Physical Description: The 2400 acre Dove Ridge Conservation Bank is located in central Butte County, midway between Chico and Oroville. The Preserve is bordered by Shippee Road on the north, State Highway 149 on the east, State Highway 99 on the west and Cottonwood Road to the south.

Conservation Purpose: The Dove Ridge Preserve contains over 220 acres of wetlands, primarily seasonal wetlands known as vernal pools. Vernal pools are found throughout California and other parts of the world where they form on soils characterized by impermeable subsurface soil layers such as claypans, hardpans, or cemented volcanic mud flows and basalt flows. These shallow soils cause rainfall to pond in localized small depressions, typically less than 1000 square feet in size, forming temporary wetlands that support a rich diversity of flora and fauna, most of which are only found in California. As much as 90% to 95% of these habitats have been lost to agriculture and urban development and many of those vernal pools that remain support species listed as either threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Vernal pools at Dove Ridge support populations of the federally threatened vernal pool fairy shrimp as well as vernal pool tadpole shrimp and Butte County Meadowfoam, both listed as endangered species. Butte County Meadowfoam is particularly rare and is found only in a handful of locations around the city of Chico. Aside from these three federally protected species, Dove Ridge supports populations of several rare plants including Jokerst's golden clover, Red Bluff dwarf rush, Tehama navarretia, hogwallow starfish, four-angled spike rush, and Sanford's arrowhead and rare wildlife such as loggerhead shrike, yellow warbler, burrowing owl, northwestern pond turtle, tri-colored blackbird, ferruginous hawk, great blue heron, and many others.

Habitat Types: Aside from vernal pools, the Dove Ridge Preserve supports a narrow band of riparian habitat characterized by willows and cottonwoods extending along Gold Run Creek, which flows across the northern third of the Preserve. The preserve also contains scattered areas of freshwater marsh with cattails and tules. These areas provide habitat for numerous species of waterfowl in the winter and migrating songbirds in the spring. Like many of California's grasslands and prairies, the majority of the preserve is dominated by non-native annual grasses and forbs, primarily soft chess, filaree, and foxtail fescue. Although non-native annual grasslands are the dominant habitat type at the preserve, the vernal pools and surrounding uplands still support a diverse assemblage of native plants such as goldfields, tidytips, owl's clover, golden carpet, shooting stars, poppies, brodiea, lupine, popcorn flower, and many others providing a spectacular wildflower display in the spring. Small areas of native grasses such as purple needle grass, small fescue, and meadow barley provide hints of what California's native prairies might have looked like before they were invaded by non-native plants.

Management: The Preserve is grazed by roughly 200 cow-calf pairs from November to May each year. Cattle grazing reduces the dominance of non-native annual grasses such as soft chess and annual ryegrass and improves habitat conditions for native wildflowers and some vernal pool plants, particularly those plants that grow at the edges of vernal pools where competition from exotic annual grasses is most intense. Additionally, the preserve is periodically burned to decrease exotic weeds such as medusa -head and barbed goat grass. Public access is only allowed with the permission of the Preserve Manager.

Manager: The Preserve is managed by Chris Clifford. The Center for Natural Lands Management holds a conservation easement and manages the preserve under contract with Loafer Creek, LLC, a private company that owns the Preserve.

For information and inquiries please contact:

Chris Clifford
Consulting Biologist
e-mail: cclifford@cnlm.org

The Dove Ridge Conservation Bank can provide environmental mitigation for projects on similar habitat types (vernal pools) or affecting the species (vernal pool species, Butte County meadowfoam) protected on this preserve. For price and pending sales information, contact Gregg McKenzie, The McKenzie Land Company, LLC at (916) 408-2929 or gregg.mckenzie@yahoo.com