331 acres in Doolan Canyon and Springtown now permanently protected, linking a nearly 1,500-acre wildlife corridor

Two pieces of open land on the north side of the Tri-Valley are now off-limits to development for good, now that deals tied to a Dublin housing project have closed.

The Tri-Valley Conservancy holds new conservation easements on 331 acres: 131 acres in Doolan Canyon, north of where Dublin meets Livermore, and 200 acres in Livermore's Springtown Preserve, Pleasanton Weekly reported Tuesday. On Tuesday, Livermore officials confirmed that both easement sales are complete.

Paid for by a housing project

The easements are mitigation for habitat lost to East Ranch, Trumark Homes' 573-unit development covering roughly 165 acres on Dublin's east side. The Livermore City Council approved Trumark's request to buy the easements for about $4 million in September 2022.

Those agreements set the timing and terms for drawing up the easements and management plans, and they set up an endowment to pay for long-term care of the land.

City officials told Livermore Vine the protection fits goals Livermore has held for years on open space and sensitive habitat.

What the land protects

The Doolan Canyon parcel is mostly grazed, undeveloped grassland with a pond of roughly a third of an acre. It sits next to 1,346 acres already under a conservancy easement, so together the two form an unbroken stretch of almost 1,500 acres.

Conservancy officials say that matters most for the California tiger salamander and the California red-legged frog, which need to move among food, water and shelter. Other species named as beneficiaries include the burrowing owl and the vernal pool fairy shrimp.

The Springtown easement covers 200 acres of the 300-acre preserve in north Livermore, which the conservancy says shelters rare alkali wetland habitat along with uncommon plants and wildlife.

Conservancy Executive Director Rebecca Spector said the group was proud to add the land to the open space it already protects across the Tri-Valley, according to the Weekly.

A possible trail later

Beside the Doolan Canyon land sits a roughly 4.5-acre site owned by the East Bay Regional Park District, known as the Olsen property. The district announced that purchase in June and has said the site might one day become a trail staging area and the opening stretch of a public route into Doolan Canyon Regional Preserve.

The district led its first guided walk into the preserve on Oct. 3 and is still studying the area's resources as it weighs opening it to the public.

Sources

pleasantonweekly.com