Protecting vernal pools and other important habitat in Western Placer County
Placer Land Trust’s West Placer Habitat Protection Program (WPHPP) is designed to permanently preserve critical vernal pool habitat and other wetlands and associated valley habitat in western Placer County.
Primary funding for the WPHPP is provided by conveyance fees on home sales in the West Roseville Specific Plan (WRSP), and was created in 2005 through a collaborative agreement between environmental groups, public agencies, and developers. Additional funding is provided through state and federal grants, mitigation agreements, and voluntary contributions.
The goals of the program are to work with willing landowners to preserve vernal pools and associated habitat in western Placer County. Other important lands – such as working farms and ranches, annual grasslands, and riparian areas – and lands that connect them, may also be protected by the program. Very often wetland and grassland habitat coexists nicely with grazing land, offering multiple benefits to the Placer County environment, economy, and quality of life.
“This program is a major step forward for land conservation in western Placer County,” said Jeff Darlington, Placer Land Trust Executive Director, in 2005. “The willingness of developers, environmental groups, and public agencies to come together in support of land conservation is truly commendable and will provide a major boost to conservation in a region where property values are increasingly prohibitive.”
Placer Land Trust preserved the first two properties as part of the WPHPP in April 2005, the 427-acre Doty Ravine Preserve and the 469-acre Swainson’s Grassland Preserve, both north of Lincoln. In August 2005, we completed the third WPHPP project with the recordation of the 223-acre Reason Farms conservation easement. This project includes vernal pool grassland and riparian habitat along Pleasant Grove Creek near Roseville.
In 2006, Placer Land Trust preserved 1,000 acres at the Toad Hill Ranch north of Roseville. This property is adjacent to the Reason Farms Environmental Preserve and forms a block of open space and habitat in excess of 2,900 acres. As of 2021, Placer Land Trust has also protected an additional 794 acres of vernal pool habitat.
Placer Land Trust was chosen to lead this land conservation program as part of a 2004 settlement agreement regarding the West Roseville Specific Plan. Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, Sierra Foothills Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Butte Environmental Council resolved differences with WRSP developers and local and federal government agencies to create the program.
In 2004, as part of the settlement agreement, the City of Roseville annexed 3,162 acres west of Fiddyment Road (the WRSP area) to be developed into a new community of 8,400 homes amid hundreds of acres of open space.
Assisting Placer Land Trust in planning and implementation of the WPHPP are numerous individuals, organizations, and agencies that help us make the most effective use of these funds by leveraging them with other funded efforts. Advisory Board members are Loren Clark, John Ranlett, Gregg McKenzie, Ed Pandolfino, and Mark Morse (among others) have assisted us with the program.