November 17, 2008 06:34 PM Eastern Time 

Never-Before Seen Video from Wildlands Inc. Confirms Strategy to Save Endangered Species While Securing Sacramento from Flood

ROCKLIN, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--When local, State and Federal agencies joined forces to improve Folsom Dam to protect California’s capital against the potential for a 200-year flood, an environmental issue stood in the way: a handsome but tiny (1/2-1 inch) beetle so rare even biologists who study it rarely see one. As a federally-listed threatened species living in vanishing shrubland along riverbanks, the Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle stood to lose one of its last refuges if the engineering work proceeded.

Enter Wildlands and its private conservation bank, a preserve for endangered species habitat developed in cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Since 1991, the Rocklin, CA, company has provided public agencies and private companies with a third option when the need to preserve threatened wildlife habitat stands in the way of their projects. By establishing replacement habitat in advance of disruptive development and providing mitigation credits approved under State and Federal law, Wildlands’ habitat banks ensure both the future of development and of numerous endangered species.

Between fall 2007 and spring 2008, Wildlands transplanted 245 elderberry shrubs (many known to host larval-stage Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetles) from the construction site of a new Folsom Dam spillway to Wildlands’ 5,000-acre Sacramento River Ranch habitat bank. Recently, Wildlands biologists confirmed the success of the mitigation strategy, documented in dramatic video footage of the Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetles active in their new home.

In successfully re-establishing more than 57 acres of savannah habitat for the threatened insect, Wildlands secured sufficient mitigation credits to permit the badly-needed engineering upgrade to proceed, offering Sacramento protection against the worst flooding projected for the next two centuries.

In addition to providing an environmental solution for a critical flood control project and a permanent home for beetles threatened by human impacts, the River Ranch bank provides habitat for other imperiled species, including the Swainson’s hawk and Chinook salmon. Conservation and agricultural easements on the property also permanently protect open space and agricultural heritage in the increasingly developed Central Valley region. River Ranch is located north of Sacramento at the confluence of the Sacramento and Feather Rivers.

For broadcast-quality video and more information about River Ranch and the role of mitigation banking in securing both the Central Valley’s progress and its biodiversity, contact: