Tue, 30 Apr 2024 06:17:27 -0700WeeblyMon, 02 Jan 2017 08:00:00 GMThttp://leowild.net/-blog/-the-heron-the-landowner-and-the-state-of-californiaThe California Department of and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) Inspector, arriving well in advance, had made it perfectly clear.  Only interested in obtaining California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) concurrence to burn untreated debris, this morning he requested that we not discus the violations CAL FIRE had metered out to my client.  Nevertheless, off record, he agreed, there was something odd about punishing a landowner for not protecting birds no one had seen for fifteen years.

It appears in reviewing a neighboring Timber Harvest Plan (THP) in 2014, an Environmental Specialist with CDFW resurrected Great Blue Herons not seen on the property since 2001.  Whereas California’s Forest Practice Rules (FPRs) clearly state that such information expires after ten tears, because CDFW waited six month to report it to the California Natural Diversity Data Base (CNDDB), it inadvertently resulted in my client being accused of having illegally logged too close to a heron rookery.
 
If someone showed up with a map, indicating a listed plants or animals on your land in need of protection, you want to see them, or at the very least, find out where the information came from.  However, imagine if the answer was, “prove to us they weren’t there last year.”  Managed by CDFW and available on a subscription basis, although the CNDDB is careful to issue a disclaimer urging users to examine the metadata, in reality this database is operated much like a “Hotel California”.  Sensitive species, it seems, may check in at anytime, but may never leave. However, not only is there reason to question the underlying accuracy of this information, the inconsistent way it is being managed also hampers its utility.  
 
“What is she looking for?”  The landowner was incredulous.  A month after the breeding season, but unaware of the heron report I gave them three weeks earlier, CDFW's Environmental Specialist spent the better part of the morning looking at nests previously confirmed as unoccupied before showing any interest in the herons that actually nested here this year.  Pressed on visiting the actual location of herons nesting in 2001, the site mapped by the CNDDB around which the landowner was given a violation, the very same CDFW biologist that reported these herons declined, stating that it represented an “approximate location”, she told us; “You need to prove that herons didn’t nest there for at least three years”.  Informing her that the Rules only require two years, the response from woman in the green uniform was, “My agency doesn’t agree with all aspects of those Rules”.   
 
Drive a truck on the dirt road, twenty-five feet from this alleged rookery, yes.  Mow hay on the adjacent meadow, sure.  Throw a Reggie concert, no problem, but harvest a few trees after the birds have left, although perfectly allowed by the Rules, not if the Environmental Commissars with CDFW have any say. Left unchecked, they are apt to ask for the same protection required for a Federally listed species.]]>