CALIFORNIA’S VERNAL POOLS: ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND CONSERVATION STRATEGIES

Rosa Plateau marking the potential runway for the pro-posed Riverside County Airport. An article by Joe Medeiros in the same issue noted the launching of a major effort to save some large vernal pools in Solano County and re-ported on the intensive studies underway by PG&E for a potential nuclear power plant at the Barnett Ranch in Stanislaus County. Fortunately, the Riverside County Air-port never materialized as planned. In 1990, following a series of complex negotiations involving the withdrawal of the proposed Santa Rosa Springs golf community and the formulation of a mitigation plan linked with the construc-Cumulus clouds hang over a vernal pool surrounded by goldfields (Lasthenia sp.). Photograph by Joe Medeiros