October 1, 2026
Members of the Goleta City Council
City of Goleta
130 Cremona Dr.
Goleta, CA 93117
submitted via email to [email protected]
Re: Strong Support for Item A. 4) 26-351 | Resolution Supporting Biodiversity Conservation
Dear Mayor Perotte and Members of the Goleta City Council,
Los Padres ForestWatch along with its 30,000 members, supporters, and online advocates expresses its strong support for "A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Goleta, California, Supporting Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Resilience on California's South Central Coast”.
Our organization has long been an active participant in California’s 30x30 movement.
The central coast is recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot. Our region’s public lands, particularly Los Padres National Forest, provide essential core habitat that supports countless rare, threatened, and endemic plants and wildlife. As a vital ecological linkage, Los Padres National Forest connects southern California’s coastal ranges to northern habitats enabling essential wildlife movement across vast distances.
Protecting this critical corridor is fundamental to maintaining healthy connected ecosystems on a regional and statewide scale.
For these reasons, we urge the City Council to adopt this important resolution and encourage staff to identify funding resources for advancing biodiversity efforts in alignment with state and regional conservation plans and goals. Thank you for your leadership on this important issue and for the opportunity to comment.
Sincerely,
Carla Mena, M.P.P.
Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs
Los Padres ForestWatch
Community Vision and Policy
Platform in Support of
Biodiversity on California’s
Central Coast
est. 2024
Carrizo Plain National Monument (Photo: Denise Knapp)
The central coast’s vibrant landscapes of diverse habitats and ecosystems rich in biodiversity are protected, celebrated, and valued for the essential, life-giving gifts (air, water, food) they provide to all living species. With the significance of biodiversity woven into our thinking, planning, and way of life, we have thriving, equitable communities and dynamic, sustainable economies.
Vision
Biodiversity Vision & Policy Platform
We face both a drastically changing climate and a mass extinction of species, the likes of which have not occurred for nearly 66 million years. It is imperative that we begin to address both crises in tandem to ensure a future for all species — human and non- human alike. Without considering both concerns simultaneously, the diversity upon which life depends could be lost or severely impacted before climate solutions begin to reverse the damage. Decisions about how we protect and manage land, natural resources, and native species have never been more critical to our well-being.
Collaboration and community empowerment driven by a bold vision and policy goals will unite us and make us more effective in achieving our shared goals.
People and nature are interconnected, and all species thrive.
Purpose
To do this we must...
Values & Assumptions
Native species and well-functioning
ecosystems are essential for human
well-being and have the inalienable
right to exist and flourish.
Biodiversity and healthy
ecosystems provide economic and
social benefits, including
improvement of water quality,
reduction in water demand,
improvement to soil health
supportive of agriculture, and
resilience against wildfires.
Equitable policies and practices
that consider the needs of humans
and nature support biodiversity and
economic needs and also ensure a
livable place for all species.
Indigenous and community
knowledge and stewardship of
lands, waters, and biodiversity
provide guidance, leadership, and
opportunities for meaningful
partnerships and learning.
Connections to nature and the land
through recreation, education,
spiritual practices, and other
activities inspire joy, promote social
and physical well-being, and
increase appreciation for the
interdependence of humans and
the natural world.
A regional biodiversity vision and
action plan is strengthened by
aligning with and laddering up to
related visions, frameworks, and
plans at the local, state, Tribal, and
federal levels.
Galvanize the whole
community around a
biodiversity vision to
catalyze a movement that
increases investment,
leverages resources, and
drives policy action to
stop further species loss
and extinction, restore
and protect ecosystems,
combat climate change,
and empower people to
create thriving, equitable
communities.
Stop the loss of
biodiversity and reverse
habitat decline on
California’s central coast
and model how to live in
partnership with nature
through collaborative
actions and whole-of-
society engagement.
Working at all levels of government and across a broad range of sectors, organizations, and networks, we will individually and collectively seek opportunities to align public policy and actions with the biodiversity vision framework. These policy goals and actions fall under three key strategies.
Policy Goals
2 3
1 Shape land-use policies
Engage community and galvanize support
Inspire government leaders, land managers, & residents
to act
Support expansion, conservation, and restoration of all habitat types and ecosystems across the landscape to increase the abundance of native wild species to vibrant and resilient levels.
Expand opportunities that empower residents to create and advocate for biodiverse habitats in their community parks, creeks, streets, and yards for thriving, equitable communities.
Advocate for the protection of existing healthy, abundant, and biodiverse wild areas to prevent further biodiversity loss and habitat degradation.
Engage with business leaders, policy- and decision-makers, and other sectors of society to educate on how biodiversity and high-functioning ecosystems support a vibrant economy and social well-being.
Promote and celebrate the abundance and beauty of native wild species and natural habitats in our region to build broad support for policies that halt human-caused extinction of species (at all scales).
Seek opportunities in existing and new land-use policies, community plans, and other civic actions to increase native plant coverage and restore habitats throughout our urban and rural communities. This will reduce the impacts of climate change, support economic well- being, improve habitat and ecosystem function, and increase biodiversity in areas most impacted by society and development.
Push for land-use decisions and restoration and conservation activities to be informed by science, research, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and local wisdom. This will secure better outcomes in the protection of biodiversity, habitats, native plants, soil, and water resources.
Ensure that landscape-scale planning considers contiguous wildlands and connected habitats across all landscapes to provide native species with refugia and safe movement corridors to food, water, and essential habitats.
We will prevent further loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystems by strengthening policies that protect and conserve natural resources and areas rich in biodiversity, working to restore ecosystem health in wild and working landscapes, increasing native species in urban environments, and expanding education. These objectives also will meet our societal needs, particularly as communities grow and build their economies. Additionally, by promoting the story of biodiversity and its social and economic value, we will foster more sustainable practices, inspire regional pride, increase support for conservation and protection efforts, lift up new leadership, and promote volunteerism in service of protecting biodiversity across all landscapes.
Theory of Change
In July 2023, over 40 environmental leaders met at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden to explore the creation of a shared vision of biodiversity to energize a movement on par with climate change and invoke greater urgency into action. With all partners bringing their own lenses and areas of focus to the conversation, we explored how best to support and unify the many players working in conservation, resource protection, restoration, and climate action to create a biodiversity vision that reflects community priorities and values.
In addition to input from workshop participants, common themes for biodiversity and conservation were gleaned from over 35 community plans, reports, policy documents, and collaborative visioning processes (21 local sources; 14 state government, national government, and biodiversity-aligned nongovernmental sources). From this review and the outputs from the workshop, common themes emerged and were aggregated into a draft biodiversity framework. This framework was then shared with survey participants in fall 2023, who reviewed it and provided feedback.
A second workshop facilitated by the Garden and held at the Community Environmental Council’s Environmental Hub in December 2023 had over 50 participants. The goal of this workshop was to begin galvanizing the community around a biodiversity vision and elevate ways of working collectively. Workshop attendees were presented with the draft biodiversity framework and survey results, and through facilitated discussions and panel presentations, we gathered addition input and suggestions that were incorporated into the current version of the framework.
This vision and policy framework are starting points for elevating biodiversity priorities and generating collaboration and cooperation for supporting and protecting biodiversity and ecosystems in our region. Next steps will be to secure commitments/pledges to the biodiversity vision and policy framework from a range of conservation organizations, form a working group to help identify strategies for advancing policy goals, and promote a biodiversity resolution for cities and county government to adopt.
Background: Creation of the
Biodiversity Vision Framework
Together, We’re Stronger.Are You Ready?
Together, We’re Stronger.Are You Ready?
Together, We’re Stronger.Are You Ready?
Together, We’re Stronger.Are You Ready?
SBBotanicGarden.org
The solution tobiodiversity lossis in our hands -and our gardens.
1212 Mission Canyon Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
805.682.4726
SBBotanicGarden.org
October 1, 2026
Re: City of Goleta Biodiversity Resolution, Item A4
Dear Mayor Perotte and Members of the City Council:
On behalf of Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, we would like to applaud your consideration of the local biodiversity resolution recently submitted to you by your staff, proposed by a coalition of organizations working under the banner of the Central Coast Biodiversity Working Group. We strongly encourage its adoption.
With 55 regional nonprofits all signed on to a shared Vision and Policy Platform in Support of Biodiversity on California’s Central Coast (attached), this resolution is an important acknowledgement of the unique eco-region in which we reside, the benefits biodiversity brings our community, and the concerted and intersectional efforts now underway to protect and enhance biodiversity wherever and however we are able.
As you know, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is particularly interested in native plants and the role they play in ecosystem health. Native plants are critical because they form the foundation of the web of life, having coevolved over thousands or millions of years with insects, birds, and other wildlife that depend on them for food, shelter, and timing of life cycles like pollination and migration. Because they are adapted to local climates and conditions, native plants also make communities more resilient by reducing urban heat, conserving water, supporting pollination and natural pest control, and helping landscapes recover from disturbances like wildfire and erosion.
It is our hope that today’s resolution might seed the way for increased attention to the role that native plants play in urban landscapes – from roadsides and sidewalks to parks, development projects, and beyond. As we’ve seen with many of the Garden’s own Landscape Transformation projects in Cuyama, Santa Barbara, Montecito and elsewhere, native plants and urban activity can coexist! Through partnerships and incentives, policy initiatives and code updates, native plants could form the pillar of future city-based ecological design. Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is here as a resource to support you and your staff in this critical effort.
Thank you for your support, and again, we strongly encourage your adoption of the biodiversity resolution in front of you today.
____________________________________
Eric Cárdenas, Impact and Advocacy Director
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
1430 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 PO Box 90106, Santa Barbara, CA 93190; Office: (805) 965-7570 www.healtheocean.org 2 October 2026 Goleta City Hall Council Chambers 130 Cremona Dr. Goleta, CA 93117 Re: Agenda Item A4. - Resolution Supporting Biodiversity Conservation Dear Mayor Perotte and City Councilmembers, Heal the Ocean (HTO) supports your Staff Recommendation to adopt Resolution 26-___, entitled “A
Resolution
of
the
City
Council
of
the
City
of
Goleta,
California,
Supporting
Biodiversity
Conservation
and
Climate
Resilience
on
Caliofornia’s
South
Central
Coast”.
HTO
applauds
the
City
for
this
Resolution,
as
statements
like
these
form
the
foundation
for
effective
future
environmental
actions
and
policies.
We
are
encouraged
that
the
City
is
a
leader
in
environmental
actions
as
part
of
your
sustainability
and
climate
work.
HTO focuses on reducing ocean pollution and improving the health of our oceans and resilience of
our
coasts
to
benefit
people
and
wildlife.
The
City
of
Goleta
has
a
long
and
profound
history
of
conservation
and
environmental
protection,
and
we
are
proud
to
be
one
of
many
groups,
including
Goleta’s
City
Council
and
other
governmental
agencies,
dedicated
to
protecting
this
incredibly
biodiverse
region.
We are part of a regional collaborative, the Biodiversity Working Group, that meets quarterly to discuss
pressing
issues
impacting
and
benefiting
local
biodiversity.
The
group
consists
of
55 organizations
that
have
signed
on
to
a
shared
vision
and
policy
platform
in
support
of
biodiversity
on
the
central
coast.
We
encourage
future
actions
by
the
City
to
integrate
biodiversity
considerations
into
City
planning,
zoning,
and
development
decisions,
including
the
use
of
native
plant
landscaping,
wildlife-friendly
design,
and
nature-based
solutions
to
coastal
resilience,
such
as
wetland
and
dune
restoration.
We
look
forward
to
supporting
these
future
actions
and
related
projects
by
the
City.
HTO
staff
are
also
available
to
support
or
advise
on
these
types
of
projects,
so
please
feel
free
to
reach
out
directly.
We will continue to fight against marine and coastal pollution, a threat to our native biodiversity, and
we
will
continue
advocating
for,
advising,
and
implementing
projects
on
our
coast
that
not
only
support
native
species
and
biodiversity,
but
also
make
our
coastlines
more
resilient.
Biodiversity enhances resilience against climate change, supports public health and our local economy,
improves
water
quality,
and
is
essential
to
providing
many
benefits
and
positive
outcomes
that
come
from
thriving
ecosystems,
both
on
land
and
in
the
ocean.
Thank you for this opportunity to provide a letter of support for the City’s Resolution. We are proud
to
support
this
policy.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. Sincerely, Noah Boland Programs Manager, Heal the Ocean www.healtheocean.org [email protected] Karina Johnston Executive Director, Heal the Ocean www.healtheocean.org [email protected] 2