Res 2010-173 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Conservation Easements and Land Acquisition A conservation easement is a legal mechanism to assure certain conservation conditions are maintained while limiting other activities, primarily development on the land covered by the easement. It allows land to stay in private hands while some other entity has oversight to assure the conditions. The development rights are sometimes donated but may need to be purchased. Conservation easements can help the health of the river by putting them in place on riverside lands as well as in the watershed and recharge areas for the aquifer. Additionally, stakeholders in a San Marcos River workshop identified buildings that could be desirable for removal. The structures may be deemed unsightly, but primarily, their uses are not dependent on locations near the river. After removal, the sites could be restored to open space or park land and limited support facilities that can be sustainably managed on lands close to the river. Some argue that buildings without public access to the land are preventing further bank trampling. • Develop a strategy to encourage private land easements for riparian buffer, floodplains, and recharge features (easement holding partner, funding, and promotion to landowners). • Investigate land uses along the river and when properties with buildings close to the river become available, evaluate the suitability for building removal and site restoration. Riparian restoration Maintaining or restoring the riparian areas along the river banks to support native, non - invasive diverse vegetation serves multiple functions — such as water filtering, bank stabilization, wildlife habitat, water table storage, and flood management. If the riparian areas of the banks are impacted by human trampling or non - native invasive plants (such as elephant ears), river management can involve restoration. These activities can be done by volunteers but also by professional contractors. • Expand restoration program to replace non - native invasive plants with bank - stabilizing natives. • Revegetate trampled areas with bank - stabilizing native plants. • Restore hardscaped areas (e.g. retaining walls) to sustainably sloped, native - vegetated banks. • Restore and maintain vegetated riparian buffers along San Marcos River tributaries; designate no -mow areas and allow vegetation to recover on its own. CITIZEN OPINIONS ON RIVER MANAGEMENT The random sample survey asked citizens to comment on their support or opposition to several strategies that could be used for protecting the river's sensitive resources as well as protecting the river recreationist's quality of experience when enjoying the river. The following table shows the percentage of respondents that indicated what management actions they could support. The actions are ranked by the weighted average. Any average above zero indicates some degree of support while the negative numbers indicate the citizens are opposed to some degree. 115