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Descanso area target of USFS
grant to Greater San Diego RCD
By Joe Naiman
The Alpine Sun
SAN DIEGO — During the May 29 open
house and grand opening of the new Resource Conservation
District of Greater San Diego building, resource conservation
district and other officials noted that a $3 million U.S. Forest
Service grant to the RCD would focus on removing dead, dying,
and diseased oak trees in the Descanso area.
In some areas of Descanso the oak tree mortality rate
has reached 85 percent.
“It’s a huge program in terms of trying to stop that
infestation from spreading,” said Resource Conservation District
of Greater San Diego district manager Marty Leavitt. “We’re
hoping to stop it in this area and keep it from spreading to
Northern San Diego County.”
The grant, which will cover the program over a
three-year period, has two target areas. The first is the
Descanso/Guatay/Pine Valley area and the second is Greater
Julian, although Leavitt doubts that the existing funding will
allow for tree removal in Julian.
“Three million isn’t going to go nearly as far as it
needs to,” she said.
The RCD grant money is in addition to County of San
Diego grant money. On May 22 the County of San Diego received
authorization to spend $7 million of U.S. Forest Service grant
money to remove dead, dying, and diseased trees. The RCD has
received an additional $4,175,650 of U.S Forest Service funding
to cover the Fire Safe Council support program, a no-cost
chipping service for property owners whose trees have already
been cut, and the oak tree removal program.
While the grant to mitigate the oak mortality epidemic
will focus on Descanso, Guatay, and Pine Valley, where oak trees
have been hit hardest, the $400,000 Fire Safe Council grant and
the $775,650 grant for chipping will be spent on a countywide
basis.
The RCD, which has shared an Escondido office with the
National Resources Conservation Service, moved into the Lakeside
buildings once occupied by the Riverview Water District. The
Riverview and Lakeside water districts merged in 2006 and the
RCD purchased the Waterhill Road site from the Lakeside Water
District last year.
The brick building which was constructed when the
Riverview Water District became a public agency in 1957 will
serve as a facility for the Forest Area Safety Task Force
(FAST), which consists of representatives from various Federal,
state, tribal, and local jurisdictions along with other
stakeholders. The RCD offices will be housed in the building
completed in the early 1990s. What had been the water district’s
operations center will be converted into a training room.
In response to the Dust Bowl, the Soil Conservation Act
was passed in 1935 which created the Soil Conservation Service
branch of the United States Department of Agriculture. Farmers
were skeptical about Federal involvement, so the program
included the creation of local soil conservation districts with
locally-elected boards. Those boards and districts had no
regulatory power but worked in conjunction with the Soil
Conservation Service. The first local districts were formed in
1937.
The agencies involved have since taken on additional
duties to help educate farmers and non-farm landowners. The Soil
Conservation Service is now the National Resources Conservation
Service and is still part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In the 1970s California’s soil conservation districts
became resource conservation districts, although some states
retain the soil conservation district designation. Currently San
Diego County, which once had 13 resource conservation districts,
has three such districts.
Because resource conservation districts have no
regulatory power, RCD board members can also serve as elected
officials in other capacities. The lack of regulatory power also
gives resource conservation districts the legal ability to work
in each other’s areas to avoid duplication of service.
“What this facility demonstrates and exemplifies is the
culmination of some significant changes of the Resource
Conservation District,” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob.
A memorandum of understanding between the Resource
Conservation District of Greater San Diego and North County’s
Mission Resource Conservation District allows the Mission RCD to
work with farmers within the Greater San Diego RCD boundaries on
usage audits while the Greater San Diego RCD administers Fire
Safe Councils in the Mission RCD area. San Diego County’s other
RCD is the Upper San Luis Rey Resource Conservation District.
“The district’s programs and activities touch many
lives,” Jacob said. “Obviously Fire Safe Councils are critical
when it comes to fire protection.”
RCDs still perform their original functions of
controlling water runoff and preventing soil erosion to protect
agricultural land but now involve themselves in watershed
management, recreational area management, urban and agricultural
irrigation and water use, water quality, forestland
productivity, and public education for children and adults.
Activities also include a student speech contest each Fall.
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