when Santa Cruz County approved Measure J, which restricted and guided growth and basically declared that we would not allow what had just happened to the Santa Clara Valley to happen here.
The importance of protecting the Watsonville Sloughs has long been recognized by conservation organizations. The Nature Conservancy identified it as a top priority years ago. Federal and state agencies stepped in to protect 350 acres of wetlands. The area west of Watsonville, the heart of the slough system, was excluded from the urban growth boundary under Watsonville's historic Measure U. The deal that led to the building of Pajaro Valley High added additional protection by the county, the state and the Coastal Commission.

We began working on this project in early 2008 and by the fall we had, we thought, most of the pieces in place. We launched a campaign to raise $500,000 in community support. We had secured agreements with three landowners and received approval for $13.5 million in funding – $6.5 from the Coastal Conservancy, $5.5 from the Wildlife Conservation Board, and $1.5 from the Nature Conservancy.

Then, the week before Christmas, the state budget crisis led to a freeze on issuing bonds. The funding from the Coastal Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation Board comes from bonds approved by the voters in 2006. Proposition 84 was the largest natural resources bond measure in state history. The bonds are sold when needed, not all at once, which means that the approved funds weren't available when we needed them.

The Land Trust was obligated to complete the first of three transactions two weeks after the state freeze went into affect – on January 8th. Half of the $3 million to acquire the 100 acre Cheung property was from the Nature Conservancy and was thus not effected. But the remaining $1.6 million was from the Coastal Conservancy and it had "disappeared" overnight.

That was when another partner rode to the rescue. The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) agreed to put up the $1.6 million and give the Land Trust the option to buy the property later, when the state funds become available.

As we go to press the saga is not over. We have raised less than half of our $500,000 goal of community support. The bonds for the state funds haven't been sold and we now face pressing deadlines to complete the second of three deals, involving 400 acres. As we talk to our many partners, we are daily aware that this is not just a Land Trust effort. What we are able to do now and in the months ahead is the result of a community of partners committed to protecting the best of our county. We are honored to be part of this community. •

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