Embedded within San Francisco’s program to retrofit our ailing Hetch Hetchy water system is a plan to divert up to 25 million more gallons of water per day from the Tuolumne River. The Tuolumne, with its headwaters in Yosemite National Park, is a federally- protected Wild and Scenic River and a California jewel. With the looming consequences of global warming, an ever-growing demand for water, and the need to sustain the health of our rivers, delta and ocean ecosystems, the conflict over water has taken center stage.
We invite Pacifica residents to learn how our community is connected to these problems and howe can be part of the solution.
~ PowerPoint Presentation
~ What You Can Do
~ Food and Beverages Provided
City Council Chambers
2212 Beach Blvd Pacifica, CA 94044
Tuesday, April 15
7:00pm
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If you do nothing else, watch the lawyer’s announcement and imagine yourself in the audience.
We’ve broken out the city council’s discussion as well as the oral communications so you can watch individual presentations. We will post the rest of the city council meeting when it is ready.
For more than a decade steelhead have been dying in Pescadero Creek in December and January. The Creek has been so altered that it’s not even clear how the stream should behave any longer, reports the County Times.
The last leg in the journey is the most perilous one, when steelhead living in the brackish waters of the lagoon are caught in the influx of saltwater stirred up when the sandbar breaks, letting in the ocean. Scientists now believe the saltwater robs the lagoon of its oxygen in places, choking the fish as they attempt to swim out to sea.
This apparently natural phenomenon may be the result of years of tinkering with the ecosystem by farmers, fishermen and even California State Parks. Officials are now at odds over whether a man-made solution is called for, or whether more human involvement would do more harm than good.
“The system is so altered from all angles that it’s hard to say what would result in better habitat,” said Joanne Kerbavaz, a resource ecologist with State Parks.
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The history of human interference in the creek began in the late 19th century, when local farmers would artificially breach the 40-foot sandbar at the mouth of the creek ahead of nature’s time to prevent the creek from backing up and flooding their farmland.
They built levees along the creek for the same purpose and watered their fields with it. Meanwhile, many ancient redwood stands in the upper watershed were clear-cut to create housing on the Peninsula — around 1906 and again after World War II.
This legacy of logging roads and erodable hillsides continues to push sediment into the creek and its tributaries, interfering with steelhead breeding and changing the creek’s shape.
Fisherman would breach the sandbar so fish could move upstream. State Parks did it to accelate the creek to create marshlands. And no one is certain how the stream should flow any longer.
Pillar Point Harbor is filling with sand because of its breawakter. At the same time, the force of waves deflected by the breakwater is eroding the cliffs above Surfers Beach, reports the County Times.
When other harbors, such as Oyster Point Marina in South San Francisco, face the same problem, the common solution is to dredge the sand out and dump it on a nearby beach. A growing chorus of voices, surfers among them, suggest this is the perfect solution for both Pillar Point and Surfer’s Beach, which could clearly use the sand.
The problem is, that’s not an option at Surfer’s Beach, which lies within the protected boundaries of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
And that’s just the beginning of the complexity.
As part of the effort to create the new General Management Plan for Golden Gate National Recreation Area, we invite you to join members of the National Park Service planning team on a couple of short walks to help develop ideas for the future of key sites in San Mateo County. Two walks are scheduled at Rancho Corral de Tierra — 4,200 acres of open space on the slopes of Montara Mountain managed by Peninsula Open Space Trust which will soon become part of the park. The group will observe the conditions and resources in these areas and share ideas about what they might become in the future. These are excellent opportunities to have your ideas shape the emerging plan. Call (415) 561-4930 to RSVP and get meeting locations.
Rancho Corral de Tierra: North – Saturday March 29 , 10:00am to Noon
Meet representatives from the GGNRA and Peninsula Open Space Trust and explore the area along Martini Creek, between McNee Ranch State Park and the town of Montara. Talk about the area’s future as the southern gateway to the park.
Rancho Corral de Tierra: South – Saturday April 5 , 10:00am to Noon
Similar to the walk scheduled for March 29, but this walk will focus on lower San Vicente and Denniston Creeks between the towns of Moss Beach and El Granada.
Opportunities to discuss the park’s future will also be part of two other popular spring hikes: the “Redwood Ramble” at the Phleger Estate (March 8, led by NPS Ranger George Durgerian), and “Sweeney Ridge Saunter” (March 16, led by Nike veteran David Bridgman). Call (415) 561-4323 for information about these longer hikes.
The park’s website is GGNRA website.
The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has received a donation of a conservation easement on a 952-acre ranch along Highway 1 south of Half Moon Bay. Landowner Kathleen Scutchfield donated the easement, valued at $7.9 million, to preserve the scenic vistas and rich natural resources on the property, known as Toto Ranch.
“I’ve seen how development has been creeping up and down the coast and feel it’s important to make a statement and save this land just as it is, in its open, natural state,” said Scutchfield. “POST has done so much to preserve the character of the Coastside, and I want to see that this beautiful land is protected forever.”
A native of Texas and a longtime supporter of POST, Scutchfield has called California home since 1971. She co-founded the nonprofit Until There’s a Cure Foundation, which raises funds for AIDS vaccine development, care and services for AIDS patients, and AIDS education. She is also a trustee emeritus of the San Francisco Ballet. An avid equestrian, she lives in Woodside, Calif. She purchased Toto Ranch in 1982 with her late husband, Donald.
The land is currently used for open space and grazing. The easement protects five acres of prime agricultural soils as well as grassland and hardwood and mixed evergreen forest. It also preserves a lengthy corridor of watershed along Tunitas Creek and its tributaries, which provide wildlife habitat for the federally threatened steelhead trout and federally endangered Coho salmon, as well as the California red-legged frog, white-tailed kite, peregrine falcon, Cooper’s hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, golden eagle and marbled murrelet.
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KQED’s Quest visits Pillar Point Harbor to examine the mysterious, disturbing invasion of the unpleasant Humboldt squid from Mexican waters to northern California and beyond.
A mysterious sea creature up to 7 feet long, with 10 arms, a sharp beak and a ravenous appetite, has invaded ocean waters off Northern California. Packs of fierce Humboldt Squid attack nearly everything they see, from fish to scuba divers. Marine biologists are working to discover why they’ve headed north from their traditional homes off South America.
Last Wednesday night, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to award a five-year grazing lease for its Tunitas Creek property to local coastside rancher Doug Edwards. Mr. Edwards has been running a year-round cow-calf operation on the property since July 2005 under a year-to-year lease with the previous landowner.
The District’s grazing management plan for the Tunitas Creek property is a guide to conservation grazing that is tailored to suit the resource management needs of the land. Conservation grazing is the use of livestock grazing as a management tool for enhancing the diversity of native plant and animal communities, controlling the spread of invasive non-native plants, and managing vegetative fuel for fire prevention. The continuation of grazing on the Tunitas Creek property is also consistent with the goals of District’s Grazing Policy which include helping sustain the local agricultural economy and fostering appreciation for the region’s rural agricultural heritage. The continuation of grazing on the property through the prescriptions in the grazing management plan is supported by the San Mateo County Farm Bureau and the San Mateo County Agricultural Advisory Committee. .
The 708-acre Tunitas Creek property is tucked into the San Mateo coastal hillside about eight miles south of Half Moon Bay. The property was purchased by the District in February 2007 from the Peninsula Open Space Trust.
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Coastside Land Trust
Happy crew from a recent Coastside Land Trust restoration event, including two city council members.
Coastside Land Trust
Join Coastside Land Trust for native habitat restoration, Saturday, March 29 at Francis Beach, Half Moon Bay 12:30 to 3 pm. After an introduction to native plant habitat by a biologist, you will spend a couple of hours removing non-native plants and restoring native habitat at the Trust’s open space adjacent to Francis Beach.
Check in at the Francis Beach parking lot kiosk (at the end of Kelly Ave.) for directions to the work site. Parking is free for volunteers. Refreshments provided. All ages welcome.
