Toolkit

In the Tulare Basin Regional Conservation Plan, Tulare Basin Wildlife Partners (TBWP) proposes impressive land and water conservation goals to protect large, interconnected areas of uplands and wetlands. Key to this process is the vital role that private landowners will continue to play in caring for the Tulare Basin.

When the Tulare Basin Regional Conservation Plan is implemented, a large majority of native and farmed land will remain in private ownership. This land will continue to be used for livestock grazing, wildlife-friendly farming, business opportunities, mitigation banking, hunting clubs, agri-tourism, and other conservation-compatible activities. A much smaller area will be owned and managed by agencies as refuges, wildlife areas, ecological reserves, or state parks for recreation, education, research, bird watching, or photography.

TBWP plans to use a variety of land and water conservation tools to implement its conservation goals for the Tulare Basin. These tools are divided below into land protection strategies and land restoration strategies.

Land Protection Strategies
The following land protection strategies give landowners an array of choices for protecting the conservation values on their property. These range from permanent conservation measures, which become a part of the property's title to more informal agreements. Conservation measures such as those listed below can sometimes result in reduced income tax or a tax-deductible charitable donation; consult your attorney or accountant for additional information. Land protection tools include:

Conservation Easements
The perfect option for farmland, land used for livestock grazing, and areas with natural habitat, conservation easements are a voluntary legal agreement between a private landowner and a non-profit, like TBWP, or government agency. The landowner continues to own and use the land for farming, livestock grazing, or to conserve as natural habitat, while at the same time giving up certain rights associated with the land (e.g. mining or land development). Conservation easements permanently protect conservation values, such as wildlife habitat, water suppl,y or open space and need not require public access. With such great flexibility, conservation easements are truly win-win for landowners and wildlife!

Land Donation
For a variety of reasons, landowners may decide to transfer the fee title or ownership of farmland, ranch land, or land with wildlife habitat by making a donation to a non-profit, like TBWP, or a government agency. This is often a good conservation strategy if you do not wish to pass the land on to heirs; own property you no longer use; own highly appreciated property; have substantial real estate holdings and wish to reduce estate tax burdens; or would like to be relieved of the responsibility of managing and caring for land. Land donations can include an outright donation of land; donating a remainder interest in the land while continuing to live on it; donating land through a will or estate plan; or donating the land and receiving a life income through a charitable gift annuity. If you own unfarmed land in the Tulare Basin, consider donating it to form a new, or expand an existing, nature preserve.

Bargain Sale
When a landowner needs to realize cash from their property and donating the land is not an option, they can complete a bargain sale. In this scenario, the landowner sells the land to a charitable organization, like TBWP, for less than its fair market value. This can make property more affordable for TBWP, and offer several immediate and tax benefits to the landowner: it provides cash, avoids some capital gains tax, and entitles the landowner to a charitable income tax deduction based on the difference between the land's fair market value and its sale price.

Cooperative Management Agreement
These agreements, also called memorandums of understanding, occur between a landowner and a conservation organization, like TBWP, or a government agency. These agreements are less formal than the conservation strategies discussed above and do not alter or change the property title. TBWP works with willing landowners to determine mutually-agreed upon conservation practices that will, for example, improve wildlife habitat and travel corridors, augment water supply, improve water quality, or increase wildlife-friendly agriculture.

Land Restoration Strategies
The Tulare Basin Regional Conservation Plan charts remarkable restoration goals for wetland and upland habitats. By partnering with agencies and businesses, TBWP collaborates with landowners throughout Tulare Basin to restore important wetland and upland habitat for plants and animals. Private landowners who wish to steward their land can use a variety of restoration strategies, often supported with agency funding. The Natural Resource Conservation Service's Wetlands Reserve Program, for example, is a great program for landowners who desire to create wetland habitats on their property.

Restoration strategies depend on the type of habitat found in each particular location in the Tulare Basin. Such a diversity of habitats calls for a range of approaches:

Seasonal Wetland Restoration: Flood Plains & Deeper Water Areas
Restore and maintain existing natural channels and re-establish channel morphology where channels have been filled or otherwise altered. Flood ponds to maximize waterfowl breeding during spring and summer months and ensure adequate native plant cover. Ensure a variety of depths for prey species and to maximize wetland plant diversity.

Seasonal Wetland Restoration: Shallow Water Habitat
Manage water levels to maximize the acreage of shallow water areas, less than six inches deep. Manage vegetation with prescribed burning, grazing, scraping, or harrowing to create sparsely vegetated, shallow or muddy areas, including islands. This will minimize soil disturbance and predation on breeding birds. Maintain gradual slopes on pond and island edges. Develop methods for surplus water storage in very wet winters to provide conditions for nesting and to provide water supplies in drier years.

Seasonal Wetland Restoration
Manage water levels such that adequate depth exists for use by waterbirds. Manage water levels in open water areas for maximum linear distance, which enables take-off by waterbirds requiring "runways".

Permanent Wetland Restoration
Control vegetation density to maximize open water areas and ensure maximum flooded acreage in summer months.

Riparian Restoration
Maintain existing natural channels and re-establish channel morphology where channels have been filled or otherwise altered. Utilize channels for agricultural drainage and simultaneously create restored slough channels. Remove invasive non-native plant species such as saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima), giant reed (Arundo Donax), and perennial pepperweed (Lepidium latifolium). Revegetate with native riparian species such as willows (Salix spp.), mulefat (Baccharis salicifolia), and creeping wildrye (Leymus triticoides). To ensure plant growth and reproduction, periodically flood riparian areas during the growing season.

Upland Restoration
For many areas, restoration includes utilizing low intensity disturbances such as fire and grazing to control non-native plant species and to provide open, sparsely vegetated patches. Use disturbances in the cool season to minimize effects on shrubs, warm season vegetation growth, and wildlife activity. Recreate original topographical elements and plant native species; seed in fall following prescribed burns. Re-vegetate areas with native shrubs, forbs, and grasses to ensure adequate habitat mosaic and cover. In addition, where upland and wetland habitats intermix, create agricultural buffer zones of irrigated and non-irrigated pasture, alfalfa and selected field crops which are compatible with both upland species and waterfowl.

Unproductive Farmland Restoration
Many farms in the Tulare Basin operate on marginal or unproductive farmland, which is often due to poor soils, poor water quality or over use. Farmland restoration tasks include: de-leveling artificial land structures and restoring native topography; planting and seeding native plant communities; re-introducing native wildlife species; and restoring historical disturbance regimes, such as fires, floods or grazing.

Native Species Reintroduction
Due to the precipitous decline of native habitat in the Tulare Basin, and the limited populations of special status species, TBWP aims to re-introduce, to suitable protected habitat, rare wildlife species, such as: Southwestern pond turtle (Actinemys marmorata pallid), blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila), giant garter snake (Thamnophis gigas), red-legged frog (Rana aurora draytonii), Western spadefoot (Spea hammondii), fulvous whistling-duck (Dendrocygna bicolor), Buena Vista Lake shrew (Sorex ornatus relictus), San Joaquin antelope squirrel (Ammospermophilus nelson), and Tipton kangaroo rat (Dipodomys nitratoides nitratoides).