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El Sobrante Landfill is a Class 3 regional disposal facility permitted to accept up to 10,000 tons per day, seven days per week. It employs approximately 40 full-time employees. Landfill operations are overseen by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, and the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health.
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You may not know that El Sobrante is right in the middle of a world famous “biodiversity hotspot” that makes up Southern California. Western Riverside County, alone, is host to hundreds of plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth. Among these important species is the Coastal California Gnatcatcher. In fact, just 52 California Gnatcatchers – at all of 4 ˝ inches long – are at the heart of our efforts to preserve hundreds of acres at El Sobrante Landfill. Many thousands of acres of adjacent Gnatcatcher habitat have been preserved under California state law. The small bird is found only in coastal Southern California through Baja California, Mexico, and is known for it’s mewing kitten-like call. Its preferred habitat has put the species in direct competition with coastal area growth.
The Gnatcatcher became Federally-threatened in 1993 under the Endangered Species Act, which prompted California state lawmakers to move to protect the bird’s habitat. Lawmakers put in place the Natural Community Conservation Planning program, which led to the establishment of the Western Riverside County Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP) – one of the largest Southern California habitat conservation plans. The project area is 1.2 million acres and includes all unincorporated Riverside County land west of the crest of the San Jacinto Mountains to the Orange County line, as well as areas in Lake Elsinore, Perris, Riverside and Corona.
WM created a Habitat Conservation Plan at the El Sobrante Landfill for the benefit of the California Gnatcatcher – and 30 other species. In preparing the Plan area, we worked with the United States Fish & Wildlife Service and California Department of Fish and Game. El Sobrante currently manages more than 640 acres of protected open space under the Plan that serves as an important neighbor and land bridge for the Western Riverside County Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan area. The El Sobrante Landfill received formal certification from the Wildlife Habitat Council for developing a wildlife habitat enhancement program.
Within El Sobrante, the Gnatcatcher ranges throughout over much of the Landfill Plan Area. In all, there are 26 pairs– 15 in the landfill area and 11 in open space known as the Preserve. The population is relatively stable, but they can fluctuate from year to year depending on conditions such as rainfall.
The results of the Natural Community Conservation Planning program and El Sobrante’s Habitat Conservation Plan also include umbrella protection for many other important species that use the habitat. One such species at El Sobrante is the Federally-endangered Stephens’ Kangaroo Rat. Scientists have shown that the Stephens’ Kangaroo Rat demonstrates “keystone” effects: They interact strongly with other species, and their removal from an area results in major changes to the local environment. We provide approximately 400 acres of habitat that support these tawny-colored relatives of pocket mice.
“In conserving the local habitat at El Sobrante, we’re actually helping to preserve our quality of life and the very nature that makes our region so special,” noted Field Biologist Diana Saucedo-Ortiz. As part of an award-winning team of biologists from RECON Environmental, Diana is responsible for habitat management and reporting that help El Sobrante win ongoing rigorous certification by the Wildlife Habitat Council.
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