Del Monte Forest Foundation’s official policy on
Measure A and the Del Monte Forest Preservation and Development Plan.

June 14, 2006 Coastal Commission Hearing
Agenda Item W9a MCO LCPA 1-05 (Measure A)
Comments by Del Monte Forest Foundation in Support of Measure A

June 6, 2006

California Coastal Commission

Central Coast District Office
Dr. Charles Lester, Deputy Director
725 Front Street, Suite 300
Santa Cruz, CA 95060-4508

Dear Dr. Lester:

The Del Monte Forest Foundation, Inc., established in 1961, is the non-profit organization designated by Monterey County and the California Coastal Commission to receive open space properties or easements in the Del Monte Forest, as prescribed in the Del Monte Forest Land Use Plan.  As manager and monitor of open space in the Del Monte Forest, DMFF is second only to the Pebble Beach Company in the amount of land it controls. The Foundation currently administers nearly 700 acres, or approximately 14% of the land in the Forest.   The Foundation is actively engaged in open space management issues as evidenced by its current programs:

• A forester directs the Foundation’s open space management and monitoring activities

• The Foundation has had a leadership role in the Pitch Canker Task Force, has supported Monterey pine forest research with emphasis on the impacts of pitch canker and local monitoring, and is an active participant in the Monterey Pine Forest Ecology Cooperative

• The Foundation has initiated a pitch canker resistant pine tree program using on-site stock and has replanted areas hard hit by tree mortality.

• The Foundation maintains its properties in compliance with local fire district requirements through annual field treatments and inspections

• The Foundation regularly controls invasive, non-native species on its properties and has collected, propagated and planted native species in both forest and dune habitats

• The Foundation has cooperated with the Department of Fish and Game, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, University researchers, and local botanists in monitoring and enhancing habitat for special status listed plant species such as Hickman’s potentilla and Yadon’s piperia.

As a result, DMFF is keenly interested in the Commission’s deliberations on Measure A and the associated project.  We restrict our comments to those issues that are directly relevant to our mission of conserving open space within the Del Monte Forest.

DMFF believes that it is important for the Commission to understand the background and analysis that underlies DMFF’s decision to support Measure A and the Del Monte Forest Preservation and Development Plan as approved with conditions by Monterey County.

The dedication of the Huckleberry Hill Natural Habitat Area was originally planned to be the final large parcel addition to open space under the current LUP.  Development was permitted on all other planning areas with the understanding that fractional portions of those parcels would be retained as open forest.  While such scattered additions to open space would mitigate visual impacts of development zoned for such areas, their ecological value would be significantly compromised by their occurrence as smaller, narrower areas of forest surrounded by residential development.  Nonetheless, the LUP preserved substantial open space forest in five primary holdings: the 372 acre Huckleberry Hill Natural Habitat Area (HHNHA), the 84 acre SFB Morse Botanic Preserve (SFBMP), the 75 acres of Pescadero Canyon Open Space (OS), the combined 45 acres of Navajo OS and Van Winkle Park by Pacific Grove, and the 41+ acres of Indian Village OS near Seal Rock.

However, under Measure A and the project as approved by Monterey County, significant adjoining lands are added to all of these existing open space areas without being interrupted by any development allowed under current zoning.

A brief look at the size and location of these primary areas to be added to open space demonstrates this point.

From the perspective of our open space mission, this potential expansion permanently consolidates potentially available open space within the Del Monte Forest in a nearly perfect manner by adding to and protecting all 5 of these key open space areas as shown on the map attached to this letter.  (Note: the map focuses on these 5 main areas of Monterey pine forest and does not include smaller DMFF properties or easements such as Crocker Grove and Pescadero Point, which are in Monterey cypress habitat.)

The contiguous 456 acres of Huckleberry Hill and the Morse Preserve are the open space core of the LUP because so large an area was needed to contain the unique ecological sequence in which Monterey pine forest changes into a forest of mixed Bishop pine and Gowen cypress, much of which occurs as a pygmy forest.  The uniqueness of the roughly 150 acres of Bishop pine-Gowen cypress forest were recognized as an Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area in the LUP and protected with a logical and generous surrounding buffer of Monterey pine forest.  Under Measure A and the project, this keystone habitat gains another 141 acres of high quality undeveloped forest, creating a diverse forest of roughly 600 acres that covers all ecotypes from Monterey pygmy forest to the area where the largest Monterey pines on the Peninsula are thought to occur.  As just proposed by Pebble Beach Company, development and limited use for an equestrian center affecting just over 10 acres of a just closed rock quarry site at its edge affects no valuable habitat nor any existing open space easements.

The existing narrow corridor of open space forest in Pescadero Canyon more than quadruples in size to more than 300 acres.  In addition, a key linkage for wildlife movement is maintained between Huckleberry Hill and Pescadero Canyon without any new development impinging on it.

High use open space recreational areas with high biological values by Pacific Grove and Indian Village/Seal Rock Creek are expanded and buffered from possible residential development.

A total of 450 acres would be added to these core open space areas under the proposal before you.  Roughly 50 more acres of significant conservation areas, including all of the 40 acre Signal Hill dune complex, would also be conserved and in many cases enhanced.  Resource management and conservation easements to protect wetlands, piperia and other sensitive habitats near developed areas would protect an additional 50 acres or more, bringing the project total within the Del Monte Forest to some 550 acres .

Although DMFF would selfishly prefer to have all of Pebble Beach Company’s remaining undeveloped acreage in the Del Monte Forest dedicated to open space, the only two places where significant blocks of forest will be reduced by development – LUP areas MNOUV where the golf course is proposed and C where the driving range is proposed - are the most removed from existing open space and therefore of less functional value for integrating into existing open space.  As proposed and conditioned, the project preserves as open space about 80% of the undeveloped lands owned by Pebble Beach Company in the Del Monte Forest.  This is a dramatic and welcome change from the adopted LUP’s statement and expectation that the 1980s dedication of Huckleberry Hill was to be the last dedication of major open space acreage in the Del Monte Forest.  DMFF believes that adding so much native forest of good quality to existing dedicated open space is an opportunity to consolidate and complete an open space reserve system for the forest that should not be missed. 

While it is true that nothing like the theoretical levels of development allowed by the LUP could occur now because of incompatibilities with required environmental protections, there would be far greater loss of habitat values if some development combined with open space dedications occurred in each LUP planning area.  By approaching these lands comprehensively, Measure A and the project avoid exactly the kind of fragmentation that is unavoidable if development is done on a piecemeal basis. 

And if development were done on a piecemeal basis, nothing like the comprehensive mitigation and monitoring program required for this project would be possible.  As attractive as it sounds to have the Pebble Beach Company dedicate all of its remaining undeveloped acreage to open space, DMFF is acutely aware that taking care of open space lands takes money, often lots of it.  Controlling invasive plants, promoting and enhancing habitats and natural regeneration of native plants and trees including listed species, dealing with drainage and hazard issues, and treating fuels to limit fire hazard cannot be done without investing in the dedicated lands.  DMFF understands that new sources of income are necessary if Pebble Beach Company is to improve standards of care for open space.  DMFF is therefore pleased at the extremely high and site specific standards of care that are prescribed under the EIR and County project approval.  We note that, if Measure A and the project were to be approved, extensive enhancements for open space will be required on dedicated undeveloped parcels.  These habitat improvements within relatively undisturbed native forest reflect all that we have learned about maintenance and restoration of native sites over the last 20 years and include detailed success criteria, regular monitoring and adaptive management.  These measures will be enforced by third party monitors for at least 20 years.  Receiving high quality open space will make the Foundation’s job as easement holder dramatically easier.

Finally, DMFF believes that the required dedication of close to 400 acres of Monterey pine forest east of Highway 1 and outside the coastal zone is highly significant as part of ongoing efforts to conserve Monterey pine forest habitat.  Ecologists and geneticists agree that retention of large stands of trees is the most effective habitat conservation strategy.  For the reasons just outlined, DMFF believes that Measure A and the conditioned project will do a highly effective job of implementing that strategy for the affected areas.

DMFF is convinced by its detailed review of the properties and project requirements that the preservation and conservation components of this project are well conceived and and worthy of the Commission’s support.  We urge you not waste the remarkable scientific, analytic and planning effort that Measure A and the County’s adopted package represent.  DMFF believes the Commission and the community have a remarkable opportunity to secure the open space future of the Del Monte Forest by approving Measure A and the project.

Sincerely,

James F. Sullivan
President
Del Monte Forest Foundation

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