DISTRICT AGREES WITH SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION GROUP TO SPEED UP MORRO BAY PERMIT PROCESS

"How can we help?"

If the mustachioed English major from San Francisco State was surprised at the question from Col. Richard G. Thompson, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District, he didn’t show it. Instead, Robert Neale, a program director with San Francisco-based Sustainable Conservation, simply nodded. “Just give us your support,” he said. “That would help.”

“Stranger things have happened,” replied Col. Thompson, whose ramrod bearing and chiseled features could be used for a recruiting poster.

The improbable alliance between the career military man and the earnest earringed environmentalist turns out to be not as strange as it might seem. Both understand that conservation must occur on private land. Both know how complex and even contradictory environmental regulations can be. Both want to save time and money for their stakeholders. And both are committed to upholding environmental principles.

And, as a recent agreement document suggests, the Corps and the conservation group’s partners—the Coastal San Luis Resource Conservation District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)--are willing to work together seeking common ground in the stunning landscapes around Morro Bay in central California. On Nov. 21, the district agreed to provide timely processing of nationwide permit applications to projects that qualify under certain Sustainable Conservation programs. “With all the (regulatory) boxes already checked, we can issue a nationwide permit verification letter quickly,” says Lisa Mangione, a Regulatory Branch project manager. Adds Neale, “The two groups (Coastal San Luis Resource District and NRCS) are perfect partners with the Corps for this project—it’s a real leveraging of skill, experience and mandate.”

Morro Bay projects under Corps jurisdiction most likely to be affected by the accelerated permit process include erosion control and erosion damage repair. That’s usually done by stabilizing stream banks with planting and by clearing channels of sediment and debris. Sustainable Conservation “provides a much-needed service in that they not only act as facilitators for regulatory agencies, but they’re wonderful mediators for ranching and farming communities,” says Mangione. “They don’t have an agenda except to improve conditions in the watershed, and that makes them non-threatening to the various stakeholders.”

In addition to the November agreement, Col. Thompson cited the district’s aggressive SAMPs programs (Special Area Management Plans) “which assess entire watersheds” and suggested that the district’s Regulatory Branch or some of its projects could dovetail with Sustainable Conservation’s efforts. “I can get you in contact with the folks at our (Southern Pacific) division,” he told Neale, “and every six months our staff meets with U.S. Fish and Wildlife (Service) to coordinate issues. That might be a forum where you could say something about your program.”

Sustainable Conservation, a nonprofit founded 10 years ago, hopes to repeat the success Neale says it has had with a pilot program called Partners in Restoration (PIR). The PIR experiment started in 1998 in Monterey County’s Elkhorn Slough watershed. PIR’s goals are to improve water quality, enhance wildlife habitat and preserve agricultural resources. To achieve these lofty aims on the 4,000-acre marshland within Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, PIR field teams sought to educate all parties—regulatory agencies, farmers, ranchers, landowners—about planning policies and conservation practices.

The goal: one-stop regulatory shopping.

In theory, PIR thins the thicket of regulatory review. It tries to remove disincentives for farmers, ranchers and rural landowners otherwise discouraged by the time, cost and complexity of rules governing their management practices. If the permitting process were streamlined, these ground-zero stewards would voluntarily do things that reduce soil erosion, improve water quality and enhance habitat on their land.

In practice, PIR creates a red-tape guidebook at numerous meetings it arranges among regulators, land-users and two old-line agencies--the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Resource Conservation Districts. By focusing on what Neale calls “the low-hanging fruit”—issues and practices about which there’s win-win consensus—folks attending the meetings begin to understand one another. For example, says Neale, “It’s hard to find someone who wants erosion.”

Both the Corps and Sustainable Conservation recognize that there’s no need—no place, really—for Cumbaya-campfire sentiment. People’s livelihoods, delicate ecosystems, laws and, of course, bureaucratic turf are all at stake. But by introducing previously competing parties to one another, and by overcoming cultural differences through identifying shared interests, PIR means to equate environmental losses with economic losses. That mind-set helps make it cheaper and easier for those seeking permits to get them, cuts staff time for regulators and, ta-daah! helps the environment.

Sustainable Conservation points to five years of results at Elkhorn Slough, partnered with NRCS and the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County. More than 40 PIR projects there have kept more than 40,000 tons of sediment from entering the slough, its tributaries and the national sanctuary. More than a mile and a half of stream bank and channel have been restored or revegetated. The practices coordinated by PIR will help prevent future erosion and sedimentation.

Neale says the success at Monterey motivates his group to replicate it at Morro Bay and beyond. The PIR program covers the entire watershed, roughly 45,000 acres—and the activities covered under the permits won’t happen in the actual marshland, which is almost entire public, protected land. Some 30 areas around the state have been identified as being “ready and ripe for this kind of permitting education.” By 2006 Sustainable Conservation and the NRCS hope train at least 10 to 20 “watershed coordinators” in some of the areas included in its survey. “That’s critical if we want to see real improvement in California habitat and watersheds,” he says.

Ever since Lieut. Gen. Bob Flowers, the Corps commander, announced the agency’s “Environmental Operating Principles” last March, the Corps and the district have reaffirmed their commitment to achieve environmental sustainability. The meeting between Col. Thompson and Neale signifies the Corps’ willingness to consider creative strategies to perform its mission.

Said Col. Thompson after the meeting: “Anything that promotes cooperative energy among agencies, streamlines procedures and helps landowners is a good thing.”