In Natomas, farms support wildlife and people!
Thank you for your interest in and concern about the wildlife, habitat, and farmland in Natomas. What you can do is join our mailing list by clicking Join us!
Our campaign focus at this time is to build a mailing list so that we can quickly contact you to help us respond once the Airport South Industrial Project Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is issued. At that time, we will ask you to write letters and make comments. Don’t worry, we’ll provide samples and make it easy for you. The EIR is due to be issued in January or February of 2024.
Campaign updates as of October 2023
Talk to Friends, Family and Co-workers about this campaign – We continue to build our mailing list so we can reach people across the Sacramento region (City and County). Suggest to those that are interested that they click the “Join Us” button at the top of this web page.
Request a Presentation – If you know of a group that you think could benefit from a presentation on the Campaign, the proposed projects in Natomas and what we are doing about it, please email office[at]ecosacramento[dot]net to let us know.
Letter to the City Regarding Natomas – On October 10, 2023, ECOS submitted a letter to the City of Sacramento offering our comments on the Draft Master Environmental Impact Report (MEIR) for the Sacramento 2040 General Plan Update (GPU) and Climate Action & Adaptation Plan (CAAP). Our comments are focused on the Natomas area. Click here to read our letter.
Billboards – During Farm-to-Fork month (September 2023) we displayed billboard signage on I-5 with images and messages like this: Natomas Farms are Habitat.
Press Release – To coincide with the Farm-to-Fork event in September, we have kicked off our campaign with a press release. It is here.
A Grant – On September 7, 2023, we were awarded a grant by the Rose Foundation for almost $35,000. This is a big boost and will enable us to engage professional campaign help and allow us to conduct major outreach including online, social media, TV, radio, and print. The objectives of this special grant are to enhance, increase, protect, and defend California’s public wildlands, support pivotal smart growth policies and funding measures, and stop land use policies that will result in the loss of California’s wildlands and open spaces.
We’re on the move. Click that “Join Us” button so we can contact you, and read more below. Thanks!
In Natomas, farmland is essential habitat for threatened species. Of course, farmland provides other benefits as well — food production, cleaner air, groundwater recharge, airport buffer, and more. But now, a number of development projects are proposed on that farmland. They are the South Airport Industrial, Upper West Side, Grand Park, and WattEV, as shown on the map. For a more detailed map, click here.
The South Airport Industrial, Upper West Side, and Grand Park are located outside of Sacramento County’s Urban Services Boundary (USB) on land zoned agricultural in the County’s General Plan. Together they total over 8,000 acres. None of them is in the Permitted Area for development in the Natomas Basin Conservancy Habitat Conservation Plan (NBHCP). If these projects are built, the remaining land will be inadequate for viable habitat. Loss of biodiversity and injury to the listed species will result. The NBHCP itself could fail.
The Natomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan (NBHCP) was adopted in 1997 to promote biological conservation in the Natomas Basin with development. Twenty-two animal and plant species are protected by the NBHCP. Three land uses make up the plan — urban development on 17, 500 acres of Permitted Area, mitigation lands/conserved habitat, and the remaining in habitat-supportive agriculture.
“In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ecological niche. . .” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat
The Urban Services Boundary (USB) was established in 1993 to be the “backbone of Sacramento County’s urban planning philosophy . . . intended to protect the County’s natural resources from urban encroachment, as well as to limit costly sprawling development patterns. . . the USB is intended to be a permanent boundary. . .” From the County’s General Plan Land Use Element.
Transgressing the open space requirements of the NBHCP and the USB would be significant planning failures for the Sacramento region.
In the County and City of Sacramento, inside the USB, there is an abundance of land already planned and zoned for residential and light industrial uses. And, in the Natomas Basin, the South Airport Industrial Project could be accommodated in Metro Airpark, located just east of Sacramento International Airport.
Contact information for City and County Representatives.
Children’s Coloring page of Natomas birds and animals.
These organizations support the Natomas campaign.
