summer 2006 vistas newsletter, solano land trust

8/3/2019 Summer 2006 Vistas Newsletter, Solano Land Trust

1/8

The State Coastal Conservancy (SCC) has

approved a $500,000 grant to the Solano Land

Trust or construction o a nature center at

Rush Ranch. This grant adds to the $500,000

awarded last year rom the San Francisco Bay

National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR).Proposition 50, a resources bond act approved

by Caliornia voters in 2002, is the source or

this SCC grant.

Together, these two grants are sucient

to cover most o the costs o the nature center

and adjoining caretaker residence, as well as

lab, living quarters and oce space or visiting

NERR scientists.

Solano Land Trust expects to break ground

later this summer. Meanwhile, we are working

with the architect to complete construction

drawings, with the contractor to nalize the

budget and subcontractors list, and with project

manager Scott Sheldon to handle other pre-

construction details.

In April, Executive Director Marilyn Farley

addressed the SCC board o directors in Ventura

and, at the request o SLT President Bob Berman,

personally thanked them or all their support

over the years, including Rush Ranchs 1988

purchase and subsequent grants to improve

Young boy and falcon eye each other at theRush Ranch Open HousePhoto: Marilyn Farley

trails and historic ranch buildings.

SCC Chairman Douglas Bosco thanked Farley or

attending and joked, Youd be pretty disappointed

i you got up at 4 a.m. to attend our meeting and

we turned you down! Bosco and other board

members quickly voted aye and thanked the

Land Trust or its work to preserve Rush Ranch

and create the nature center.

Please visit www.solanolandtrust.org or

inormation on the groundbreaking ceremony.

Presidents Messa

Executive DirectoPerspective

Breeding Bird Co

Suisun ValleyFarmers

Jepson PrairieSeason

Suisun Marsh

Rush RanchOpen House

Activities and Ev

l. 13 #2

Summer2006

Second $500,000 grant approved forRush Ranch Nature Center

Marilyn Farley, Executive Director


2/8

Birds do it!Robin L. C. Leong, Solano County Breeding Bird Atlas Co-coordi

Volunteers with the Napa-Solano Audubon Society have been busy watc

courting birds or a Breeding Bird Atlas o Solano County. Solano is the

county in the San Francisco Bay Area to do an atlas. A Napa County A

was published in 2004.How is the breeding

count conducted? Solano Co

has been divided into 123 th

by-three mile blocks. Ov

ve-year period (started in 20

volunteer birders go into

block to determine what spe

breed based on behavior cri

developed by the North Ame

Ornithological CommitteeBreeding Birds. Activities sig

that conrm breeding inc

birds carrying nesting mater

displaying distraction tac

(such as eigned injury), and adults carrying ood to the their young.

Several birders have been taking to the hills in Lynch Canyon and the

Valley Cordelia Hills Open Space. Robbie Fischer and Joe Morlan are in Ly

Canyon, where Joe ound a new tricolor-blackbird nesting colony. Bob M

has King Ranch and the northern part o the City o Santa Claras prop

(adjacent to Sky Valley), and Richard Peck has the south end o the Cit

Santa Claras property.

Jean Epstein covers Hiddenbrooke, Vallejo Swett, Eastern Swett

McIntyre Ranch. In 2005, she conrmed the ollowing breeding b

Mallards, wild turkeys, Caliornia quails, pied-billed grebes, turkey vultu

common moorhens, American coots, mourning doves, Annas hummingb

downy woodpeckers, black phoebes, Western kingbirds, Western sc

jays, common ravens, horned larks, tree, cli and barn swallows, blue-

gnatcatchers, American robins, European starlings, dark-eyed juncos,

winged blackbirds, and Brewers blackbirds. Other observed birds include

shouldered hawks, red-tailed hawks, Allens hummingbirds, brown-hea

cowbirds, and lesser goldnches.

Napa-Solano Audubon needs your help. I you have access to a So

County property where we can observe breeding birds, or i you nd bree

species on your property, we would like to know what you saw, when

saw it and what made you think it was breeding. Also, we still need a

more atlasers. Contact Robin Leong at (707) 643-1287 or robin_leon

netzero.net.

Robin with nesting material

Presidents MessageBob Berman, President

In April, Executive

Director Marilyn Farley and

I attended the 2nd Annual

Land Trust Conerence

sponsored by the

Caliornia Council o Land

Trusts (CCLT). The CCLT

acts as a unied voice or

more than 150 land trusts

in Caliornia, working to

build a strong, eective

land trust community with the nancial and policy

resources needed to protect Caliornias landscapes.

One o the topics discussed at the conerence was the

issue o communication and the media. Kirk Brown o

the Resource Media Group and Robert Perez o FentonCommunications spoke about the eective ways to

receive positive media coverage regarding the work

that land trusts do. SLT has completed many exciting

projects over the past several years, but we have

not always been as eective as we could have been

in letting Solano County residents know about our

successes. Both Marilyn and I gained insight into how

to better communicate with the public about what we

are doing.

As we do our work here in Solano County, we

sometimes lose sight o the great work that otherland trusts are accomplishing. We saw inspiring

photos and heard great stories o land trusts

protecting natural, agricultural and recreational lands

throughout Caliornia. Land trusts are at the oreront

o protecting important natural habitats, watersheds,

working ranches, and lands available or public

recreation in all regions o our state. Not only are

land trusts permanently protecting important lands,

but also implementing stewardship plans to protect

and sustain these resources.

Any conerence o land trusts always seems to have adiscussion o undraisinghow do we raise the money

needed or both acquisition and operation? Barbara

Dye o the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy

told us how through the use o volunteers and special

events they were able to raise ve million dollars

in ve months! Barbaras success story gave Marilyn

and me the assurance that with hard work and strong

volunteer help our Rush Ranch undraising project will

be successul.


3/8

Marilyn Farley, Executive Director

Make a generous

donation to the

Rush Ranch

$450,000 challen

campaign now!

Executive Directors Perspective

What IfWhat i your avorite childhood haunt was no longer a place but only a

memory?Thats what happened to the pond Peter Forbes loved as a child. The place

where he carved his initials. The place where he played with his riends.

Thanks to Funders

Two major unders were omitted in the Spring 2006 edition o

Vistas. Solano Land Trust is very thankul or their support:

The Caliornia Farmland Conservancy Program (CFCP) helped us

und six conservation easements throughout Solano County,

including Suisun Valley, near Winters and between Dixon and

Davis. This program is sponsored by the States Department o

Conservation. The law that created this program recognizes the

substantial contribution agriculture makes to the state, national,

and world ood supply.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (part o the U.S.D.A.)

also unds agricultural conservation easements. Similar to CFCP,

this program aims to protect working armland rom being

converted to non-agricultural uses.

taxes plus a potential income tax deduction equal

to the ull value o the stock). Charitable remainder

trusts (which pay you interest now and guarantee

that we receive a stated amount in the uture) can

also be set up.

SLT board members and a undraising

leadership team will help us raise the crucial

$200,000. Team members, including Gary Archer(Archer & Ficklin Real Estate), Mike Muir (Access

Adventure), Sandy Person (Solano Economic

Development Corporation), Joel Mooney (Rush

Ranch Educational Council) and Scott Sheldon

(Premier Commercial), are busy contacting riends

and business associates to make our case or

support.

Please contact me, a board member, or

a member o the leadership team or more

inormation. I you can help, now is the time to

let us know!

Forbes, ounder o the Center or Land

nd People, urged attendees at the annual Bay

Area Open Space Council conerence to make

ure children have places where they can orm

memories.

What special place resides inyour mind (and,

hope, is still real)?

The child shown on our cover photo has RushRanch. At this years open house, he had the rare

pportunity to view a alcon at close rangesurely

memory to last a lietime.

You can make sure Rush Ranch is preserved as

premier memory or todays children.

Between now and October 1, SLT has just three

months to raise $200,000 to meet our anonymous

onors Rush Ranch challenge!

This donor has given us a generous $250,000

nd will add $200,000 moreprovided we can raise

200,000 rom other sources. I you have the

apacity and a love or Rush Ranch, now is the

ime to consider a generous git.

SLT has developed recognition opportunities

or Rush Ranch trails, historic buildings and new

ature center.

Donations made in memory o our Rush Ranch

volunteer blacksmith Rob Schonholtz will result

n a plaque in his honor at the historic blacksmith

hop.

Your name or that o a loved one can be on

ther buildings or on a trail sign, with a donation

anging rom $10,000 to $1 million.

Your git will help the Land Trust create a

ermanent endowment to care or the land, trails

nd nature center. Your gits will benet Rush

Ranch and qualiy you or potentially signicant

ax savings.

Besides checks, we can accept stock gits,

which gives you a double benet (no capital gains


4/8

SLT discusses farmland preservation withlandowners in Suisun Valley

Rob Goldstein, Mitigation Coordi

Just outside the city limits o Faireld, a two-lane

road enters a picturesque valley where vineyards,

orchards and elds o green ace an uncertain

uture. Fertile soils in the Suisun Valley allow

armers to grow high-value crops such as grapes

and almonds. But armers eel the pressure to

subdivide their lands or development due to

a growing number o homebuyers seeking a

rural liestyle and a recent downturn in the localagricultural economy.

Recently, SLT met with

Suisun Valley landowners to

discuss the uture o arming

in the area. SLT consultant and

citrus armer Greg Kirkpatrick

presented armers with a

way to earn money rom the

increase in Suisun Valley land

value while still preservingtheir land in agriculture.

Conservation easements

are a land preservation tool

in which armers are paid

market value or surrendering

the right to develop their

property. The landowner can

continue to use the property or arming,

the land can never be developed, even i t

property is sold.

Greg Kirkpatrick explained that armers o

use the proceeds rom conservation easeme

to pay o debt or to invest in operatio

Conservation easements can also impro

the outlook or arming in an area by reduc

the price o land to agricultural value, sKirkpatrick. This makes it aordable or th

interested in starting or expanding arm

operations to purchase new land.

Conservation easements compleme

other eorts to support arming in the ar

For example, the Suisun Valley Fund, wh

sponsored the presentation, is promot

agricultural tourism, a strategy that has bolste

equally scenic areas in Napa County.

Ater the meeting, several armers expressinterest to SLT sta about selling conservat

easements on their properties. SLT h

conservation easements on over 5,000 acres

Solano County, including several in the Sui

Valley. SLT hopes to continue this success n

year by doing more easements with armer

the Suisun Valley.

Suisun Valley in summerPhoto: Jos Diaz,

Diaz Communications

Suisun Valley grapes


5/8


6/8


7/8

High-steppin at the Rush Ranch Open House

Dense og hid the sun while early morning set-up crews

repared or the 16th Annual Rush Ranch Open House

n April 29, but by noon the sunshine managed to seize

he day.

Starting with a fag raising ceremony by Girl Scout troop77 at 10 a.m., visitors didnt lack or something to see or

o all day. In one pasture, Bill Honeycutts sheepdogs herded

Burrows Hamiltons sheep. In another, Steve Vasconcello

ave alconry demonstrations. Near the barn, the Rush

Ranch Educational Council demonstrated the cultural ways

the Patwin Native Americans while Gary Wyatt helped

kids make arrowheads. The West Valley Chorale sang in

he morning, where later in the day the Spinning Wheel

luegrass band spun down-home songs.

That wasnt all. Tim Wellman shod horses, Doug Hampton and Phil Harris demonstrated the art blacksmithing, and Virgil Sellers demonstrated windmill water pumps. Also popular was wheat-

weaving, woodcarving, wool-spinning by Sheila Grant, and the swirling skirts and artul calls o the

Twin City Steppers square dancers.

To kick-o the annual

opening o Access Adventure,

Michael Muir showed o his

two brand-new wheelchair

accessible carriages, and many

o his riends brought out

their horses to help celebrate.Husky and huge Percheron

horses pulled visitors in

spiy carriages through the

grassy armland trails and

demonstrated soil tilling by

horse-led plow.

The open house also

hosted an art sale and poetry

eading inspired by Rush Ranch and Solanos open spaces. Thirty works o art and teen poems were

isplayed. To cap o the day, local poets read to an intimate audience on the back porch o the Kit

House.

Thanks to volunteer coordinator Mary Takeuchi, the Rush Ranch Educational Council, and all others

who volunteered to make this yet another successul open house. Proceeds rom the day benet the

ducational and outreach programs at the ranch.

Volunteer Ann Breznok hitched up her Percheron-cross beautiesPhoto: Tim Baskerville

win City Steppers stepping outhoto: Tim Baskerville

Wanted

A high-quality,

heavy-duty brushchipper or property

maintenance

A good quality used

or new 4-wheel

drive

A heavy-duty ride-

on lawn mower

Call Ken Poerner at

(707) 580-6277.

Still


8/8

Preserving Farmlandsand OPen sPacethrOughOutsOlanO cOunty

Solano Land Trust

1001 Texas Street, Suite C

Faireld, CA 94533(707) 432-0150

NonPro

Organiza

US Posta

PaidFairfel

CA 945

Permit # 0

Jepson Prairie ReserveTake a sel-guided tour in the Docent Triangle any day o

the week during daylight hours. Docent-led wildfower tours

will resume next spring. For more inormation contact SLT

(707) 432-0150 ext 202 or [email protected].

Lynch Canyon Open SpaceCurrently Lynch Canyon is open to the public during sta-

or docent-led activities only.

Scenic HikesDocent led hikes will resume in the all. Stay tuned or news

regarding an agreement with Solano County to open Lynch

Canyon to the public.

Volunteer Trail Care DaysSecond Saturday o the month:

Jul. , Aug. 12, Sep. 9. 9 a.m. Free

Assist Land Steward Ken Poerner with trail care. Snacks are

provided. For inormation call Ken at (707) 580-6277.

BOard memBers

Bob Berman,President

Ian Anderson,Vice President

Jane Hicks,Secretary

Frank Morris,Treasurer

Sean Quinn, Immediate Past

Pres.Frank J. Andrews, Jr.

Jack Batson

Jeff Dittmer

John Isaacson

Russell Lester

staFF

Marilyn Farley,Executive Director

Terry Chappell,Field Steward

Rob Goldstein,Mitigation Coordinator

Wendy Low,Land Transaction Specialist

Kirsti Muskat, Bookkeeper

Tina Nixon, Finance Ofcer

Ken Poerner, Land Steward

Ben Wallace, ConservationProject Manager

Sue Wickham, ResourceManagement PlanCoordinator

Aleta George,

Editor, SLT Vistas

Rush Ranch Open SpaceRush Ranch is open to the public Tuesday to Saturday

8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Suisun Hill Trail (across the ro

rom Rush Ranch) is open seven days a week, dawn to

For additional inormation visit www.rushranch.org.

Access Adventures: Challenging the

Limits of DisabilityMichael Muir leads a recreational horse-drawn carriage

program or people with disabilities (open to wheelchausers or anyone with mobility challenges). For more

inormation go to www.access-adventure.org, or contac

Mike at [email protected] or (707) 426-399

Blacksmith Shop DemonstrationsThird Saturday o the month:

Aug. 19, Sep. 1. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free

Watch or participate in the art o blacksmithing with

local blacksmiths.

California Coastal Cleanup DaySaturday, Sep, 1, 9 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Free

Join us or clean-up, rereshments and prizes.

Wear sturdy shoes, dress or the weather, and bring glovFor inormation call Ken at (707) 580-6277

Volunteer WorkdaysFirst Saturday o the month:

Jul. 1, Aug. , Sep. 2. 9 a.m. until fnished Free

Get some resh air while helping with ranch and trail

maintenance. No experience or tools necessary. Lunch i

provided or participants.

Sky Valley Cordelia Hills Open SpaceThe newly acquired King and Swett Ranches are part o

Sky Valley Cordelia Hills Open Space and are currently o

to the public during sta- or docent-led activities only

Scenic HikesDocent led hikes will resume in the all. Check the

September newsletter or hikes scheduled in 2006/2007

Night PhotographyWorkshop

Friday, July - $100

Join proessional photographer

Tim Baskerville to learn how to

capture a moonlit ranch under

night skies. To register contact

Tim Baskerville at

[email protected] or

(707) 645-9860.

summer 2006 vistas newsletter, solano land trust

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