Socio-ecological feedbacks: water conservation and wildlife habitat in the oak woodlands of California s Central Sierra Nevada

Transcription

1 Socio-ecological feedbacks: water conservation and wildlife habitat in the oak woodlands of California s Central Sierra Nevada Lynn Huntsinger 1, Tracy Hruska 1, Jose Oviedo 2 1 Professor and Graduate Student, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California Berkeley 2 Environmental Economist, Spanish National Science Council

2 An Anthropocene Dilemma: Save Wildlife or Save Water?

3 Yuba and Nevada Counties, California

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6 Mediterranean climate with dry summers

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8 1270 mm/yr

9 Cattle grazing is major use of Quercus woodlands

10 Summer: Irrigated Pasture

11 Water Districts, using canals and pipes, sell water to landowners Water district: Originally a group of farmers and ranchers raised capital to develop water 100+ years ago Despite the four year drought, water districts still had water

12 Canals bring water

13 Water delivery through canals from Gold Rush, 1849

14 About half of water leaks from dirt canals

15 Water is used many times in the foothills Irrigated pasture creates habitat 3 ways: Sinks and goes lower to seeps and springs Runoff from bottom of pasture Leaks from pipes and canals bringing water

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18 Wetlands (or leaks)

19 Grass and flowing shallow water

20 Rare Bird: California Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis coturniculus) California State Threatened Species breeds in small shallow wetlands

21 Wetlands from irrigation usually wet through the breeding season Natural seeps and springs may dry up 78% of rail-occupied wetlands are fed by irrigation water Richmond, O., Chen, S., Risk, B., Tecklin, J., & Beissinger, S. (2010). California black rails depend on irrigation-fed wetlands in the Sierra Nevada foothills. California Agriculture, 64(2),

22 This is part of an NSF (National Science Foundation) Social-Ecological Systems Project: birds, hydrology, mosquito borne illness, people.

23 Focus on Water Users and Fate of Wetlands Where do people in the study area get water? How do people use water, and what influences their decisions? Who has wetlands and how do they manage them?

24 Landowner/resident Survey Interviews to develop survey 1 ha minimum parcel size Stratified random sample Dillman (1978) style mail survey (31 pages) 470 completed surveys (55%)

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27 Findings Property size: ha 48.5% purchase water from water district 33.4% have a canal or ditch on property ~40% have a pond ~40% have irrigated pasture

28 Sources of water for common uses

29 What influences water use decisions?

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31 Pond Crazy

32 Why have a pond?

33 What did people do when water supply was reduced in 2008?

34 What people did when water supply was reduced in 2008

35 GOVERNOR BROWN DECLARES DROUGHT STATE OF EMERGENCY 2014: Governor asks districts to reduce water by 20% in coming years

36 Less water available, higher prices will: directly reduce habitat and dry the landscape. Less directly, landowners will also lose ecosystem services important to them and that support wildlife Make ranching (and irrigated pasture) less profitable and less sustainable, in the long run reducing habitat

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38 Without water district and other policies to protect this habitat What happens to the habitat is up to individual owners and managers

39 How do people manage wetlands? (of people with shallow wetlands) DO NOT DRY WETLANDS DRY THE WETLANDS

40 Willingness to create a wetland Perc (%) % Respondents I would never create a wetland -1 I would create a wetland if I am paid 0 I would create one for free 1

41 Ranchers would be more likely to create a wetland if they: thought it benefited birds and wildlife if cattle could graze on it Blue collar workers would create a wetland for free water The retired would never create a wetland Ranchers have the most wetlands

42 Mean desired annual payment for maintaining a wetland=$1,604 Mean desired one-time payment for creating a wetland=$3,408 One time payment for permanently protecting an existing wetland=$5,255

43 Abundant cheap water created a socioecological system that supports rail habitat Drought, overgeneralized state policy, and lack of recognition of anthropogenic habitat put the system at risk. Tradeoff between two goods : water conservation and wildlife, and the priority is largely up to the landowners.

44 Need local adaptive policy Cutbacks usually become permanent water districts can sell extra water when drought ends, sales pay for more pipes and cement, feedback dries landscape more Survey for anthropogenic rail habitat and prioritize areas where water use could be reduced only during drought Incentives for creating and protecting habitat

45 Thank You! Acknowledgements Project Funding: NSF Couple Human-Natural Systems Grant Project Members: Steve Beissenger, Iryna Drovna, Lynn Huntsinger, Marm Kilpatrick, Tony Kovach, Norm Miller, José Oviedo, Matthew Shapiro, Mollie Van Gordon, Nathan Van Schmidt Everyone who filled out a survey Water districts who talked to us

46 Sueltenfuss et al ł Colorado Wetland Study Wetland water level corresponds to canal water level Stable isotopes: irrigation water is primary source of wetland water Up to 3 km from canal ł Sueltenfuss, J. P., Cooper, D. J., Knight, R. L., & Waskom, R. M. (2013). The creation and maintenance of wetland ecosystems from irrigation canal and reservoir seepage in a semi-arid landscape. Wetlands, 33(5),