A state agency that funds major land acquisitions swings through town.

When the California Wildlife Conservation Board convenes in Sacramento next month, they’ll consider allocating for 25 projects across the state. There’s a request for $2 million for a fish screen replacement in Solano County, $420,000 for the acquisition of 84 acres to expand the Eel River Wildlife Area in Humboldt County and more. The day’s agenda also includes granting $1.4 million to the Western Rivers Conservancy and Esselen Tribe of Monterey County for the acquisition of 327 acres of land at Pico Blanco in Big Sur, and $6 million to the Big Sur Land Trust to construct a 67-acre habitat restoration area at Carr Lake in Salinas, where the nonprofit is transforming former agricultural land into Ensen Community Park. (The neighborhood park portion – with picnic areas, a dog park, basketball court and more – is already under construction.)

This kind of breadth, in project type and geography, is a typical day for the Wildlife Conservation Board, says Executive Jennifer Norris. “We spend a lot, and we do a lot everywhere,” she says.

A lot is perhaps an understatement. As of August, it had a general fund balance of $110.6 million, and a total fund balance of $369.5 million, including money earmarked for things like water quality projects or habitat conservation. Proposition 4, on the ballot this Nov. 5, would generate some $1.2 billion more for WCB. “It would support a lot of projects, without question,” Norris says.

In the past five years, the WCB has spent $68.6 million on projects in Monterey County, including $24 million granted in 2023 to The Wildlands Conservancy for the acquisition of Rana Creek Ranch in Carmel Valley from former Apple chairman and CEO Mike Markkula. But mostly it comes in smaller amounts for smaller-scale projects – at Fort Ord Dunes State Park, Elkhorn Slough and on the Carmel River. It adds up to 28,852 acres in permanent protection locally since 2019.

“These types of projects sometimes take years, waiting for the money to show up at the right time,” Norris says. “These projects are expensive. We often fill that last gap, sometimes $5 million, sometimes $8 million, sometimes $30 million.”

These kinds of funds help groups like Big Sur Land Trust complete dream projects. “Land is really expensive,” says BSLT Executive Director Jeannette Tuitele-Lewis. “It is very difficult to raise the kind of money we would need to be able to conserve all of these magnificent areas with just private dollars. We depend on the state’s investment to help preserve lands.”

Now, the decision-makers behind those state investments want to hear from you. As WCB prepares to update its five-year strategic plan, they are holding five workshops throughout California, including in Monterey on Oct. 30.

“We want to hear from people about the types of places that are important,” Norris says.

The overall mission – providing dollars that help lock in deals to protect habitat, boost climate resiliency, protect open spaces and public access to nature – has perhaps never been more critical. A report released earlier this month by World Wide Fund for Nature shows wildlife populations decreased by a “catastrophic” 73 percent globally between 1970 and 2020, based on tracking over 5,000 vertebrate species. “A number of tipping points are highly likely if current trends are left to continue, with potentially catastrophic consequences,” the report states. (WWF Chief Scientist Rebecca Shaw, who lives in Carmel Valley, edited the report and served on the steering committee.)

In the face of such staggering loss, can we find solace in a 67-acre parcel in Salinas? Norris says yes – and in fact, that’s part of what makes Carr Lake worthy. “It’s exciting because it’s in the middle of an urban area but it’s very significant,” she says. “We are learning more and more how important it is to have functional ecosystems everywhere.”

“Everywhere” can include expansive wilderness, but also our cities. What it includes for the next five years will be in part up to the direction the public shares at WCB’s workshops, helping direct tens of millions of dollars to projects that will give nature a fighting chance.

Wildlife Conservation Board’s Open House takes place 3:30-6:30pm Wednesday, Oct. 30 at Japanese American Citizens League, 424 Adams St., Monterey.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com.