Eastgate Ranch Subdivision vs. Wetlands

An application to destroy wetlands has been submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) for the Eastgate Ranch subdivision by Drake Homes, Inc. This project site is environmentally sensitive, containing vernal pools and Butte County meadowfaom, an extraordinary, local endangered species. Two toxic release sites also impact the proposed development acreage. It is located both north and south of Stilson Canyon Rd., between the cattle guards.

For those not familiar with the valley's vernal pools and swales (vernal wetlands), they are unique freshwater beacons in a larger mosaic of grassland, oak woodland, and riparian woodland in the California landscape. They are ponds and drainages varying in size from a few square feet to many acres, perched over restrictive soil layers or bedrock. The impermeable layers permit these wetland wonders to support extensive biotic activity during the winter and spring wet seasons and then radically transforms into hot, dry grasslands until the following rainy season.

California as a whole has lost 91 percent of the estimated five million wetland acres that were present in the 1780s, leaving less than 450,000 acres in the state. Vernal pools have not fared much better with less than 30% of California's original vernal pools intact today and the remainder in imminent danger from urban sprawl, vineyard creation, and inadequate agency standards and staffing. Approximately 200,000 acres of wetlands remain from the original four million acres in California's Central Valley, making the extant vernal wetland savanna acreage critical to the vitality of the wildlands in this region.

This column originally appeared in July 2000 in the Chico Examiner.