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From: Thomas.R.Kendall@spd02.usace.army.mil%inter2
Subject: Sears Point Restoration Project; IRT support etc.
Sears Point Restoration Project:
I attendeda meeting (6/27) w/ NOAA Fisheries, US Fish & Wildlife
Service, Sonoma LandTrust, CA Fish & Game, Coastal America, and
the Navy & Army Reserves onpotential participation in Sonoma Land
Trust's restoration project. The Land Trust's recent acquisitions
of the North Point Joint Venture and Dickson Ranch properties marked
the first step in the restoration of 2,329-acres and represents
thelargest acquisition since the state purchase of Cargill salt
ponds in 2003;
The project is located in southern Sonoma County on the edge of
San Pablo Bay between Petaluma River and Tolay Creek.
The Land Trust has a conceptual plan that proposes to bring the
land back to full tidal below the railroad line, muted orpotentially
full tidal (full being more popular with the stakeholders) for the
area between the railroad and Highway 37, and upland/riparian above
Highway37.
The cut and fill balances are such that they do NOT anticipate
a need for dredged material to achieve the final grade. Their work
to date hasbeen funded with existing Land Trust $'s and thru various
grants and they'retalking to a variety of agencies, including NRCS,
about helping withimplementation. Preliminary project costs are
estimated at $14 million (I suspect that cost is exclusive of sunk
real estate costs). Management ofthe restored lands will be handled
by Fish & Game (a requirement of theLand Trusts' acquisition of
the North Point Joint Venture Parcel) and/or Fish & Wildlife (likely
for the Dickson Ranch parcel). The stakeholder process continues
and environmentaldocuments are scheduled for review next summer.
The hope is that thecurrently shut down railroad could be abandoned
or relocated but SMART has other ideas and seems to have the upper
hand in any "negotiations"involving the railroad.
Participants at our meeting included:
John Brosnan, Baylands PM for Sonoma LandTrust (707-526-6930 x 109)
Pat Rutten, NOAA fisheries,
Santa Rosa Christy Smith, Refuge manager, USF&Wservice
Will Nuckols, Coastal America (443-994-1493)
Carl Wilcox, CA Fish & Game
Norm Burnette, EA1 US Navy Seabees,Little Creek, VA (757-462-8225
x177)
Roger Tierney, Army Reserves, Los Alomitas, CA(562-795-2387)
The initial focus of our meeting was on ways to takeadvantage of
the Innovative Readiness Training or IRT program of the Army andNavy.
Christy had used the Army before on invasive plant removal etc.
andshared past example MOUs between F&W and the Army for these IRT
typeefforts. The Land Trust will try to get an application in before
December2005 so as to be considered for IRT support (primarily labor
but may include constructionequipment and fuel costs if justified)
as early as FY 07. The IRT conceptis to have the military meet its
training objective at a lesser cost to them inthat the applicant
has already secured the necessary environmental clearancesand permits
for the training activity. Since Federal agencies get higherpriority
in the application process, F&W might be a party to theapplication.
(Note the Army reserves have helped in the past with leveework in
the Delta - perhaps for our Sacramento District? I'm not sure if
it was tied to IRT, but recall we had Army troops helping withclean
up after the Loma Prieta quake too - e.g. bridge removal on the
Pajaro River.) We also discussed back up options if the IRT approach
doesn'tlead to a complete project.
The Sonoma Land Trust is a privateorganization (eligible sponsor
for a 206 project but nothing larger). They could be open to transferring
lands to Fish & Game or the Coastal Conservancyif a larger Civil
Works project with the Corps is desired and one of thosestate agencies
is willing to assume the non-Federal sponsor role. Dependingon how
lands would be credited, one possible scenario is that the project,after
some "pieces" are constructed by the IRT effort, might have aremaining
portion that is small enough to fit within the 206 program (with
theLand Trust as the sponsor). I gave John one of our restoration
brochuresdiscussing both large Civil Works projects supported by
General Investigationsand smaller ones handled through Continuing
Authorities (like 206) andexplained how the 206 program was currently
over subscribed (i.e. Congressional earmarking seems to be required
for funding). I mentioned to John that Grant Davis and Marc Holmes
arelooking for 206 opportunities in the North Bay and would be good
folk to strategize with (the BayInstitute has been involved for
a while with this property acquisition). Finally, since there are
parcels around the bay slated forrestoration that are owned by Federal
agencies, I handed out some copies of theattached Fed-Fed partnering
issue paper. While the initial push is all IRT, I hope to be in
touchwith John about a 206 request as appropriate.
Thomas R. Kendall, P.E. Chief, Planning Branch Corps of Engineers,
San Francisco District 333 Market St. Room 718 San Francisco, CA
94105-2197 415-977-8532 thomas.r.kendall@usace.army.mil
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