News

• The Department of Conservation's Division of Land Resource Protection will host a scoping workshop to discuss the possible adoption of regulations needed to implement provisions of SB 618 (Wolk, Local government: solar-use easements). Click here for further details.
• A Sutter County rice farm has been permanently protected from development in a collaboration between the Department of Conservation California Farmland Conservancy Program, the California Department of Fish and Game and Ducks Unlimited. Two separate but intertwined easements will permanently shield the 189-acre Tealbrook Farm for agricultural use and waterfowl habitat.
• Although gold production increased significantly, the overall value of commodities mined in California fell considerably in 2010, according to a California Geological Survey Non-Fuel Mineral Production Report.
• One year after the Japanese magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami, the California Geological Survey got a first-hand view of Santa Cruz Port District's recovery efforts.
• The April 2010 northern Baja California earthquake triggered surface movement that revealed previously unknown faults in Southern California.
• The Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources is looking for qualified engineers. Learn more.
• The California Geological Survey has expanded its inventory of seismic instruments in the Barstow area to help enhance public safety during earthquakes. Three new "accelerographs" have been installed east of Mojave.
• The California Geological Survey's Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (SMIP) is enhancing public safety during earthquakes by placing "accelerographs" that collect data about the response of building and structures to ground motion.  The Bay Area SMIP accelerograph locations include a new San Francisco office building and a Castro Valley hospital.
• The Land Trust of Santa Cruz partners with the Department of Conservation California Farmland Conservancy Program to permanently protect a 75-acre apple orchard that has been farmed by the same family for three generations.  Pista Farmlands has been placed in an agricultural easement protecting the farm and ensuring the Pajaro Valley property stays in farming forever.
• Centennial Ranch in Bridgeport has protected an additional 718-acres that will remain in agricultural use forever after being placed into a conservation easement through the efforts of Eastern Sierra Land Trust, the Department of Conservation's California Farmland Conservancy Program and the USDA Natual Resources Conservation Service and Ranch Lands Protection Program.
• The Department of Conservation works with the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust to protect the 132-acre Nunn Kami-Grigsby family farm by placing an agricultural conservation easement on the property, forever shielding it from development.
• The Department of Conservation partners with the Sequoia Riverlands Trust to protect more of California's food source in Wasco.  Adding to a 472-acre agricultural conservation easement, the  Kern County family of Wasco preserved an additional 571-acre agricultural conservation easement on the family farm.
• The Department of Conservation helps shield Hanford-area farm from development with an agricultural conservation easement protecting the 153-acre Howe Ranch--the first of its kind in the history of Kings County.
• "Earthquakes may pose unexpected threat to agriculture," a recently released report from the Department of Conservation's California Geological Survey concludes that more attention should be given to the potential impact of large quakes on California's biggest industry--agriculture.  The April 2010 Baja California temblor did significant damage in Imperial Valley.  Learn more.
• The Department of Conservation and the Sequoia Riverlands Trust teamed up to shield the Schnitzler family farm in Fresno from development.  From Germany to Brazil to Kingsburg, California, that's the road Fred Schnitzler took to find a piece of ground of his own. Now, after a decade of effort, he and his wife Lydia have entered into an agreement to permanently preserve one of their farms for agriculture. "My dad was very passionate about putting the property into an easement," said Gary Schnitzler, Fred's son."We have some of the best farm soil in the world in this valley, and everyone seems to be in a big hurry to pave it over.We're going to run out of good farmland someday and then wonder how we're going to feed people."  Fred Schnitzler's 89-acre property, produces plums, peaches and nectarines on prime soil, amd will be permanently set aside as agricultural land. The Sequoia Riverlands Trust will hold the easement on the farm.
• The Department of Conservation, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Central Valley Farmland Trust partnered to secure farmland easements and the preservation of 1,000 acres on five farms in Merced, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus Counties.  The accomplishment was celebrated at the Brandstad farm near Stockton.
• The California Farmland Conservancy Program (CFCP)  recently partnered with the Northern California Regional Land Trust and the USDA's Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program to create agricultural easements on the 520-acre Home Place Farm near Red Bluff in Tehama County and the 145-acre Comanche Creek Farm near Chico in Butte County.   In August, the CFCP worked with the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) to help permanently protect the 1,013-acre Thornton Ranch  in western Marin County. This ranch completes an 8,000-acre greenbelt of MALT-protected farmland that surrounds the historic town of Tomales.
• The California Geological Survey (CGS) and the U.S. Geological Survey cooperatively published a report that contains a map and associated datasets that inventory 290 locations of reported natural asbestos occurrences in California.  Asbestos has been reported to occur in 45 of California's 58 counties.  An additional eight counties contain occurrences of ultramafic rocks, serpentinite, or fibrous amphibole, indicating geologic environments that could be favorable for asbestos.   Previous CGS reports on natural occurrences of asbestos in California can be found online.