Throughout California, wildlife and their habitats occur on a mosaic of public and private lands. Public agency operations on fee title (owned) lands received as gifts or acquired as mitigation are guided by mandates and regional priorities. However, adequate personnel and infrastructure is often insufficient on agency properties, making progress toward management objectives challenging, delayed, and ineffective at times. Private land conservation tools such as conservation easements are well-accepted as effectively protecting key properties’ natural resources activities, while eliminating threats of land conversion and sub-division in perpetuity. This talk explores the various alternatives an agency has when receiving a property in fee-title, and makes a case for selecting a local land trust or sovereign tribe as suitable fee-title holder and land steward, while still achieving regional priorities and agency mandates related to wildlife, habitats, and ecological processes. Land Trusts and Sovereign tribes promote community-led conservation, outreach and education, and ecological restoration. A new tool related to water rights easements for conservation is also introduced.

Cynthia is a Certified Wildlife Biologist leading NCRLT's efforts to protect working and wild lands forever, currently conserving over 42,000 acres in Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Plumas, and Shasta Counties and managing $3.4 million in invested endowment funds. Additional projects underway will add 16,000 agricultural acres and 25,000 forested or stream-frontage acres to their portfolio by 2027, along with $2.2 million in invested endowment funds. Her career spans three decades working with state agencies, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions.