SRCA Board Agrees to Substantial Reduction of Area

by Tom Evans

Presidents Message:  Family Water Alliance, numerous landowners and citizens have worked for over a year and a half to limit the Sacramento River Conservation Area to the Inner River Zone. It was their hard work and dedication which resulted in the SRCA Board’s decision to limit the conservation area to the Inner River Zone in five of the seven counties.  We are pleased that the SRCA Board listened and responded to the landowners concerns, and, thus, want to thank them for their time and dedication to this effort.  We would also like to extend a special “thank you” to the County Boards of Supervisors in Sutter, Colusa, Glenn, and Butte Counties for listening to the concerns of their citizens and voting unanimously in support of reducing the total area of the SRCA.  Their votes confirm the importance of local control and reaffirm the constitutional ideal that it is the people who empower government.

Under heavy pressure from landowners and four county governments, the Sacramento River Conservation Area (SRCA) Board of Directors has unanimously voted to sharply reduce the area.  The SRCA covers 213,000 acres in seven counties, up to a one or two-mile swath along the river from Keswick in Shasta County to Verona in Sutter County .

The Board’s action Thursday, February 28, 2002 , in Maxwell, will result in confining the SRCA in five counties to the Inner River Zone (IRZ), or the land between flood control levees.  In these counties- Butte , Glenn, Colusa, Sutter, and Yolo- the land outside the levees, or Outer River Zone (ORZ), will be removed from the SRCA.  The SRCA boundaries in Shasta and Tehama counties will remain unchanged at the request of Bill Borror, Tehama County Supervisor and Brandon Flynn, Tehama County Landowner representative.

The SRCA Board will continue to seek resolution of conflicts which occur outside the IRZ as result of SRCA activities and land adjacent to the IRZ.

The Board heard more than a dozen speakers, including landowners, representatives of irrigation districts, and county governments urging reduction of the conservation area to the original riparian area established in 1989.  Four Boards of Supervisions- Sutter, Colusa, Glenn, and Butte Counties- earlier had voted 5-0 for the reduction.  Petitions signed by more than 400 landowners and a letter from nine reclamation and water districts representing approximately 200,000 acres, appealed for the same action.

Tom Ellis, a Colusa County landowner, said, “It raises my hackles that you would include my land in the SRCA.  In my mind, designation as part of the Conservation Area is a cloud on the title to the property and may adversely influence the value of that land.  I feel very uncomfortable with the larger area, because I don’t like boundaries outlining my land; I don’t like the special designation of the Sacramento River Conservation Area or the new term “agricultural conservation area” and I don’t like my land colored a special color on a map.”

Ellis continued, “Our agricultural and economic base will be devastated.  As Dick Akin explained (at a previous meeting), ‘The perception in our area is that we are going to get hurt by habitat restoration efforts and there is nothing any agency or SRCA spokesperson can say that is going to change that - this perception is reality in our eyes.’”

 Ellis went on to say, “After listening to the SRCA Board members express their thoughts about reducing the size of the Conservation Area at the January meeting, I don’t think you as a board understand this perception.  You should have attended the Meridian meetings, the meeting in Robbins, or you should come down to our area to meet our very concerned residents to see for yourselves the deep feelings we have about the SRCA Program.  This lack of contact with our area residents has been a basic flaw in the development of the SRCA from the beginning.  It has been said that we are ‘misinformed’.  I think the reverse - we know too well the outcome.  It will be a disaster for us.  You must understand whatever is done upstream can have a devastating effect downstream.”

Ellis also criticized conservation plans to restore riparian jungle in the river flood way, an action he said would create hazards for landowners along the river. “Floods create conditions that are unfit for human habitat,” he said.

Sue Sutton, President of the Family Water Alliance, showed slides of the current conditions of the Sacramento River which supported Ellis’s comments and concerns. Slides demonstrated the increased siltation and large woody debris buildup in the river.  Such build up is reducing the carrying capacity of the river.  Slides depicting the damage to the Highway 20 Bridge over the Sutter Bypass were shared with the board and audience as well as the build up of debris at Tisdale Weir in January 2002.  She raised the question, If we are having these problems now, what will it look like when 222 miles of the Sacramento River are restored to habitat?

Rich Bottini, a Colusa businessman, said the removal of large amounts of land from production agriculture for habitat would devastate local economies.  Currently programs along the river are already taking ag land out of production.

Kim Davis of Senator Maurice Johannessen’s office said she had attended many meetings with hundreds in attendance and had never heard anyone say they wanted to be included in the SRCA.

            George Tibbetts, President of the Colusa County Farm Bureau, told the Board:  “You’re going to need the cooperation of landowners but you won’t get it without landowner assurances.”

            Peter Jukusky, Director of Colusa County Economic Development Corporation said, “ Northern California cannot afford further loss of employment and tax base by conversions of ag land to habitat.”

            Fran Peace, District Director for Congress Wally Herger, said, “Agriculture is being stifled and water rights are being stifled.  We don’t want a Klamath Basin to happen here.”

            The motion to reduce the SRCA was made by Supervisor David Womble, Colusa County Supervisor, seconded by the Supervisor Dan Silva of Sutter County .  Supervisors both are members of the SRCA Board.