By Barry Eberling
FAIRFIELD - Almost a square
mile of land near Highway 12 is targeted to become a vernal pool wetlands
preserve to help make up for habitat developed elsewhere.
A for-profit
company is creating the preserve. The nonprofit Solano Land Trust will be the
watchdog that makes certain the preserve indeed remains free of development.
The Land Trust board accepted this role at its meeting Tuesday.
Wildlands Inc. is creating the North Suisun preserve. It is a private
company trying to make money by protecting habitat.
The preserve is a
mitigation bank. Developers building homes and businesses on wetlands elsewhere
in the region can satisfy environmental laws by buying "credits" at the
Wildlands bank. Private mitigation banks are approved by such agencies as the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Wildlands owns 627 acres east of Suisun
City, near Highway 12 and Denverton Road. This land has about 127 acres of
vernal pool wetlands. Wildlands could construct about 45 acres of additional
vernal pools, a Land Trust memo said.
Plus, the land has habitat for the
California tiger salamander.
To meet federal and state standards, the
mitigation bank must have a conservation easement on it. Wildlands must give up
the development rights to the land.
"We like to work with the local land
trust people to hold our easement," said Craig Denisoff, senior vice president
for Wildlands.
The Solano Land Trust will retire the development rights.
Its employees will inspect the land twice annually, checking on such things as
fencing and the condition of the vernal pools.
Wildlands will pay the
Land Trust $164,608 for an endowment and one-time costs to cover such things as
inspection expenses.
The Solano Land Trust was founded in 1986 to
protect farmland and open space. It owns such properties as Lynch Canyon and
Rush Ranch and has conservation easements totaling 4,100 acres on nine
properties.
Wildlands Inc. was founded in 1991 and created the first
private mitigation bank west of the Mississippi in 1994, according to the
company's Web site.
"Mitigation banking is a perfect balance between
business and biology," Denisoff said. "If you don't have both, you don't have a
business."
Reach Barry Eberling at 425-4646 Ext. 232 or at beberling@dailyrepublic.net
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