COLUSA COUNTY, CA (MPG) – The Colusa County Board of Supervisors is asking the State of California Wildlife Conservation Board to find a more meaningful use for $9 million than a grassy bridge for elk on Highway 20.
Supervisors on Aug. 15 approved a letter that asks the Conservation Board to send the Cortina Ridge Sawato Kamititarro Wildlife Crossing project “back to the drawing board” before funding the project because of CEQA and Williamson Act procedural failures that excluded Colusa County from due process.
Caltrans and California Fish and Wildlife launched the public comment process last summer, as required by the California Environmental Quality Act, but failed to consult with Colusa County prior to preparing the Negative Declaration of Environmental Significance, officials said.
The overcrossing, as proposed, is supposed to reintroduce the Cache Creek-Cortina Ridge Tule Elk herds that conservationists said have been separated by a paved highway and cattle fences for more than 60 years.
In his letter, Board Chairman Kent Boes said the environmental review failed to provide details as to how the cattle fencing along Highway 20 is impeding bull elk migration, which seems to be the focus of the project to prevent inbreeding.
“Anybody that has spent any amount of time around elk herds knows that ‘normal’ cattle fences do not pose a barrier to mature elk,” Boes said. “Given the lack of an actual barrier that the cattle fencing has on elk movement, it is unclear how the elk are going to be enticed to use the overcrossing as opposed to simply jumping over the fencing whenever it is encountered.”
The $9 million project is funded with a $8.6 million grant awarded to the Wildlife Conservation Board from Proposition 68, the California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access for All Act, which was approved by voters in 2018.
While not a transportation project, Caltrans and CFW proposed a 100 ft. wide grassy bridge, which is proposed to be built over State Route 20, about 10.5 miles west of Williams.
State officials believe the development of Highway 20 in 1954 divided the Tule Elk in the Bear Valley range, and that fragmentation and habitat loss isolated the herds and limited the gene pool enough to where slight deformities from inbreeding are starting to appear.
The Board of Supervisors, however, claim that the state did not provide analysis on how they plan to acquire 1.25 acres of right-of-way without violating the terms of Williamson Act, which the state had effectively abandoned in recent years by not reimbursing counties for their loss of tax revenue by landowners participating in the state program.
“Those Williamson Act properties benefit more wildlife in one year than will use the overpass during its useful life,” Boes speculated. “Thus, the estimated $8-9 million cost returned to the counties via subvention papers would not only help wildlife but would be the ‘right’ thing for the state to do.”
The board has asked the state to reconsider the CEQA process because the county was not properly notified, nor could the county find evidence that any of the procedural requirements and studies have been complied with.
“Assuming the Williamson Act requirements are met, construction for this project would also be an absolute waste of taxpayer monies,” Boes stated in the letter. “If it must be spent on some road related projects in Colusa County for wildlife or public access, may we suggest on and off ramps on I-5 at Lurline Road. This would do both, public access off and on the freeway, as well as provide public viewing of waterfowl in the late fall and winter.”