Save Mount Diablo makes secures environmental protections for more than 300 acres

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CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA - MARCH 11: The evening sun shines on the low lying hills of Mount Diablo State Park in Contra Costa County, Calif., on Thursday, March 11, 2021.(Photo by Jose Carlos Fajardo/MediaNews Group/East Bay Times via Getty Images)

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OAKLAND, Calif. - The effort to prevent oil drilling in Mount Diablo State Park progressed further Wednesday, when over 300 acres of land were granted conservation protections.

The state park in Contra Costa County is one of several popular public spaces around California that are being targeted as part of a proposal by the Trump Administration to open land for oil and gas drilling.

The non-profit organization Save Mount Diablo on Wednesday announced it had conveyed 160 acres of its Curry Canyon Ranch property to the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy, and secured a perpetual conservation easement for a 155-acre section of the property. The organization received $2.15 million in exchange.

"On behalf of Save Mount Diablo, I want to thank our valued partners, the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy and the California Wildlife Conservation Board, for their good work and support of our Curry Canyon Ranch Project," Ted Clement, Save Mount Diablo’s executive director said in a press release. "Our partnership on this project has ensured that important lands rich in conservation values are protected in perpetuity for the benefit of the public and wildlife — while also moving a step closer to eventually getting some of these lands added to Mount Diablo State park. The grant funds provided for this project will help fuel more of Save Mount Diablo’s conservation work within Mount Diablo’s Diablo Range."

Lasting protections

Dig deeper:

Curry Canyon Ranch is a 1,080-acre property that is a habitat for 30 special-status species — those animals tracked in the California Natural Diversity Database and designated as endangered, rare, or sensitive — as well as chaparral, critical riparian habitat, endemic flowers, and golden eagles.

While the deal grants the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy ownership of 160 acres of the Curry Canyon Ranch property, Save Mount Diablo will remain the steward of a separate, 155-acre parcel. However, that land is protected by a perpetual conservation easement held by the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy. That agreement guarantees no development or harm impacts the protected land, regardless of ownership.

"We are celebrating this milestone in the continued efforts to conserve the natural and cultural resources around Mount Diablo," Abigail Fateman, executive director of the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy said in a press release. "Through Save Mount Diablo’s long-standing partnerships in the region, with financial support from the community, the Habitat Conservancy as well as state and federal funding programs, we have ensured that the ranch will be protected forever.

The Diablo Mountain Range is 205 miles long and home to endangered species including the California condor and San Joaquin kit fox.

Federal push for state parks

The backstory:

The Bureau of Land Management earlier this year proposed oil and gas leasing on more than 1 million acres of public land in California, including areas adjacent to, and possibly inside parks like Mount Diablo.

There are multiple other sites in the Bay Area that could be affected, including Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, also in Contra Costa County, as well as Henry W. Coe State Park in the South Bay. Pinnacles National State Park in San Benito and Monterey counties could also be impacted.

The BLM, during the public comment period on its Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed project, received tens of thousands of comments from people expressing their opposition through a petition demanding public lands in the Diablo Range be protected from oil and gas drilling.

While the federal government does not own many of these public spaces, it does control the subsurface mineral rights, under what’s known as split estates.

The non-profit organization Center for Biological Diversity at the time urged the BLM to amend its oil and gas drilling plan in California. The group had filed a lawsuit during Trump’s first term, when his administration attempted a similar drilling plan in 2019.

As part of the center’s legal action, settlements were reached requiring new oil and gas leasing on public lands be suspended until the BLM could produce new environmental reviews "that sufficiently evaluate the impacts of oil and gas development, including fracking," the non-profit explained in a news release published earlier this year.

A spokesperson for the organization in March said the BLM’s latest proposal denies any of the detrimental effects of drilling.