Solano County is considered one of the first counties in California (CA), formed in 1850 (Salano County CA, n.d.). (See Figure 1). It is the easternmost county of the North Bay, located approximately 72 kilometers northeast of San Francisco, covering a total of 235,430 hectare (ha), which includes approximately 174, 927 ha of rural land area and approximately 21,807 ha of water area (Salano County CA, n.d.). In 1999, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued a Biological Opinion, in accordance with Section Seven of the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), concerning the Solano Project Water Service Contract Renewal between the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), United States Department of the Interior (USDOI), and the Solano County
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In order to do so, they must be based on adequate biological information and provide long-term biological monitoring of the affected specie or species and their habitat (Hood, 1998). According to Vickerman (1999), there are four specific actions and ideas that help focus conservation actions and investments: 1) HCPs can be used to help individual landowners meet the requirements of the ESA; 2) a state management option outlines ideas of how states might approach biodiversity conservation programs in a holistic way; 3) new conservation area designations has the potential to implement sustainable development goals across mixed ownerships; and 4) management agreements can be used as a tool to incorporate individual landowner management plans into a comprehensive conservation strategy. The purpose of the Solano HCP is to support the preservation of threatened and endangered species (Covered Species) and their habitat, and conserve the biological diversity within private property rights, provide a healthy economic environment for the citizens, industries, and agriculture, and allow for the ongoing operation and maintenance of private and public facilities in Solano County (SCWA, 2012). Additionally, the Solano HCP describes 10 guiding principles to the conservation program, the following briefly describes those principles: 1) reduce conflicts between the Covered Speceis and economic development, agriculture, and other activities to promote conservation of biological diversity and contribute to the recovery of the species addressed in the HCP; 2) Streamline regulatory processes to provide consistent and predictable treatment action in accordance with current regulations; 3) Avoid and/or lessen the effects of development on the Covered Species by replacing project-by-project mitigation with a
In order to do so, they must be based on adequate biological information and provide long-term biological monitoring of the affected specie or species and their habitat (Hood, 1998). According to Vickerman (1999), there are four specific actions and ideas that help focus conservation actions and investments: 1) HCPs can be used to help individual landowners meet the requirements of the ESA; 2) a state management option outlines ideas of how states might approach biodiversity conservation programs in a holistic way; 3) new conservation area designations has the potential to implement sustainable development goals across mixed ownerships; and 4) management agreements can be used as a tool to incorporate individual landowner management plans into a comprehensive conservation strategy. The purpose of the Solano HCP is to support the preservation of threatened and endangered species (Covered Species) and their habitat, and conserve the biological diversity within private property rights, provide a healthy economic environment for the citizens, industries, and agriculture, and allow for the ongoing operation and maintenance of private and public facilities in Solano County (SCWA, 2012). Additionally, the Solano HCP describes 10 guiding principles to the conservation program, the following briefly describes those principles: 1) reduce conflicts between the Covered Speceis and economic development, agriculture, and other activities to promote conservation of biological diversity and contribute to the recovery of the species addressed in the HCP; 2) Streamline regulatory processes to provide consistent and predictable treatment action in accordance with current regulations; 3) Avoid and/or lessen the effects of development on the Covered Species by replacing project-by-project mitigation with a