YSDI Preserves Yuba Habitat.

MARYSVILLE, Calif. -- Yuba Sutter Disposal, Inc. and the Ostrom Road Landfill are pleased to announce its alliance with Wildlands, Inc. to preserve and enhance over 200 acres adjacent to the Ostrom Road Landfill in southern Yuba County.

The preserve, known as the Best Slough Mitigation Bank, will be the first vernal pool restoration/creation bank in Yuba County. Historic vernal pools will be restored and permanently preserved as habitat for endangered and threatened species. These include vernal pool shrimp species, which represent an important food source for shore birds and waterfowl migrating through the Pacific Flyway. In addition, upland habitat will be preserved to provide foraging habitat for the threatened Swainson's hawk. And the long term management of these restored habitats will be accomplished using traditional cattle grazing and other land management tools that are the backbone of Yuba County's agricultural community.

"Our commitment to the environment goes beyond trash collection, recycling and disposal," says Yuba-Sutter Disposal Inc.'s General Manager Dave Vaughn. "We seek to maximize the ecological value of our land holdings whenever possible." The alliance with Wildlands, Inc. represents the culmination of over five years of study to preserve and protect buffer lands surrounding the landfill -- including Best Slough. "I am very excited about this project," says Phil Graham, General Manager of the Ostrom Road Landfill. "I think this alliance gives the community another example of our commitment to the environment."

With habitat construction set to begin in spring 2008, the preserve's first goal is to meet the vernal pool creation needs of the Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority for levee repair and construction work also scheduled for this year. TRLIA is required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to replace habitat filled or drained by construction activities as part of their permit requirements. Future enhancements will include improving the streamside or riparian habitat along Best Slough with trees and plants that will contribute to improved water quality in the slough.

Wildlands will be responsible for design, construction management and long-term stewardship of the preserve. Active agriculture will remain the predominant management tool of the preserve. Cattle will continue to graze the site with the goal of enhancing the health and ecology of the vernal pool landscape.

The bank will serve portions of a three-county area including Butte, Yuba and Sacramento Counties.

For more information about the Best Slough Mitigation Bank, please contact Jeff Mathews at [phone].

Yuba-Sutter Disposal, Inc. serves more than 43,000 residential customers and 3,500 commercial customers and collects more than 100,000 tons of materials annually. YSDI provides service to the communities of Beale Air Force Base, Live Oak, Marysville, Wheatland, Knights Landing, Yuba City and the counties of Yuba and Sutter. Ostrom Road Landfill opened in 1995 as the first landfill facility in California to receive approval to operate under the new Federal Subtitle D system-wide environmental protection standards. Both YSDI and Ostrom Road Landfill are subsidiaries of Norcal Waste Systems, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Wildlands, Inc., a private mitigation and conservation banking firm based in Rocklin, CA, has been in business since 1991. With projects and offices throughout the West Coast and Southeastern U.S., Wildlands, Inc. has preserved and protected over 25,000 acres of habitat, offering mitigation and conservation credits to public and private developers.