Voluntary Local Program

Voluntary Habitat Enhancement for Agricultural Landowners

Agricultural landowners (farmers and ranchers) who want to enhance habitat on their property can be protected from endangered species regulations. The California Endangered Species Act offers such protection (Fish and Game Code Section 2086). Landowners can sign up for a Voluntary Local Program to restore or enhance habitat and receive permission to incidentally take (injure or kill) threatened or endangered species in the course of their routine and ongoing farming or ranching activities.

The Voluntary Local Program is DFG’s compliment to the federal Safe Harbor Agreement Program sponsored under the federal Endangered Species Act. The two programs have the same goals of trying to encourage landowners to enhance habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife, while maintaining viable agricultural operations. As further incentive, the Voluntary Local Program/Safe Harbor Agreements allow landowners to remove the habitat enhancements with no penalties.

DFG staff in the Conservation Planning Program within the Habitat Conservation Branch has been actively working on developing the first Voluntary Local Programs. A couple of different efforts are currently underway. One effort is sponsored by the California Rangeland Conservation Coalition. California Cattlemen’s Association is acting as the Program Administrator for the Voluntary Local Program/Safe Harbor Agreement covering rangelands in Butte, Glenn, Shasta, and Tehama Counties. A draft Voluntary Local Program document is available for review. The priority lands throughout the pilot area targeted for the Voluntary Local Program are shown at right.

Another large-scale Voluntary Local Program/Safe Harbor Agreement effort is being sponsored by the Sacramento River Conservation Area Forum. The Sacramento River Conservation Area Forum brings communities, individuals, organizations and agencies together along the Sacramento River from Keswick to Verona to make resource management and restoration efforts more effective and sensitive to the needs of local communities. This effort is following the model initiated by the California Rangeland Conservation Coalition.

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