Agmt 2009 California State Coastal Conservancy

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INVASIVE SPARTINA PROJECT shown in the staff recommendations attached as Exhibits 1 through 3 of the accompanying staff recommendation. 2. The proposed authorization remains consistent with the Project Selection Criteria and Guidelines last updated by the Conservancy on September 20, 2007. The California Wildlife Foundation, Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed, and Friends of the Petaluma River are nonprofit organizations existing under Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code, whose purposes are consistent with Division 21 of the California Public Resources Code." PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Background and Accomplishments As detailed in previous staff recommendations (Exhibits 1, 2, 3 and 4), treatment and control of invasive Spartina and its hybrids within the San Francisco Bay Estuary are critical to the long- term health of the Estuary and to the species which inhabit and rely upon the salt marshes and tidal flats along its perimeter. Invasive Spartina spreads at a greater than exponential rate, and every tidal marsh restoration project implemented within the south and central San Francisco Bay Estuary in the past 16 years has been invaded by non-native invasive Spartina. Invasive Spartina also threatens to spread out the Golden Gate and north and south along the California coastline. For the past nine years the Conservancy has managed the regionally coordinated effort to bring the infestation under control and is now moving towards eradication. The Conservancy advanced the project through, among other actions, 1) in 2003 adoption of the "Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report, San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project: Spartina Control Program" (FEIS/R), 2) in 2004 implementation of treatment at 12 demonstration sites, and 3) from 2005 through 2008 implementation of region-wide aggressive treatment, monitoring, and adaptive management at 24 sites (covering 156 sub-sites) utilizing a mix of control methods at all known infested sites. The Conservancy's Invasive Spartina Project (ISP) established control over the invasive Spartina populations Bay-wide in 2006 by realizing a significant overall reduction in acreage as well as halting seed production and dispersal over the majority of the Estuary. The 2007 and 2008 treatment shifted towards commencing control work earlier in the season when efficacy tends to be higher. Applying adaptive management to refine timing, coordination and methodologies, ISP continues to advance towards its goal of eradication. Currently 90% of the infestation has been removed from the Estuary. In 2008, ISP management of the Control Program completed the first three-year update of 24 treatment plans covering 156 sub-areas, including one new site plan (North San Pablo Bay), and submitting these documents to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for an amended Biological Opinion. FWS authorized treatment and approved an even longer treatment season. FWS was able to approve earlier access to some California clapper rail inhabited sites. Over the past four years the annual inventory surveys of the endangered rails have shown an increase in the number of rails at treated sites rather than the decrease that was expected. (To better understand the impact of treatment on clapper rails, ISP also conducts a telemetry study to Page 3 of 8