F24AP03030

This proposal requests $5,155,500 in federal grant funds from the Fiscal Year 2024 Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund (Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act) Nontraditional Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition Grants Program.

The federal grant will be matched by non-federal funds totaling $5,155,500 (50.00 percent of the total project cost).

Acquisition of the three properties (White-Atterbury, Elfin Acres, and Kesting) will result in permanent protection of conservation lands totaling 291 acres that will complement the City of Carlsbad's Habitat Management Plan (Carlsbad HMP) within the San Diego County Multiple Habitat Conservation Plan (MHCP) and the newly permitted San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) Habitat Conservation Plan Amendment (HCP) in San Diego County, California.

The purpose of the land acquisition proposal is to acquire, permanently protect, and manage highly developable but essential habitat that complements the Carlsbad HMP and SDG&E HCP as well as augments adjacent conserved lands.

Priority parcels for conservation are those that meet the goals and objectives for the covered species (listed and unlisted) and associated natural communities.

The properties provide habitat for four listed species covered in both the Carlsbad HMP and SDG&E HCP: the federally threatened coastal California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica) and Encinitas baccharis (Baccharis vanessae), and the federally endangered least Bell's vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus) and southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus).

Three additional species occur in the area and potentially on the proposed acquisition properties that are covered under the SDG&E HCP (but not the Carlsbad HMP) include: the federally threatened Hermes copper butterfly (Lycaena hermes), the at-risk and proposed federally threatened southwestern pond turtle (Actinemys pallida), and the at-risk and proposed federally threatened western spadefoot toad (Spea hammondii) whose listing status is currently under review.

The Escondido Creek Conservancy will own and manage the properties in perpetuity for the conservation of listed and sensitive species.

Conservation and management of the properties would complement the Carlsbad HMP by further securing a coastal California gnatcatcher core area as well as wildlife movement corridors to adjacent conserved lands that were conserved, in part, by SDG&E as mitigation for their HCP.

State Of California Department Of Fish & Wildlife

THE PRIMARY GOAL OF THIS PROGRAM IS TO PROMOTE FEDERALLY LISTED AND AT-RISK SPECIES CONSERVATION THROUGH THE ACQUISITION OF HABITAT ASSOCIATED WITH APPROVED AND PERMITTED HABITAT CONSERVATION PLANS (HCP). ALL LAND ACQUIRED THROUGH THESE GRANTS COMPLEMENTS, BUT DOES NOT REPLACE, THE MITIGATION, MINIMIZATION, AND OR MONITORING COMMITMENTS OF THE HCP. THUS, THIS WORK IS ADDITIVE TO THE CONSERVATION COMMITMENTS ENTERED INTO WHEN HCPS ARE PERMITTED AND SERVES AS A MEANINGFUL WAY TO LEVERAGE NON-FEDERAL INVESTMENT IN SPECIES RECOVERY AND CONNECT CONSERVATION LANDS ACROSS THE LANDSCAPE.

15.615 - Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund

Fish and Wildlife Service Region 8: Pacific Southwest [DOI - FWS]

California United States

State-Wide

F24AS00055 Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund: HCP Land Acquisition (F24AS00055)