Agmt 2007 California State Coastal Conservancy

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INVASIVE SPARTINA PROJECT aSP) , previous Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) grant to the Conservancy for the San Francisco Bay (a portion of a $40 million grant approved in November 2004). · In April 2006, the Conservancy authorized disbursement of new funds accepted from the California Bay-Delta ,Authority Ecosystem Restoration Program (ERP) to implement monitoring for the Control Program through 2008, and augmentation of grants to organizations needed to complete treatment and eradication projects for the 2006 treatment season. The treatment activities were funded using all remaining funds of one ofthe earlier CALFED grants and all remaining funds provided through the previous WCB grant to the Conservancy for this project. Since 2000 the Conservancy has expended $7,772,507 for the Invasive Spartina Project. Out of this total, $6,554,957 came to the Conservancy from three CALFED grants (one federal and two state funded), a National Wildlife Foundation grant, a United States Fish and Wildlife Service grant, and a Wildlife Conservation Board grant. The remainder of $1,239,950 was funded by the Coastal Conservancy. 2005/2006 Project Accomplishments The control work in 2005 represented a 232% increase in treated acres from the 2004 season. As a result, more non-native Spartina was killed as a result of 2005 treatments than at any other time in the history of the effort in the San Francisco Estuary. This was made possible in part because ISP partners are able to utilize the new, significantly more effective, herbicide imazapyr, that has substantially reduced environmental effects and that was registered for use in California only days before treatment began in the fall of 2005. In the fall of2005 ISP coordinated with grantees to implement 23 site-specific plans for 134 sites for the first year of full:-scale treatment. The short treatment season did not begin until after the California clapper rail nesting and breeding season. From September 7 through October 19,2005, ISP'and partners were able to efficiently and effectively apply aerial applications to add,ess large Spartina meadows for the first time: I · 1,010 acres of the total ~,5oo acres of invasive Spartina were treated, representingj 67% ofthe infestation · 752 acres, or 70% of the total treated, were treated using helicopters with boom sprayers · Efficacy for 2005 treatment of Spartina alterniflora hybrids showed a very wide range from minimal results at some sites to 100% control at others. In 2006 treatment occurred between June 19 and October 13, a much longer treatment window. Sites treated in 2005 were re-treated, plus new areas were added. Following the implementation of the 2006 Control Program by ISP and partners, the heart of the infestation in the Estuary is now under control: · 107 Spartina sites were treated, representing 94% of the estimated Spartina acreage in the Estuary · 1,750 acres were treated Estuary-wide 4 EXHIBi -j 4