SUMMARY San Francisco Bay Area Conservation External Evaluation: Assessing Stewardship Outcomes and Project Impact
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SUMMARY San Francisco Bay Area Conservation External Evaluation: Assessing Stewardship Outcomes and Project Impact Prepared for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 6 Blue Earth Consultants, LLC Photo Credits Left: Redwood Cathedral Location: Santa Cruz Mountains, CA Photographer: Richard Masoner, Flickr Middle: Cows Grazing on Robertson Property, Sonoma County, CA Photographer: Jodi McGraw Right top: Mountain Lion (Puma concolor) Location: Santa Cruz Mountains, CA Photographer: SF Chronicle Right bottom: Golden Gate Bridge Location: San Francisco, CA Photographer: DHuss, iStock This report is prepared in collaboration with sub-contractors Jenn Fox, Jodi M. McGraw (Jodi McGraw Consulting), and Stuart B. Weiss (Creekside Center for Earth Observation). Disclaimer Blue Earth Consultants, LLC’s research is drawn from review of grant documents and online surveys and interviews with grantees, decision-makers and land managers. While we strive to present the most accurate information as possible, we cannot always guarantee the accuracy and/or timeliness of the information highlighted in documents or shared as perceptions by informants. FINAL November 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................... I ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................................... II SECTION 1 .............................................................................................................................................................. 1 THE BAY AREA CONSERVATION SUB-PROGRAM .................................................................................................... 1 1.1. SUB-PROGRAM OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2. EVALUATION OBJECTIVES, QUESTIONS, AND METHODS ............................................................................................. 2 1.3. BACS PORTFOLIO OVERVIEW AND IMPACT ............................................................................................................ 4 SECTION 2 .............................................................................................................................................................. 9 LAND PROTECTION GRANT TRENDS AND IMPACTS ................................................................................................ 9 2.1 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LAND PROTECTION PORTFOLIO .............................................................................. 9 2.2 SPATIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LAND PROTECTION PORTFOLIO ............................................................................ 10 2.3 LAND PROTECTION SUBSET CHARACTERISTICS ....................................................................................................... 12 2.4 LAND PROTECTION SUBSET PERFORMANCE ........................................................................................................... 13 2.5 LAND PROTECTION GRANT CHALLENGES, LESSONS LEARNED, AND NEEDS ................................................................... 17 SECTION 3 ............................................................................................................................................................ 20 IMPACTS OF ENABLING INTERVENTION GRANTS ................................................................................................. 20 3.1 OVERVIEW OF THE ENABLING INTERVENTION GRANT PORTFOLIO ............................................................................. 20 3.2 ENABLING INTERVENTION SUBSET CHARACTERISTICS .............................................................................................. 20 3.3 ENABLING INTERVENTION SUBSET PERFORMANCE ................................................................................................. 21 3.4 CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNED .................................................................................................................. 25 SECTION 4 ............................................................................................................................................................ 29 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................................................................... 29 SECTION 5 ............................................................................................................................................................ 30 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................................... 30 Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Table of Contents Bay Area Conservation Portfolio External Evaluation Page i FINAL November 2016 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS BACS Bay Area Conservation Sub-Program BAECCC Bay Area Ecosystems Climate Change Consortium Bay Area San Francisco Bay Area BCDC San Francisco Bay Conservation & Development Commission Blue Earth Blue Earth Consultants, LLC Caltrans California Department of Transportation C-CAT Climate Carbon Accounting Tool CLN Conservation Lands Network EBRPD East Bay Regional Park District Foundation Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation GHG Greenhouse Gas GIS Geographic Information System MROSD Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District NGO Non-governmental Organizations NRCS Natural Resources Conservation Services OSA Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority Pepperwood Pepperwood Foundation POST Peninsula Open Space Trust RCD Resource Conservation District RLF Resources Legacy Fund SCAPOSD Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District SCC California State Coastal Conservancy State Parks California State Parks TBC3 Terrestrial Biodiversity Climate Change Collaborative TNC The Nature Conservancy UCSC University of California, Santa Cruz USGS U.S. Geological Survey Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Acronyms and Abbreviations Bay Area Conservation Portfolio External Evaluation Page ii FINAL November 2016 SECTION 1 The Bay Area Program’s conservation portfolio 1.1. BAY AREA CONSERVATION SUB-PROGRAM OVERVIEW The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (foundation) Bay Area Program’s conservation portfolio, established in 2001, works to preserve and enhance habitat for native species in the San Francisco Bay Area (Bay Area), a biologically rich region with a Mediterranean climate and a vast network of open space (Bay Area Open Space Council, 2011). The region is home to over 50 endemic species, 3,000 native plant taxa and supports charismatic megafauna (e.g., mountain lions, black bears, tule elk), endangered birds (e.g., Ridgeway’s rail, marbeled murrelet, northern spotted owl), and threatened amphibians (e.g., yellow-legged frogs, California tiger salamanders) (Ackerly et al., 2012). The diverse assortment of Bay Area ecosystems includes grasslands, wetlands, redwood and Douglas-fir forests, chaparral and others, in over 1.37 million acres of protected open space (Bay Area Open Space Council, 2014). However, the Bay Area faces a suite of risks that could lead to declines in ecosystem and species condition, such as increased human population and associated development demands, limited conservation funding to support ecosystem protection, and climate change and invasive species (Greenbelt Alliance, 2012). Climate change, for instance, is likely to place increased stress on Bay Area ecosystems; sea level rise is expected to lead to increased flooding risk of mudflat and marsh habitats, and warmer and drier conditions are likely to lead to species range contractions and reduced diversity of endemic plants (Goals Project, 2015; Ackerly et al., 2012). Furthermore, continued development and urban sprawl present serious risks to the biodiversity of the region; over 1.24 million acres of the Bay Area’s 4.5 million acres of land have already been converted from natural land to other uses (Bay Area Open Space Council, 2014). Thus, there is still a need to continue and strengthen efforts to protect the Bay Area’s valuable ecosystems. The overarching goal of the Bay Area conservation portfolio is to protect and preserve native habitat and species in the Bay Area. The foundation promotes conservation and protection of Bay Area land and achieves its overarching goal through supporting projects throughout 10 counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano and Sonoma. The program funds “land protection” grants that support acquisition and easement of ecologically valuable properties and “enabling intervention” grants that support collaboration, research and capacity building to advance protection and conservation of Bay Area habitats. The foundation focuses on achieving this goal through three key strategies: Property Acquisition Natural Resources Use Practices Conservation Finance Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Section 1 Bay Area Conservation Sub-Program Evaluation Report Summary Page 1 FINAL November 2016 These strategies lead to a variety of outcomes, such as land acquisition and conservation easements that are grounded in science-based regional conservation planning priorities, and establishing effective conservation finance structures to maximize the impact of funding and ensure financial sustainability of the projects. In September