In evaluating potential projects that include acquisition or restoration for the purpose of natural resource protection, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the board, and the State Coastal Conservancy shall give priority to projects that demonstrate one or more of the following characteristics:
(a)
Landscape/Habitat Linkages: properties that link to, or contribute to linking, existing protected areas with other large blocks of protected habitat. Linkages must serve to connect existing protected areas, facilitate wildlife movement or botanical transfer, and result in sustainable combined acreage.
(b)
Watershed Protection: projects that contribute to long-term protection of and improvement to the water and biological quality of the streams, aquifers, and terrestrial resources of priority watersheds of the major biological regions of the state as identified by the Resources Agency.
(c)
Properties that support relatively large areas of under-protected major habitat types.
(d)
Properties that provide habitat linkages between two or more major biological regions of the state.
(e)
Properties for which there is a non-state matching contribution toward the acquisition, restoration, stewardship or management costs. Matching contributions can be either monetary or in the form of services, including volunteer services.
(f)
At least fourteen days before approving an acquisition project funded by this division, an agency subject to this section shall submit to the Resources Agency and post on its website an explanation as to whether and how the proposed acquisition meets criteria established in this section.