Shasta County’s Shasta Snow-Wreath
Thanks to all of you who sent in letters of support to California Fish and Wildlife Commission recommending the acceptance of the petition to list the Shasta snow-wreath (Neviusia cliftonii) as endangered. About six people notified me that they had sent in letters of support, plus the following organizations wrote letters as well: Wintu Audubon, California Wilderness Coalition, Shasta Chapter CNPS, state CNPS, Shasta group of Sierra Club, and Shasta Environmental Alliance. Dan Gluesenkamp, Executive Director of CNPS, gave verbal support at the virtual meeting. The petition was accepted by the Commission and is now under a one-year review period. Thank you for your support.
Shasta Lake City Tree Preservation Ordinance
The City of Shasta Lake is in the early process of updating its Tree Preservation Ordinance, and Shasta Environmental Alliance (SEA) was invited to comment. We submitted a nine-page letter of comment on the various proposed changes to the ordinance. The Ordinance does need improvement in a few areas, including a provision allowing mitigation fees to be paid in lieu of replanting various oak trees that are removed during development. The current ordinance does require that the removal of any oak tree ≥10 inches in diameter at breast height (dbh) must be mitigated by the planting of replacement oaks on a three to one basis. However, it is difficult to monitor all the trees required to be replaced and to ensure that they live at least five years. Collection of a mitigation fee would allow the City to plant and maintain newly planted trees and also encourage developers to save as many trees as possible. SEA recommended a minimum ≥6-inch dbh limit for tree removal mitigation as some blue oaks can grow slowly; a 10-inch dbh blue oak tree could be 100 years old. Once the final ordinance is written, we can determine whether the final product will preserve as many trees as the current ordinance. Overall, the Shasta Lake Tree Preservation Ordinance is much better than the City of Redding’s tree ordinance. –David Ledger, Conservation Chair