RES 2025062 - Laserfiche WebLink

EXHIBIT A Ms. Elizabeth McElligott,Assistant Director, Alameda County CommunityDevelopment Department Attention: Altamont Landfill Open Space Committee Members May 8, 2025 Dear Altamont Landfill Open Space Committee Members, We hope this message finds you all well. The UC Davis Road Ecology Center has worked productively with the ALOSC since 2019 on ways to improve wildlife habitat and connectivity in your study area. Based on suggestions from Committee members, we would like to submit a request for fundingfor $246,803 to develop a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) method (Phase I) and web-tool (Phase II) to assist with ALOSC's decision-making about land and easement acquisition. The proposed study area encompasses primarily the eastern geographic areas of ALOSC interest and secondarily a portion of the western area, as defined in Section 7.3.1 ofthe Altamont Landfill Settlement Agreement. Our timeline for Phase I will begin in October, 2025 (or whenever contracting is finalized) and conclude in September, 2026. Our timeframe for Phase II would immediately follow completion of Phase I, October, 2026, and be completed by September, 2027. The research will help meet the goal of supporting the ALOSC's prioritization of lands for protection based on wildlife presence/activity, potential habitat, and habitat connectivity including across area freeways. The ALOSC will utilize this information, as appropriate, to support initial strategies for potential land acquisition in fee title or conservation easement to enable native wildlife (plants and animals) survival and movement throughout the Settlement area. Phase I: We will begin the project by communicating with landowners and landowner/resource representative organizations (e.g., Alameda County RCD, Natural Resources Conservation Service, California Rangeland Trust). We will then conduct an extensive review of the peer-reviewed and technical literature describing methods for valuing and paying for ecosystem services, focusing on wildlife habitat benefits. We will include global literature, but focus primarily on methods published in and for California. From this literature base, we will develop a model method suitable for valuing ecosystem services and paying for these services in Alameda County. There are several possible systems of analysis that we will consider. We will discuss approaches for valuation of non-market goods, such as stated preference and revealed preference methods. From the range of published 1