August 7, 2000

For more information please contact:

Phil Wallin, Western Rivers Conservancy, 503-241-0151

University Research Foundation Acquires Big Chico Creek Preserve

A nature preserve has been created on Big Chico Creek to provide educational opportunities for students and a refuge for Sacramento River chinook salmon, thanks to a partnership between the Research Foundation of California State University, Chico and conservation organizations.

This week, Western Rivers Conservancy, an Oregon-based conservation group, closed the purchase of the 2,724-acre Simmons Ranch along 2.5 miles of Big Chico Creek from private owners, and at the same time sold it to the University's Research Foundation. The Foundation will own and manage the ranch as a nature preserve that will provide educational and research opportunities for students.

The new Big Chico Creek Ecological Preserve, approximately 10 miles northeast of Chico, adjoins Chico's Bidwell Park, the third largest municipal park in the United States. The purchase was made possible by grants from the California Department of Fish & Game, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the David & Lucile Packard Foundation of Los Altos, Calif.

The property, known as the Simmons Ranch, was jointly owned by the Simmons family and Chico home-builder Dan Drake. The Big Chico Creek Watershed Alliance, headed by Suzanne Gibbs, introduced Drake to Western Rivers Conservancy and together they crafted an agreement to conserve the ranch. Western Rivers Conservancy then worked with the Alliance and the University Research Foundation and geography professor Don Holtgrieve to find funding for the purchase.

Grants were received from several sources. The California Wildlife Conservation Board, a division of the California Department of Fish & Game, contributed $1,677,000, the first grant made under the Proposition 12 bond issue approved by California voters last November. The David & Lucile Packard Foundation contributed $1,500,000 toward the purchase, plus a grant of $64,000 to develop a management plan and endowment plan for the Preserve. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also gave a grant of $500,000.

"This is a wonderful opportunity, not only for the university but for the entire community," said Scott McNall, CSU, Chico provost and vice president for academic affairs. "It provides us with a living laboratory to study the environment and a place close at hand to offer public school students and others classes on the environment. We want to build an endowment to manage and protect the land and native species, and to conduct research and teaching programs."

"This acquisition helps the university achieve its highest strategic priority -- the creation of high quality learning environments in and outside the classroom," said CSU, Chico President Manuel Esteban. "It gives students an opportunity to be involved with research and to work in concert with the faculty." Phillip Wallin, President of Western Rivers Conservancy, said that the preserve was established for four different reasons. "First, it protects critical habitat for rare and threatened species of wildlife, especially chinook salmon and steelhead. Second, it gives the university, through the University Research Foundation, the outdoor laboratory that it needs to understand the life histories of these threatened species, as well as conduct research and teaching programs. Third, it's critical winter habitat for the East Tehama herd of black-tailed deer, the largest migratory herd in California, as well as the mountain lion that prey on them. Finally, it will become a place where the people of Chico and the north Valley can learn about river ecosystems and the recovering runs of salmon and steelhead."

The Wildlife Conservation Board approved its grant to the project in May. The Board required that there be limited hunting on the preserve, based upon a management plan to be agreed upon between the Research Foundation and Fish & Game. The Foundation is donating a conservation easement to Fish & Game to ensure that the preserve will be permanently dedicated to educational and conservation uses.

"It was great that the Wildlife Conservation Board could be involved with Western Rivers Conservancy and the University Research Foundation in the acquisition of the 2,724-acre parcel which contains a tremendous riparian habitat and upland habitat which can be enjoyed by fish and wildlife as well as people," said W. John Schmidt, executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Board.

The Packard Foundation, which made a major grant to the project, is a major funder of conservation initiatives in California. The grant for the Big Chico Creek purchase is part of Packard's five-year "Conserving California Landscapes Initiative." Under the initiative, which began last year, $175 million in grants and about $100 million in low-interest loans are to be awarded to preserve important natural areas in three sections of the state: the Central Coast, the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service made its grant to the project under its "Anadromous Fish Restoration Program," funded by Congress under the Central Valley Project Improvement Act. The goal of the AFRP is to support restoration of native salmon and steelhead in the Sacramento River basin.

Wallin, who negotiated the purchase for Western Rivers Conservancy, was born and raised in Chico. He stated, "Our thanks go to the landowners, Ed and Darwin Simmons and Dan Drake, for giving us this opportunity. After two years of hard work, with all the partners pulling together, and with a lot of cooperation from the sellers, we finally managed to close the purchase and make this preserve a reality." Western Rivers Conservancy, based in Portland, Oregon, has purchased over 40,000 acres of land along outstanding streams, primarily in the Pacific Northwest. The Big Chico Creek purchase is Western Rivers Conservancy's first in California.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION

THE SIMMONS RANCH
The Simmons Ranch spans Big Chico Creek Canyon from Highway 32 on the eastern ridge across the creek bottom to Musty Buck Ridge on the west, with a 1,300-foot elevation range. Half the original Simmons Ranch was condemned by the City of Chico in 1994 to prevent development. That tract of 1,380 acres was added to Bidwell Park. The present initiative to acquire the remainder of the Simmons Ranch was initiated by the Big Chico Creek Watershed Alliance, in partnership with the Research Foundation of California State University. Big Chico Creek flows through deep pools and rocky riffles, shaded by a thick growth of sycamore, cottonwood and box elder. Steep basaltic bluffs rise on both sides of the stream. The streamside forest of blue oak and valley oak opens up into broad grassy meadows.

FISH PASSAGE
While salmon runs on Big Chico Creek today are only a fraction of historical numbers, fisheries experts at the University and the California Department of Fish & Game believe that Big Chico has the potential for a strong salmon recovery, now that irrigation pumps at the mouth of the creek have been relocated to the Sacramento River. The California Department of Fish & Game is also working to improve fish passage through boulder-choked Iron Canyon. At present strong runs of Sacramento River spring-run chinook exist only in Deer Creek, Mill Creek and Butte Creek. Wallin stated that restoring salmon runs on Big Chico Creek to historical numbers will add a "fourth leg" to the effort to revitalize Sacramento River salmon runs. The middle zone of Big Chico Creek, in which the Preserve is located, is crucial to survival of populations of spring-run chinook since it serves as spawning, juvenile rearing, and summer holding habitat.

OTHER THREATENED WILDLIFE
A 1999 wildlife survey found 140 different species of wildlife on the Preserve, 13% of which are listed as threatened, and 175 species of birds. The preserve will also serve to protect habitat for chinook salmon and steelhead, listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, and many other at-risk aquatic species such as western pond turtle and foothill yellow-legged frog.

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