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Promoting Stewardship of California's Natural Resources


As one of California's largest landowners, we take the quality and stewardship of the region's water, land and other natural resources to heart. We strive to exceed stringent legal requirements by protecting lands for future generations, preserving habitat for wildlife and providing opportunities for responsible recreation on our lands.

As its sole funder and an active member on the Board of Directors, PG&E is partnering with the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council to permanently protect more than 140,000 acres of watershed lands associated with our hydroelectric system and the 655-acre Carizzo Plains in San Luis Obispo County. Significant progress was made in 2006 on a Land Conservation Plan for the property, which the Council is expected to adopt in 2007. Additionally, the Council piloted a set of Youth Investment Grants, awarding $2.25 million to 57 organizations that serve more than 38,000 young Californians; among the grants was a $150,000 award that helped the Daly City Parks and Recreation and Jefferson Unified High School District purchase alternatively fueled eight-passenger vans to transport youth to school programs and also help them access outdoor experiences.

Responsibly Managing Our Land and Hydro Facilities

Over the last six years, PG&E has received and implemented new federal licenses for six of its hydroelectric generation facilities located in the Sierra Watershed, with up to six more expected by 2008. Implementation of terms and conditions contained in these new licenses, as well as PG&E's ongoing environmental stewardship actions, has had a profoundly positive effect on water quality and temperature, sensitive species habitats and other natural resource attributes.

Examples of stewardship activities in 2006 include:

Working toward the recovery of the endangered Shasta crayfish through a cooperative effort with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others. The project, conducted in association with PG&E's Pit 1 and Hat Creek Project federal licenses, removed more than 1,500 non-native signal crayfish during 2005 and 2006; this moved us closer to the goal of eradicating all non-native crayfish from a designated set of ponds and enhancing populations of endangered Shasta crayfish.
Working at Butte Creek in close collaboration with resource agencies and others to successfully protect record numbers of threatened salmon and steelhead through the July heat storms, part of a larger salmon restoration effort.

Breeding bald eagles in California have increased from a low of only about 30 pairs in the early 1980s to over 200 pairs today.

Surveying more than 50 bald eagle nesting territories as part of a longterm statewide effort to monitor our national symbol, a threatened and endangered species. For the past 25 years, PG&E has led various conservation initiatives, including developing tailored nest territory management plans, to protect bald eagles at our facilities. Today, PG&E's hydroelectric facilities support about one-quarter of the state's entire breeding population of bald eagles and our work has significantly contributed to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's consideration of de-listing this important species.
Contributing $30,000 to help fund a study to find the best ways of removing fish barriers and restoring water flows on Alameda Creek, with the goal of someday restoring steelhead runs on the creek and its tributaries. PG&E has pledged to also make its natural gas line crossing passable to fish as part of a comprehensive plan to restore the riparian habitat of Alameda Creek.
Partnering with the Solano Land Trust to prepare a natural resource baseline report for 2,315 acres of the Eastern Swett and Vallejo Swett Ranches. These studies included the red-legged frog, burrowing owl, sensitive vegetation, public access and grazing that will be used to prepare detailed management plans and habitat enhancement projects.
Supporting California Proposition 84 and contributing $25,000 toward the voter-approved bond measure that will invest in the state's natural resources—benefiting our customers and employees. Consistent with our environmental values, the measure will provide critically needed funds to ensure the availability of safe drinking water, improve local water supply reliability, strengthen flood protection and preserve California's natural landscapes.

With the largest privately run hydroelectric operation in the nation, there are some challenges as well. PG&E's 9-megawatt Potter Valley Project requires an ongoing balance of competing water demands for fisheries, agriculture and water supply on the Eel and Russian rivers. For nearly 100 years, the project has diverted water from the Eel River to the East Branch Russian River. Many people have come to rely on this water diversion for agricultural and water supply needs.

In 2004, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) amended PG&E's license to keep more water in the Eel River to benefit endangered salmon and steelhead. Initially, PG&E misinterpreted the amended license and diverted more water to the East Branch Russian River than specified in the license. We fully reported these over-diversions to FERC and have taken steps to ensure our operators precisely comply with the license, which will leave water users on the East Branch Russian River with less water than originally anticipated. PG&E will comply with the project license while continuing to work with all resource agencies and Eel and Russian river interests to try to minimize impacts on any particular stakeholder.

Migratory Bird Protection Program

The goal of PG&E's Migratory Bird Protection Program is to protect migratory birds and threatened and endangered birds to the greatest extent possible, while reducing outages and increasing reliability for our customers. As part of the program, PG&E has documented and mapped Raptor Concentration Zones throughout our service area.

Bird Protection Program (Bird-Safe Retrofits)
  2004 2005 2006
Poles Planned 2,000 2,050 2,075
Poles Completed 2,023 2,073 2,117
% Poles Completed 101% 101% 102%

Since 2002, PG&E has retrofit more than 10,000 existing utility poles with "bird-safe" equipment; we have also retrofit thousands more poles in high-risk areas where we have experienced a bird incident or outage. All new poles and replacement poles in the Raptor Concentration Zones are also built "bird safe."

Demonstrating the latest best practices, PG&E is using heli- copters to install measures to protect the California condor in hard-to-reach coastal locations.

Using helicopters, PG&E is also doing cutting-edge work to protect the endangered California condor. Through long-lining helicopter techniques, PG&E is installing bird flight diverters in Big Sur—one of the largest applications of its kind on the West Coast. The procedure, developed by PG&E in conjunction with IBEW Local 1245 and approved by the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is one of the most innovative techniques some PG&E employees have seen in 20 years.

It allows PG&E to mark high-risk collision lines for condors in hard-to-reach areas of California's Central Coast. Monterey County, Ventana Wildlife Society, California State Parks and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered with PG&E on this innovative effort.


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