Fund Increases, but Yolo County Has Yet to Buy Hawk Habitat

Twelve years after Yolo County officials established an innovative plan to buy land vital to an endangered hawk, not a single acre has been purchased for conservation although the program has netted $5 million, according to a newspaper report published Monday.

Under the plan, county officials pool fees charged to developers who build on land where the threatened Swainson’s hawk feeds.

The county then is supposed to spend the money to buy large tracts of land, or development rights to the land, so that it can be set aside as habitat for the hawk.

The county’s inaction has advocates for the hawk frustrated, the Sacramento Bee reported Monday.

“It’s ridiculous,” said James Pachl, an attorney for Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk, a Sacramento-based nonprofit group.

As collected fees continue to grow, the price of setting aside habitat rises, he said.

Since the program’s inception, 2,657 acres of Swainson’s hawk habitat have been destroyed in Yolo County by development, according to Pachl’s group.

Officials at the California Department of Fish and Game, which plays an oversight role, also are unhappy.

The department “has been very concerned about the ability of those dollars” to be used for their intended purpose, said Kent Smith, an acting assistant regional manager for the department.

County officials say that they recognize the program has moved slowly and that they are close to buying development rights, also known as conservation easements.

They say it is hard to persuade landowners to sell property or place development restrictions on their land because they often believe that they can get more money by holding onto the property and selling it later.

“It’s cutting a lot of new ground, so it takes time,” said Yolo County Supervisor Helen Thomson, chairwoman of the agency that administers the county’s land program.