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This conservancy is formed to permanently protect the Lompico Canyon Watershed and the wildlife therein.

The best watersheds are those which are least disturbed by human activity, and the purest water flows from wild land. The acquisition and management of crucial parcels of land and conservation easements are how we feel the watershed and wildlife will be best protected.

The provisions we view as constituting the rational management of lands under title or easement to the Conservancy within the Lompico Canyon watershed include, but are not limited to:

• No extractive industries, specifically timber production and mining;

• Limited development and road maintenance, restricted to areas previously developed, and subject to the approval of the Lompico Watershed Conservancy Board of Directors;

• Regulation of public access to ensure the continuing health and viability of Lompico Creek and the plant and animal communities within the watershed.

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What are Conservation Easements?

Conservation easements are agreements between land owners and qualified organizations such as the Lompico Watershed Conservancy. Conservation easements have been integrated into federal tax code. These agreements are individually tailored to suit the parties involved. The purpose of these agreements is to set aside individual land rights for the purpose of natural resource conservation. For instance a land owner can donate or sell an easement that protects their property forever from logging, mining development or other forms of exploitation in whatever way he or she specifies. Land owners who donate easements are entitled to the full tax deductibility of the value of the resource that they forgo exploiting in the text of the easement document. This tax relief can have major benefit to landowners, especially those who do not intend to log, further develop or otherwise exploit the land they own. The value of an easement donation is set by a licensed appraiser experienced in this process. The selection of the appraiser is generally the responsibility of the land owner. According to current federal tax code the donor of an easement has six years to exhaust the value of the deduction and can use the deduction in any or all of six years following the recording of the easement. It is of course, in the interest of the donor, to engage an experienced tax accountant to evaluate the tax advantages of an easement donation. The Conservancy is not licensed to be a financial planner.

Easements exist in perpetuity and follow the deed to the property when it transfers ownership. This assures the donor that their land will remain protected into the future. It is the responsibility of the land trust to see that the easement is adhered to. Easements are not intended to reduce the land owners enjoyment of their property and unless specifically stated do not allow public access, although easements are sometimes used to create trail systems for public access.

If you own property which you consider to have significant natural resource values, please contact us and we will explain this process further. We have begun contacting some of the Canyon's land owners to describe the benefits of conservation easements.

Recent changes to conservation easement law have added new advantages to this type of property instrument.

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The Lompico Creek Watershed occupies approximately 2.7 square miles in the center of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Creek has approximately 3.4 miles of blue line stream according to USGS Felton and Castle Rock quadrangles. It is bounded on the west by the Newell Creek drainage, much of which is the Loch Lomond reservoir and recreation area operated by the City of Santa Cruz Water Department. To the north of the headwaters of Lompico Creek lie the drainages of Newell and Zayante Creeks. To the east lies the main stem of Zayante Creek, of which Lompico Creek is a principle tributary. Zayante Creek is one of the three sub-drainages of the San Lorenzo River. The entire San Lorenzo River system is relied upon as a source of water by the City of Santa Cruz Water Dept. which diverts from the San Lorenzo in its lower reaches. The San Lorenzo Valley Water District is the second most significant user of water from the San Lorenzo River

The Lompico Creek Watershed Management Plan contains maps in Addendum A, based on USGS Quad maps. These maps show the roads, topographical lines, other terrain features including side streams, the watershed boundary, significant property parcel boundaries, areas of condensed housing, and recent or active timber harvest boundaries, as well as other pertinent information. With these maps are aerial photographs and additional maps that show the extent of coverage of the photographs.

The Lompico Creek Watershed is a narrow south-facing canyon with an average elevation differential of 500 ft. The uplands surrounding the canyon average an elevation of about 1,200 ft with high points of 1,625 ft. It is a coastal watershed, all of which is within 12 miles of Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The watershed receives an average annual rainfall of approximately 55 inches. The rain period is considered to extend from October to April. Storms can be intense; individual storms dropping in excess of seven inches are not uncommon. Rainstorms often come in sets lasting two weeks or more. Erosion can become severe during continuous rainfall, especially in areas where the vegetative cover has been disturbed or removed or the terrain altered by grading or other human activities. Naturally occurring soil and slope instability is also relatively common.
Lompico Creek is currently in good condition despite water quality problems resulting from soil erosion, nitrates, and other non-point-source problems. The majority of the residences in the Canyon are relatively tightly clustered along four principal access roads surrounded by large areas of open space. Most of the open space is subject to timber harvest and continuing pressure from real estate development..

Seven distinct geological strata cross the watershed. The upper watershed, including the headwaters area, is principally sandstone and related sandy soil and loam. In the middle of the watershed (which runs north to south) shale underlies some areas. Sandy areas are common. The Lompico County Water District operates wells in some of these sandy areas. The entire Santa Cruz Mountains are of geologically recent origin. They are the result of faulting along the San Andreas Fault Zone and comprised of up-lifted ocean sediments and rock. The terrain of the Lompico Creek Watershed is steep with areas averaging 60% or more in slope being common. The rock types are generally poorly consolidated sedimentary rock, some, including mudstone are barely describable as rock because of their softness. Granite boulders and gravel erode out of the sandy soils and are the stone in the bed of streams within the watershed.

The vegetative cover is complex. Generally described as a redwood forest, the watershed is actually comprised of a complex variety of vegetative types. On north facing slopes within the canyon and along all the perennial and seasonal streams, large redwoods and Douglas firs are the dominant trees. The understory in these areas includes tan oak, California bay, big leaf maple and alder near perennial streams. Above the inner canyons, hardwoods dominated by coast live oak, tan oak, and madrone intermix with redwoods and firs. Higher up the slopes, the hardwoods and an occasional douglas fir merge into chaparral. This chaparral includes a myriad of shrubs and plants and is the area where rare and endangered plants are most likely to be encountered. This chaparral grows in fast draining sandy soil and is highly drought tolerant. Knob cone pine and small deciduous oaks mix with the chaparral. This overview of the plant communities is not intended to be precise. The microclimates and soil complexity of the canyon (watershed) make for elaborate variations in plant communities.

Wildlife in the canyon is characteristic of the Santa Cruz Mountains and as such, very diverse. Many species of birds including raptors, owls, songbirds and other groups familiar to coastal redwood forest and chaparral are present. Predators including mountain lions are occasionally spotted. Deer are common. Bats from several families can be found. An extensive list of forest rodents from shrews and moles to mice and rats occupy the forest floor. Lompico Creek supports federal Endangered Species Act listed anadromous Steelhead Rainbow Trout as well as newts, salamanders and invertebrates including crustaceans and aquatic insects. Two recent surveys have documented the presence of spawning Steelhead.

Sediment load, and non-point source pollution resulting from residences are the two most important sources of water pollution effecting Lompico Creek. The sediment load results from two principle sources; naturally occurring soil erosion and soil erosion from human uses of the watershed. The mountains that form Lompico Canyon are highly erosive. They are formed from poorly consolidated soils and rock. Naturally occurring active and inactive slides are common and terrain is steep. Natural background sediment loading of the streams is part of the basic condition of the watershed. The basic conditions of soil types, terrain instability and steepness create the situation where human disturbance in the form of road cuts, logging operations and residential land use can result in highly accelerated soil erosion. This soil erosion quickly reaches Lompico Creek and impacts the beneficial uses of water in negative ways, reducing the water quality for human use and wildlife. The Lompico County Water District has turbidity metering equipment and the capacity to record water quality changes. The County of Santa Cruz Department of Environmental Health has conducted sediment-loading studies of the Zayante Watershed. These studies have not yet been released.

Pollution loading from residential septic systems which may be failing and spills of chemicals, paints, automotive lubricants and chemicals, etc. are all of concern and need to be addressed. Water sampling at appropriate times of the year for the different sources and types of pollution could be used to create a pollution reduction plan. The County Department of Environmental Health has authority for investigating and enforcing statutes established to limit water pollution from these sources.

The most important single land unit affecting the Lompico Creek Watershed is the 425 acre headwaters area known as Islandia. This group of three parcel units contains the headwaters of the main stem of Lompico Creek. This land has been undisturbed for 100 years and is in pristine condition. The soils and sandstones that underlay this area store the winter rains and slowly release their water into Lompico Creek. The Creek becomes fish bearing within the boundaries of this property as confirmed by a recent survey conducted by Cal Fish and Game. This area produces the base flows that sustain Lompico Creek and provides a significant percentage of the water diverted from Lompico Creek by the Lompico County Water District. The water that flows from the Islandia property has not stopped flowing in either the 1976-77 drought or the 1987-93 droughts. The Lompico Watershed Conservancy and the Lompico County Water District have both made efforts to purchase this property or to have it donated. The goal of the Conservancy is to place Islandia in the public trust, under a conservation easement which prevents commercial logging, residential development and other uses which would threaten the physical integrity of this land and the biotic health of Lompico Creek.

The Lompico Watershed Conservancy was established to act as a land trust with it's most important goal being the placement of significant undisturbed watershed areas into the public trust through fee simple purchase or donation, and by placing appropriate lands under conservation easement. The improvements in water quality that would be achieved by the placing of the Islandia Headwaters Area into the public trust would be permanent. This project is the most important effort of the Lompico Watershed Conservancy and a major concern of the Lompico County Water District, which is now in discussions with the landowner. The landowner runs a logging company and has made it clear to all involved that he plans to log this land unless a sale is arranged. The Conservancy has been seeking funding to accomplish a purchase. The Water District had originally attempted to have this land donated to it in return for tax relief to the landowner. The present situation is a matter of negotiation.

The Happy Land subdivision, which is also above the intake for water diversion by the Lompico County Water District, is an area that both the Conservancy and the Water District would like to see placed in a public trust status. This area of considerable size was subdivided and sold in an illogical and irresponsible manner so that the parcels are of no residential use. The Lompico County Water District, which is under a State issued moratorium preventing the release of new water connections, cannot supply water to newly developed sites that might be created on this land. Also, wells which could be drilled in this area would likely draw down the subsurface flows which support Lompico Creek. A program to buy out the owners of the hundreds of small parcels that comprise this area should be instituted by a combination of efforts between the Conservancy, the Water District and Santa Cruz County which has been holding the parcels which are seized for the failure to pay back property taxes. Considerable funding would be necessary to accomplish this task because of the number of parcels and the difficulty of contacting owners. However despite the problems, this is an essential program that needs to be initiated. There are also old road cuts in the drainage of Mill Creek crossing the Happy Land Area that are causing severe erosion. This dramatically accelerated erosion prompted Santa Cruz County to build a sediment dam on Mill Creek to capture the erosion material before it reaches Lompico Rd and Creek. Blockage of road culverts and major sediment loading of Lompico Creek has occurred repeatedly in the past due to the soil instability in this area. The Water District and the Conservancy have both requested that Santa Cruz County maintain the sediment dam on Mill Creek. The Conservancy has explored the possibility of doing restoration of the grading damaged area in upper Mill Creek but does not have the financial resources to undertake such a project. Nonetheless restoration of these areas and the maintenance of the Mill Creek Sediment Dam are an essential part of this Watershed Management Plan.

Placing the Happy Land area in public or Conservancy ownership would be a similar permanent solution to water quality problems. Efforts to restore degraded areas particularly in the Mill Creek Drainage would have long lasting positive effects on soil erosion problems.
Poorly maintained, private dirt and gravel roads are another source of sediment pollution in the watershed, which needs addressing. The long range plans of the Lompico Watershed Conservancy include assisting private road associations and neighborhoods in improving the condition of their roads through maintenance training, assistance with rocking road surfaces and installing needed culverts. Efforts to improve private roads would have to be continuous as road maintenance and improvement in an endless process especially in an area as erosive as Lompico Canyon. At the present, the finances for such a program do not exist. However, with funding, considerable improvements could be made through cost sharing agreements etc,.

Control and reduction of septic and chemical pollution from residences in the Lompico Creek Watershed are the responsibility of landowners, residents and the County Department of Environmental Health. The County has been lax in its enforcement responsibilities at times and improvements from both landowners and the Dept. of Environmental Health are necessary to reduce chemical and septic pollution. There are no significant commercial sources of chemical and septic pollution in the Watershed as the area is entirely residential, or logging property. The responsibility for improvements in this type of pollution fall to the County and individuals. The Lompico Watershed Conservancy cannot become an enforcement agency and the Water District has no direct authority in these matters. The Conservancy, through its newsletters has addressed pollution of the stream but it can only provide information, not enforcement. The Lompico County Water District runs an annual "Creek Clean Up Day" in which school children and their parents and friends remove discarded trash and other unnatural debris from the stream.

Improvements in soil erosion problems that result from logging operations are the sole responsibility of the California Department of Forestry and the individual landowners. CDF has authority in these areas. Other State Agencies such as Cal WRCB and Water Quality have only an advisory role. The public and other agencies such as Santa Cruz County can only add comment regarding issues under the authority of CDF. Erosion mitigations required by CDF are only required to be maintained for three years. This illustrates how the permanent improvements in water quality that would be achieved by the placing of areas such as the Islandia Headwaters in permanent protected status are far superior to any other conceivable solutions, all of which would be short term.

The Lompico Canyon Area contains about 525 homes and associated housing units. The Lompico County Water District supplies most of these houses with household water. Some out-lying houses use private wells or divert water by riparian right from Lompico Creek.

Lompico is an unincorporated area and, as such, authority for land use planning, pollution control, etc. are the responsibility of Santa Cruz County. County Agencies such as Planning, Zoning, and Environmental Health have responsibility for water quality in streams through their regulatory and enforcement authority. Environmental Health is responsible for the regulation of septic systems that are the sole form of sewage treatment in the Watershed. .Planning, Zoning and the Fire District regulate the construction of residential roads which, if poorly constructed or maintained, can have a significant effect on increased soil erosion into the streams. The State of California through the California Department of Forestry has authority over land use when a landowner applies for a Timber Harvest Permit. Timber operators have a responsibility to see that their operations are carried out in a manner so as to limit the amount of soil that erodes from logging roads, skid trails, landings and disturbed surface soils. The California Water Quality Control Board and the Water Resources Control Board have authority over water pollution and water diversion which is exercised principally through their permitting processes. The California Department of Fish and Game has the responsibility to review and permit (where appropriate) streambed alterations including water impoundments, water diversions, bridge construction and road construction affecting the creek. They also have an advisory role in the permitting of logging operations as does Water Quality. This department is also responsible for the protection of wildlife including the threatened Steelhead Rainbow Trout which spawn in Lompico Creek. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is responsible for protection of sea-run anadromous fish. Coho Salmon (which are now functionally extinct in the San Lorenzo River system though still present in north coast streams between the San Lorenzo and San Francisco Bay) and Steelhead are both listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act. These State and Federal Agencies have, in the past, been ineffective in preventing the loss of these increasingly endangered animals. The reluctance of these agencies to effectively carry out their responsibilities is a matter of political will, bureaucratic inertia and lack of funding. Dedicated people within these agencies can have their efforts blocked by political appointees without an interest in conservation.

As mentioned before in this document, land use in the Lompico Creek Watershed is limited to residential occupation and logging. Water quality is the responsibility of all the people who use the area. Due to the steepness of the terrain and the intensity of rainfall, all pollution quickly reaches the streams that drain the Canyon. The Water District and the Lompico Watershed Conservancy have a parallel interest in working to protect water quality. The District is responsible to their customers to provide clean water and as such benefits from having clean sources from which to draw its water supplies. The Conservancy works to protect the watershed and has an interest in water quality problems which effect wildlife, particularly aquatic life in Lompico Creek and its tributaries.

The successful protection of the Islandia Headwaters Area will be a major accomplishment for all the parties involved. Since this land is undisturbed and unoccupied, it will not require continuing maintenance to have a long-term positive effect. There are invasive exotic plants in the area that can be controlled or eliminated through volunteer work. The access road which extends to the old housing site on the property was well constructed and will need only occasional work to prevent erosion if it is determined that this road should be maintained as an access.

Other efforts to improve water quality in Lompico Creek are separate projects and each, if addressed, will need its own planning and implementation. The projects described in this plan (the consolidation and conservation of the Happy Land subdivision and the restoration and maintenance of the Mill Creek area) will take considerable financial resources and the full cooperation of Santa Cruz County. These projects will have to await the resolution of efforts to protect the Islandia Headwaters area.

Improvements in water quality that will result from the protection of the headwaters of Lompico Creek will be permanent with the effective enforcement of a conservation easement for the Islandia headwaters area. The failure of efforts to protect the headwaters area will likely result in a major logging operation on this land, with the added potential for residential subdivision and permanent roads. The differences in water quality in the stream after such a logging operation will be obvious. Soil and silt loading of the stream, particularly during the winter months, will increases substantially. Efforts to protect this land by placing it in a protected public trust status are pivotal to all other efforts to improve and sustain water quality in Lompico Creek.

Water quality monitoring was started this year by the Conservancy in the form of temperature records for Lompico Creek. This monitoring showed excellent water temperatures for the Steelhead Rainbow Trout that develop from eggs in Lompico Creek. The monitoring of sediment loading and other pollution of the Creek can be improved by the Water District with the help of the Santa Cruz County Dept. of Environmental Health. As mentioned, the Water District has some turbidity monitoring equipment and the County has responsibility for monitoring water quality in area streams. The City of Santa Cruz Water Department has staff who monitor the entire San Lorenzo River drainage for pollution.

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Text From A Mass Mailer

What is the Lompico Watershed Conservancy ?

We are a conservation land trust established to protect the watershed for the community of Lompico. Our group will acquire land and conservation easements, preserving critical portions of the Lompico Creek watershed in perpetuity. We seek to maintain these lands in a natural undisturbed state as our most important source of domestic water, and for the beauty and biological diversity of the land. When we have achieved our primary goals, we will have the capacity to expand our efforts to other watersheds in the San Lorenzo River system.

Why Protect Lompico Creek?

Lompico relies heavily on the natural stream flow of Lompico Creek for the delivery of domestic water to the 525 homes in Lompico Canyon. The volume of water which residents have at their disposal is limited and this has resulted in a long standing State ordered moratorium on new water hookups. During the last drought the Water Dept. was forced to truck in water. The Creek is also spawning habitat for the Steelhead Rainbow Trout, an animal listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The 425 acre Islandia property containing the headwaters of the Creek is owned by a large logging operator. The upper watershed above the intake for the water delivery system at Mill Creek is small at just 2.7 square miles. A major logging operation would have serious destructive consequences for the water supply and life in the canyon. The Islandia property is now accessible from both the north and south due to roads cut for a current logging operation on the northern end of Islandia.

The Creek runs clear and cold all summer and fall because the winter rains, stored in the forest soil mantel, are slowly released to the stream. To protect the water flow of the Creek, the land must be undisturbed. Lompico has no significant reservoirs nor any good sites for future storage. In essence, these forested mountains are our reservoir.

Preserve the Beauty of Lompico Canyon

Lompico Creek flows through a steep, heavily forested canyon from the pine, chaparral and hardwood uplands to the redwood and fir lined creek corridors. It is rugged, highly erosive terrain. Under the leaf litter of the forest are sand and loose soils. Logging operations are taking place all around this area. The Zayante Creek drainage, of which Lompico Creek is a principle tributary, has been heavily impacted. In winter rain periods Zayante Creek turns an opaque brown for nearly a week after heavy the rain ends. Lompico Creek clears quickly and is a tannin tinted clear amber.

This watershed is too important to our community to stand by and watch commercial logging endanger our water and quality of life. With your commitment, we can protect this small but critical watershed for it's best use, wild land and clean water. All of us use wood products but some areas are too valuable as watershed and wildlife habitat to be exploited.

Your support is essential, so please join the effort to protect this land. If you are already a Conservancy member, please renew your membership with a donation. It is crucial that we show public support for our efforts, so please make a donation to this local non-profit charitable organization. If you would like to become more involved, we welcome your interest. Please contact us at (831) 335-8136.

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Logging and Wildfire

Much has been said about fire danger and fire hazard reduction. There is misinformation being promulgated about fire hazard, and the timber industry has used the confusion to present their argument that logging is necessary to reduce fire risk.

It's a misunderstanding of forest ecology to suggest that logging in these mountains reduces fire danger. A logging operation leaves behind a large volume of severed branches and tree crowns which are referred to as logging slash. It is these small diameter surface fuels which are the most important source of fuel for the spread of fire in forests.

Many oaks and other hardwoods are felled during logging because they are in the way of logging, or used as cushions to prevent valuable logs from shattering when they hit the ground. This dead wood represents a fuel load far greater than branches and trees fallen during storms and other natural disturbance events.

Large redwoods are among the most fire-resistant trees, and often survive wildfire. Loggers target large trees, leaving behind smaller ones. Smaller trees with branches closer to the ground are the easiest to ignite during a fire. Small trees can create the "ladder effect" carrying fire from the ground upward, promoting catastrophic crown fires. Continuous logging leaves forests of small crowded trees. These crowded stands of small trees are the most fire prone type of forest and when they burn there is usually catastrophic destruction. Therefore, logging operations again have the likelihood of increasing fire danger, not reducing it.

Logged areas are opened to sunlight which dries out the vegetation earlier in the summer and changes the micro-climate of the forest resulting in higher surface temperatures, more wind and dryer conditions overall. Logged areas are littered with logging slash and quickly invaded by highly flammable non-native plants such as French broom. The amount of brush increases in logged areas because of increased sunlight reaching the forest floor. Many fires originate in brushy areas or grass meadows and then travel from there into adjoining forests.

The document which follows was downloaded from the web.

COMMERCIAL LOGGING FOR WILDFIRE PREVENTION: FACTS VS. FANTASIES

by Timothy Ingalsbee, Ph.D.,

Western Fire Ecology Center for the American Lands Alliance

The notion that commercial logging can prevent wildfires has its fervent
believers and loud proponents, but this belief does not match up with the scientific evidence or history of federal management practices. In fact, it is widely recognized that past commercial logging, road-building,livestock grazing, and aggressive firefighting are the sources for "forest health"problems such as increased insect infestations, disease outbreaks, and severe wildfires. How can the sources of these problems also be their solution? This internal contradiction needs more than Smokey Bear myths to be resolved. It is time for Congress to heed the facts, not fantasies, and develop forest management policies based on science, not politics.

FACT: Commercial logging removes the least flammable portion of trees--their main stems or "trunks," while leaving behind their most flammable portions--their needles and limbs, directly on the ground. Untreated logging slash can adversely affect fire behavior for up to 30 years following the logging operations.

FACT: Commercial logging reduces the "overstory" tree canopy which moderates the "microclimate" of the forest floor. This reduction of the tree canopy exposes the forest floor to increased sun and wind, causing increased surface temperatures and decreased relative humidity. This in turn causes surface fuels to be hotter and drier, resulting in faster rates of fire spread, greater flame lengths and fireline intensities, and more erratic shifts in the speed and direction of fires.

FACT: Small-diameter surface fuels are the primary carriers of fire. Current fire spread models such as the BEHAVE program do not even consider fuels greater than three inches (3) in diameter because it is mainly the fine-sized surface fuels that allows fire spread. Commercial logging operations remove large-diameter fuels which are naturally fire resistant, and leave behind an increased amount of fire-prone small-diameter fuels.

FACT: Timber plantations are comprised of densely-stocked, even-aged stands of young conifers that are extremely flammable and vulnerable to catastrophic fire effects. When plantations burn they normally result in 100% mortality of trees, yet have no native seed sources to naturally regenerate stands. Thus, burned plantations require expensive and repeated management inputs to achieve successful reforestation.

FACT: Commercial logging spreads invasive weeds and stimulates the growth of "chaparral" brush which are much more flammable than the original forest cover. Once the commodity timber outputs have been removed, federal agencies have no economic incentives to manage the vegetation that colonizes sites disturbed by logging operations; thus, fires will continue to burn through logged areas.

FACT: Watersheds that have experienced extensive logging and road-building also experience greater fire severity than unlogged and unroaded watersheds.

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT'S OWN SCIENTISTS SAY ABOUT LOGGING AND WILDFIRES:

"Timber harvest, through its effects on forest structure, local microclimate, and fuels accumulation, has increased fire severity more than any other recent human activity".

--Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, 1996. Final Report to Congress

"Logged areas generally showed a strong association with increased rate of spread and flame length, thereby suggesting that tree harvesting could affect the potential fire behavior within landscapes. In general, the rate of spread and flame length were positively correlated with the proportion of area logged in the sample watersheds."

--Historical and Current Forest Landscapes in Eastern Oregon and
Washington. Part II: Linking Vegetation Characteristics to
Potential Fire Behavior and Related Smoke Production (PNW-GTR-355)

"As a by-product of clearcutting, thinning, and other tree-removal activities, activity fuels create both short- and long-term fire hazards to ecosystems. The potential rate of spread and intensity of fires associated with recently cut logging residues is high, especially the first year or two as the material decays. High fire-behavior hazards associated with the residues can extend, however, for many years depending on the tree. Even though these hazards diminish, their influence on fire behavior can linger for up to 30 years in the dry forest ecosystems of eastern Washington and Oregon."

--Historical and Current Forest Landscapes in Eastern Oregon and
Washington. Part II: Linking Vegetation Characteristics to
Potential Fire Behavior and Related Smoke Production (PNW-GTR-355)

"It appears significant that many large fires in the western United States have burned almost exclusively in slash. Some of these fires have stopped when they reached uncut timber; none has come to attention that started in green timber and stopped when it reached a slash area."

--G.R. Fahnestock, 1968. "Fire hazard from pre-commercially thinning ponderosa pine." U.S. Forest Service

"Fire severity has generally increased and fire frequency has generally decreased over the last 200 years. The primary causative factors behind fire regime changes are effective fire prevention and suppression strategies, selection and regeneration cutting, domestic livestock grazing, and the introduction of exotic plants.

" --Integrated Scientific Assessment for Ecosystem Management in the
Interior Columbia Basin (PNW-GTR-382)

"The high rate of human-caused fires has generally been associated with high recreational use in areas of higher road densities."

--An Assessment of Ecosystem Components in the Interior Columbia Basin
and Portions of the Klamath and Great
Basins--Volume II (PNW-GTR-405)

"Mechanically removing fuels (through commercial timber harvesting and other means) can also have adverse effects on wildlife habitat and water quality in many areas. Officials told GAO that, because of these effects, a large-scale expansion of commercial timber harvesting alone for removing materials would not be feasible. However, because the Forest Service relies on the timber program for funding many of its other activities, including reducing fuels, it has often used this program to address the wildfire problem. The difficulty with such an approach, however, is that the lands with commercially valuable timber are often not those with the greatest wildfire hazards."

--GAO, "Western National Forests: ____"

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Forests and Water

The most important watersheds around the entire world are all forested. Watersheds are the link between rain and snow and rivers and lakes. Continuously flowing rivers are born in forested hills and mountains. Mountains collect rain and snow because higher terrain forces passing clouds to release moisture. The clouds which stream off the Pacific over the coast ranges to the Sierra, across Nevada and on to the Rockies are the source of nearly all the water which falls on California and much of the water which irrigates the West.

Northern California's coast ranges, like the Santa Cruz Mountains, stop a lot of rain. An average of 55 inches of rain falls here in Lompico during the roughly six month rainy season. In flood years this total can more than double. Intense storms in which five to ten inches fall in a single day are not uncommon. It is the response of a landscape to this heavy rain that is the first sign of a healthy watershed. Forested watersheds which are undisturbed are now rare, but where they exist the streams run clearer when the rain falls hard. This is because forests moderate and promote the absorption of rain and reduce soil erosion. Rain falling on an intact forest first strikes the trees which stand tall over the surface of the land. Impact erosion on the surface soils is thus greatly reduced by heavy forest cover and the deep leaf litter which covers the surface of the ground. When rain first begins to fall the needles and leaves of the trees collect the rain. This is, of course, why when it starts to rain, if there is no lightning, we run under trees to stay dry. As the rain continues to fall the trees become laden with water and begin to release the drops onto the forest floor. After the rain stops, water continues to fall from the trees to the ground. This is one example of how forests help to increase the absorptive capacity of the land because a forest stretches out the time that the water is falling to the forest floor and allows more water to be absorbed. Redwood trees are one of the few species of tree that can absorb water directly through their needles. Redwoods only grow naturally near the ocean in the cool fog belt where they can get moisture directly from the condensation of fog. The trees also cause the fog to condense to the point that it falls to the ground and sends water into the roots of the trees. Some water will be evaporated from the trees depending on weather conditions. This evaporated water helps re-charge the cloud moisture and will help produce more rain down wind perhaps on the next set of hills that the clouds pass over.

The deep leaf litter on the floor of forests is another important moderating factor in the way forested land absorbs water. Redwood forests have particularly deep leaf litter. This mat of decaying conifer needles and leaves acts like a sponge when rain falls. As the leaf litter becomes laden with rain water, the water begins to percolate down into the soil and recharges the soil mantel and then deeper underground aquifers. In areas where the forest has been removed and the bare soil is exposed and scraped up by bulldozers for road building and other industrial reasons, soil erosion increases dramatically and the ability of the earth to absorb and retain water is reduced, sometimes to a considerable degree. This is very important in Lompico since all the water used by canyon residents starts as rain falling on this watershed.

There are other ways that the forests are linked to the ability of the land to absorb water. Forests grow with extensive root systems. These roots penetrate and aerate the soil keeping it from becoming too compacted. :Loose living soil can absorb water much better than compacted soil that has lost the extensive microbial, fungal and animal life that burrows through and mixes the soil. People have their lawns aerated mechanically to imitate the natural process that living forest soils are continuously going through. The Santa Cruz Mountains are famous for the extensive fungal forms that are found here. Some of this fungal life works symbiotically with tree roots to increase the ability of the trees to absorb water. The fungus benefits from receiving food from the tree roots.

Since Lompico draws water from Lompico Creek it is important that the creek flow steadily all year. It is in August and September that our creek's flow is at it's lowest. Lompico does not have any important reservoir or any good place to build one. The land it's self is our reservoir. It is the flow of the creek which is the Canyon's most important source of water followed by the ground water that is pumped from wells, most of which are higher up in the canyon. We need a healthy watershed to insure that we do not suffer from water shortages. The Lompico County Water District has been under a State ordered moratorium preventing the release of any new water connections since 1974 because of our limited water supply.

Trees certainly use water. The only reason that we have big forests here is because there is enough rain to support them. Some have suggested that if you log forests you will reduce the amount of water that is used by the forests and leave more water in the ground. There are several problems with this hypothesis. While it is true that trees use water, you cannot have both the watershed benefits of intact healthy forest and not have the trees using water. Over all, the argument that you can recover more water from the land if you cut the forest collapses because the benefits of forested watersheds far outweigh the idea that it is good to remove trees because they soak up water. I saw this problem illustrated for me years ago when I visited Costa Rica. Much of this Country has had its original rainforest removed for agriculture. One can move along a mountain range and see dry agricultural land that has been cleared for coffee plantations. On the same mountain range at the same elevation, when you reach a patch of undisturbed forest (now only in the extensive National Park System and private reserves) you find wet soggy forests and flowing streams. The forests help rain to fall and the forests keep the land wet by protecting it from the drying effects of sun and wind. In many areas around the world, the destruction of forests has led to the drying up of the river systems which drained the forested areas and a parallel increase in catastrophic floods as the missing forest cover can no longer help the land to retain rain and snow melt and moderate the runoff form large storm events. Increased flooding in Washington State has been blamed on deforestation. The argument that one should cut trees to get more water results from the efforts of the timber industry to confuse the public and protect their economic interests. It is similar to the argument that we should log to reduce fire danger. An idea which has been proven false by numerous studies on the National Forest,

Nearly all of the Lompico Creek drainage and certainly the Islandia area is comprised of highly erosive soils much of which is simply sand and sandy loam. Disturbance of natural conditions causes soil erosion rates to increase dramatically. Islandia and the rest of these mountain areas need forest cover to protect against soil erosion. The 1979 San Lorenzo River Management Plan stated that soil erosion from disturbance of original conditions has increased sediment in the San Lorenzo River by over 4 times what the land would produce of it were undisturbed. Soil erosion makes the production of clean water by water supply systems more difficult. In the 1998 rainy season the City of Santa Cruz Water Department was having trouble producing enough drinking water in part because their filtration system could not clean the silt laden water that they were pumping from the San Lorenzo River and Loch Lomond. (Santa Cruz back pumps water from the River to Loch Lomond to supplement the water that falls on the drainage of Newell Creek and would fill the reservoir naturally.)

The Santa Cruz Mountains are very young in geological terms. These mountains are comprised of ocean bottom sediments that have been uplifted by pressure along the San Andreas Fault. The "rock" and soil these mountains are built from is young, poorly consolidated, and mostly sandy. This is the principle reason that these mountains are highly erosive, and it is the reason that it is important to keep healthy forest cover over our watershed to protect it from erosion. Soil erosion into Lompico Creek and the entire San Lorenzo Drainage is one of the principle reasons for the decline of anadromous fish (Coho Salmon and Steelhead). These fish swim up the river from the Pacific to spawn in the stream of their birth. They lay their eggs in nests that they hollow out of the stream bottom. When the creek is filled with sand and soil, the eggs will not get enough oxygen and die. These fish need stream gravels to make their nests in. The more soil that flows off the land into the creeks, the more likely that their nests will be smothered with dirt. Up into the 1960's, the San Lorenzo was a famous Steelhead stream to which anglers came from long distances to fish. Steelhead and down to an estimated one thousand returning adults and Coho are functionally extinct in the San Lorenzo. Both animals are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

This is only a brief explanation of the link between healthy forests and good watershed conditions, but I hope it explains why the Lompico Watershed Conservancy is so interested in the protection of the Islandia Headwaters Area. This land is the most important single part of the Lompico Creek Watershed and it is in a restored condition that makes it a crucial asset to all the people who live in this area. It is also quite beautiful. If this land can be placed in public trust status, the Conservancy would like this land to be available for public recreational access.

Kevin Collins
Lompico Watershed Conservancy

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Forests and Wildlife

The forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains and Islandia are a refuge for many species of plants and animals. These mountains are the southernmost example of the Pacific Maritime Coastal Forests which stretch from here north all the way to Alaska. Redwoods only grow in the coastal mountains of Northern California from Big Sur north to the Oregon border. In some ways this area is a transition zone between the dryer forests of the Los Padres National Forest to the south and the forests of the Pacific Northwest. The loss of the vast majority of old forests has led to the collapse of many wildlife populations. There are many species of animals which cannot adapt to tree farms. Soon the bulk of forest land in the Santa Cruz Mountains will have been converted into continuous rotation tree farm type areas by repeated logging operations. Well over half of the second growth forest which grew back after the turn of the last century's clear-cuts has been cut again at least once. Most of this logging has taken place since the late 1970's when the recovered forest reached valuable size and began to be extracted by the timber industry. In a few more years, very little of the second growth forest and old growth remnants in private hands will be left untouched. This continuous cycle of logging disturbance is very harmful to many types of wildlife.

There has been a dramatic decrease in the song bird population of these mountains. This loss has been noticed by long term residents who have a history of observation here. Often logging takes place during the nesting season for many birds and when the trees come down so do their nests and young. The reasons for the loss of song birds are many, but continuous logging is part of the problem.
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Animals which were once common have become scarce because they need old growth forest to survive. Many larger forest birds such as owls, woodpeckers like the splendid Pileated Woodpeckers and goshawks have become rare because they need nest sites in old storm damaged trees and deep old growth forest to survive. Bats of which there are several species in these mountains need old trees for roost sites.

The loss of migratory fish is another result of continuous logging because of the siltation of streams, the loss of water quality and the increase in water temperatures as streams are opened up to sunlight and heated up. Salmon and Steelhead need cold water to survive. The lower San Lorenzo River is a death trap for migratory fish in the summer and fall because of the reduced water flow in the River due to water diversion (pumping from the River) and because there is no tree cover to keep the water cool and provide cover from predators like great blue herons which feed on small juvenile fish. Also the original lagoon at the mouth of the River has been changed dramatically by the construction of parking lots on formerly submerged land and by changes in sand deposition along the beach caused by the construction of the Santa Cruz Harbor Breakwater.

These mountains were once home to several large mammals which are now locally extinct and in some cases near extinction nation wide. Grizzly Bears, the largest land predators in North America once roamed these mountains and fed on elephant seals, along the beaches and on salmon in the streams. Pine martins (a type of weasel are thought to have once inhabited these mountains but are not extinct here. Elk were present in the more open areas like quail hollow.

Amphibians are in decline world wide and the Santa Cruz mountains are no refuge. Salamanders and frogs which were once common here are now listed as endangered.

All of this sad information does not mean that the Conservancy expects to turn back the clock to the 18th Century, but it does mean that we would like to create new refuges so that the wildlife we still have with us can have a better chance to survive. Without the expansion of reserve areas in these mountains, the continued extinction of our wildlife is inevitable.

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How can you help the Conservancy

What the Conservancy needs most is funding. Lompico is not a wealthy area, in fact it is primarily working class. Money is something which land trusts cannot function without. We are grateful for all the donations that loyal members have made to us since our founding in 1997. These donations help to maintain our charitable status and support our day to day expenses, however they are not sufficient for land transactions, Since the Conservancy does not have wealthy donors we are forced to rely on the uncertainties of private grant funding and funding from the State and Federal Government. These sources of money take considerable time to apply for and extensive and detailed grant applications can be and are rejected. Many organizations compete for the same sources of funding. If the Conservancy could reach wealthy donors we could establish an endowment which would allow us to make offers for land and conservation easements from our own resources. This would put us in a much better position to succeed because we would have the ability to act quickly when opportunities to cut deals with willing sellers arose. We have developed relations with larger land trusts in an effort to seek help from them to assist our efforts. Once again, many people are approaching the same trusts for help and the Conservancy is only one group in a long list of organizations seeking help. If you can put us in touch with potential donors interested in conservation we have the experience and legal standing to make a good case for the preservation of Lompico Canyon. The Conservancy has board members who have reached a level of professional knowledge in the "business" of operating a land trust and negotiating deals. Funding is our problem. With our most important project, the protection of the Islandia headwaters area, we do not have the resources to draw the land owner into negotiations by offering a substantial option price. This can be risky because options to buy are generally not refundable. But we believe that the money would be available to purchase such an important area as Islandia if we could arrange a sale agreement. We, of course, can not do this without the cooperation of the owner but once again money to operate with could be the key to a deal.

The Conservancy also needs political support. The backing of Santa Cruz County, the State of California, and potentially even the Federal Government could become crucial in the future. This web site will be updated on a regular basis so that our supporters can stay informed about the fate of important lands in the Canyon. The Conservancy is not a political advocacy organization, however certain circumstances will arise where political influence could become crucial.

All donations to the Conservancy are fully tax deductible. Donors can be assured that their contributions to our efforts will be used properly. We are audited as a non-profit corporation and keep financial records.

The Conservancy is empowered to write conservation easements which can have major tax and conservation benefits. Contact us if you are interested in such an arrangement.

It is also possible that conservation buyers can work with the Conservancy to see that land is protected for its natural resource values while still being occupied as a residence by a cooperating land owner.

Tell your friends and associates about this web site and the organization that maintains it. Lompico and the San Lorenzo Valley have considerable opportunities for new conservation agreements that will defend and improve our quality of life and the outlook for our shared future. Our children will remember how we protect the land that we have borrowed from their future.

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