News

• 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 teams 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.  
• California ranked fourth nationally in the production of non-fuel minerals in 2009, according to the California Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey. California's 700 active mines, which employ about 5,300 people, produced minerals valued at $3.4 billion in 2009, down fromt he 2008 total of $4 billion. California's production accounted for 6.3 percent of the nation's total. Gold production was valued at $139 million, ranking California sixth among 11 states reported production for the third straight year.
• The California Geological Survey (CGS) has released a new map online showing the susceptibility of California to deep-seated landslides.  This map is an overview detailing where landslides are more likely to occur to emergency planners, those who own or operate infrastructure facilities, and the public at large.  Paper copies of the map will be available for purchase in the coming weeks.
• Between 2006 and 2008, irrigated farmland in California decreased by a record amount, according to a Department of Conservation report. The amount of lost irrigated farmland is equivalent to an area larger than New York City. The land-use change report by DOC's Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program is released every other year. The latest report showed a slowdown from the record urbanization pace seen in the state during recent years. However, 317 square miles of irrigated farmland were idled, urbanized, or otherwise reclassified. That's 30 percent more than the 2004 to 2006 total. The report noted 98,471 fewer acres of the highest-quality agricultural soils, known as Prime Farmland, which is also a record.
• When it comes to future large earthquakes in California, the Hayward Fault is a prime suspect. So the California Geological Survey's Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (SMIP) is beefing up its network of monitors near the fault to collect data that can enhance public safety during future quakes. SMIP currently is working at the busy junction of Highways 580 and 238, which straddles the fault.