Threatened Pitkin Marsh is on fast track to habitat protection
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| PRESERVATION — A blooming azalea bush is among the many plants in the Pitkin marsh in Forestville, which also includes several endangered plant species. - Photo courtesy of Sonoma Land Trust |
FORESTVILLE - Pitkin Marsh, the only home of the endangered white sedge and other threatened plants endemic to Sonoma County, is on the fast track to preservation thanks to community efforts and the work of the Sonoma Land Trust and the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District.
“This is a speed deal,” said Land Trust Conservation Director Wendy Elliot recently in describing the arrangement between the Trust and Synergy PMC, signed last month wherein the Trust will purchase the 17-acre Lower Pitkin Marsh for $970,000. “There's nothing else like it on the planet. It's an example of why we do this work.”
The marsh, located on a stretch of Highway 116 in Forestville, is not only a haven for wildlife such as bobcats, weasels, rabbits and turtles, but birdlife including passerines and raptors as well.
But perhaps its most important function is as an oasis of rare botanical richness, including plants, such as the aforementioned white sedge which occurs only in Sonoma County and was thought to be extinct until its rediscovery there in 1983, the Pitkin lily and the Pitkin Marsh Indian Paint Brush.
In addition, the marsh is believed to be the only place in the western United States where three species of beaked rush occur together.
Prior to the agreement, and to the consternation of environmentalists, botanists and neighbors alike, a large portion of the upland part of the property was scheduled for the development of a 24,000-square- foot residential care facility to be constructed by Alan Goldhamer, a Rohnert Park chiropractor and director of the TrueNorth Health Center in Penngrove.
Elliot said the development was in the last stages of jumping through the hoops of the county permitting process when he decided to backtrack and offer to sell the property to a conservation agency.
“The development bogged down when it looked as though he was going to have to do a full fledged environmental impact report, which can costs a couple of hundred thousand dollars,” Elliot said. “He was pretty far down the road but at that point he came to us.”
She said a contract to sell should be signed in September with closing expected to be in October.
“Everyone had to move fast on this,” she said. “It's a win-win for everyone, including Mr. Goldhamer who is going to look for another site for his facility.”
She said the preservation of the property, which is in the Atascadero Creek watershed, will allow native stands of creekside riparian vegetation to flourish in conjunction with adjacent freshwater wetlands, oak woodland and grasslands, a mix of habitat under increasing duress from development. In addition the marsh is the location of also rare “quaking bogs.”
All of the above also provide a wildlife corridor for animals moving between the ranchettes, homes, vineyards and other ag enterprises surrounding the marsh.
Elliot said the open space district last May approved $500,000 toward the purchase of the property, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service committing some $25,000 in federal funding with the possibility of more of that on the way.
She said the Sonoma Land Trust will take title to the property until a public agency can take it over and the open space district will hold a perpetual natural resource conservation easement over the land.
Other agencies active in the upcoming purchase and biotic inventory of the property include the California Department of Fish and Game, the California Coastal Conservancy and the California Native Plant Society.
Elliot added the Trust is still interested in protecting additional portions of the marsh, including Middle and Upper Pitkin Marsh.
“We would like to work our way upstream,” she said.
Copyright © 2007 Sonoma West Publishers