Tule Trust Talks SERIES: #5

TULE TRUST TALKS

A series highlighting the people behind the Tule Basin Land & Water Conservation Trust.

From staff to volunteers to the Tule Subbasin farmers, we’ll hear about their background, and we'll get down-to-earth details on their involvement, and why they're so passionate about Tule Trust.

For this month’s talk, we reached out to Kathy Wood McLaughlin. She’s a founding board member and treasurer of the Tule Basin Land & Water Conservation Trust.

Thanks for talking with us, Kathy. Tell us about your involvement with the Tule Trust.

Kathy Wood McLaughlin: As Treasurer and founding board member of the Tule Basin Land and Water Conservation Trust, I am honored to continue to serve on this visionary and vital organization. With the creation of the Tule Trust in 2020, we embarked on a journey to find alternate land use solutions with agricultural producers and landowners as they face the 2014 groundwater legislation: the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA.

Can you share more about your background in land conservation?

Kathy: Raised in the Pacific Northwest on Mercer Island, we spent most of our childhood outdoors, hiking and skiing in the Cascades and of course, exploring the woods and lake surrounding our home. On one of our trips to visit the family farms in Minnesota, we traveled through Yellowstone with a stopover at Old Faithful. I was only 10 years old, but was thrilled to meet a woman ranger, decked out in her uniform – skirt, nylons, flats and of course, the Smokey Bear hat! I was hooked and when my dad moved us to California to work for the National Park Service, I went to UC Berkeley, majoring in Ecology and spending summers in Yosemite, excited about a future in conservation.

“I was only 10 years old, but was thrilled to meet a woman ranger, decked out in her uniform – skirt, nylons, flats and of course, the Smokey Bear hat! I was hooked.”

Wood fresh out of college, as a Naturalist Ranger at Lake Tahoe in 1977.

Upon graduation and following in my dad’s footsteps, I spent 34 years working for the Department of Interior. After more than 20 years in New Mexico with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, working in land management, migratory bird conservation, water rights and public/private partnerships, I moved to Fresno in 2000 to join the US Bureau of Reclamation where my team was responsible for implementing the Central Valley Project Improvement Act contract renewal and associated environmental compliance. After a year on loan from Reclamation to the California Water Institute at Fresno State, I was recruited to work on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and returned to the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Sacramento. Finishing up my Interior career on the Deep-Water Horizon Oil Spill on the Gulf Coast, I opted to retire back to Fresno and work with the non-profit Tulare Basin Wildlife Partners under their Department of Conservation (DOC) Watershed Coordinator grant.

Albuquerque Journal showing Wood in action as a biologist for US Fish & Wildlife.

With years of experience on the “public-side”, my husband Tom joined me in the creation of TKM Consulting, Inc within a year of my retirement from federal service. It has been a rewarding experience, using our expertise in project management, grant writing and environmental compliance issues such as NEPA, ESA, wetlands and cultural resources in assisting federal and state resources agencies, water agencies, non-profits and private companies. In my spare time, I participate on several conservation related committees and teach snow skiing at Northstar near Lake Tahoe.

How did the Tule Trust begin, and how are you involved with its current projects?

Kathy: Under the Tulare Basin Watershed Initiative created in my role as Watershed Coordinator, the Tule Subbasin unfolded as one of three focus areas for integrated resource management and conservation planning. After the end of the DOC grant, my work in the subbasin continued as a consultant on water issues, habitat conservation, and land acquisition on the Atwell Island Project for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Through this relationship, BLM became a partner in the development of the Lower Deer Creek Watershed plan, as well as engaged with their local GSA.

Funded with a grant from the NRCS Watershed Program, our Lower Deer Creek planning team was able to focus on three sites including Capinero Creek formerly the Deer Creek Dairy. Strategically located next to the Pixley National Wildlife Refuge and adjacent to Deer Creek, Capinero Creek provides connectivity between several conservation areas. To facilitate the acquisition and restoration project, the Tule Trust was created, and I became one of the founding board members!

Thanks to our partners, the US Bureau of Reclamation provided funding to the Tule Trust through their Habitat Conservation and Restoration programs to fund the acquisition and restoration of the site. My role was shepherding the permitting issues: federal Endangered Species Act consultation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and cultural resources review. Now that the Trust owns the property, it is exciting to watch the restoration unfold.

Although less than 500 acres, restoration of Capinero creates another link in the “Conservation Crescent” located south of historic Tulare Lake. For perspective, it spans from the foothills on the eastside to Lost Hills and beyond in the west. Pixley National Wildlife Refuge, Allensworth Ecological Reserve, Allensworth State Park, Atwell Island (land retirement) Project and Ton Tachi wetlands, Kern National Wildlife Refuge, as well as USDA Wetland Reserve Easements on private lands and duck hunting clubs, provide an east to west migratory corridor for native wildlife species. As a former wildlife refuge manager and migratory bird biologist, working in public/private partnerships with landowners provides myriad benefits for wildlife and people who live on these lands.

Why are you so passionate about the work the Tule Trust is doing?

Kathy: Looking to the future, the Tule Trust plays a vital role in developing partnerships, grant funding and programs to assist landowners with repurposing lands from irrigated agriculture to other uses as the Tule Subbasin grapples with the implementation of SGMA. Water short areas of the basin will see marked reductions in farming over the next 15 years and the Trust may provide opportunities through public/private funding for landowners to voluntarily take agricultural land out of production and restore or enhance for native wildlife. Integrating habitat enhancement with sustainable farming through such mechanisms as fee title acquisition or conservation easements with willing landowners continues to be a vision for the Trust today. And this is why I serve on the Tule Trust Board.

Every acre we protect and restore begins with you!
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The Tule Basin Land and Water Conservation Trust is a 501(c)3 dedicated to protecting the southern San Joaquin Valley’s incredible natural resources and preserving a viable farming economy for the future generations.