The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published Thursday a revised proposal that reduces by 82 percent the area proposed to be designated as critical habitat for the threatened California red-legged frog. The Service also opened a public comment period on the proposal, which ends on Feb. 1, 2006.

In northern San Mateo County, the habitat has been reduced from roughly the entire area between between Highway to 280 and the developed coastal zone, to the area around the Crystal Springs Reservoir.

The frog has been found on several Coastside development sites, including Wavecrest and Half Moon Bay’s new park.

The proposal is revised from a habitat area of 4 million acres in April, 2004, down to 800,000 acres today.  Critical habitat has been eliminated from Fresno, Mariposa, Plumas, San Diego, San Joaquin, Sonoma, Tehama, and Tuolumne counties.

Critical habitat represents the potential habitat of a species and does not necessarily reflect its actual habitat. This change in designation shouldn’t affect sites where the frog has been found.

Paradoxically, the analysis that reduces the critical habitat is based on lost development opportunities could total as much as $497 million over 20 years.

Of the 89,201 housing units projected to be built in the 23 counties over the next 20 years, 760 of them or 0.9 per cent, would not be built as a result of designating critical habitat, according to CRA International.  The projected impacts are greatest in following counties: San Luis Obispo ($166 million), Alameda ($91 million), Contra Costa ($88 million) and Santa Barbara ($41 million).

The Service is revising the habitat area becuase of a court order in a lawsuit brought by the Home Builders Association of Northern California, California Chamber of Commerce, California Building Industry Association, California Alliance for Jobs, and the Building Industry Legal Defense Fund.

Public comments on the proposed rule will be accepted until Feb. 1, 2006.  Written comments on the proposal should be submitted to the Field Supervisor, Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2800 Cottage Way, Suite W. 2605, Sacramento, CA  95825, or by facsimile to (916) 414-6712.  Comments may also be sent by electronic mail to . 

Requests for public hearings on the proposal must be submitted within 45 days to the Field Supervisor, Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2800 Cottage Way, Suite W. 2605, Sacramento, CA 95825.

• Report on proposed habitat [PDF]


• USFWS website on red-legged frog habitat


• Full-sized map of 2005 proposed habitat in San Mateo County [PDF]


• Full-sized map of 2004 proposed habitat in San Mateo County [PDF]


• Full-sized map of 2005 proposed habitat in Northern California [PDF]

This report is based on the USFWS press release.  Click “read more” to see the release.

Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside (SAM) has released a feasibility study on water reuse and an addendum. Water recycling is an important long-term issue on the Coastside, which has already exceeded locally-available water sources. Water recycling is also an issue in this month’s election in Half Moon Bay, with a non-binding vote on the ballot.

The study was conducted by Carollo Engineers, P.C., a leading engineering firm specializing in water and wastewater treatment facility design and water reuse systems.

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is holding four public meetings in November and December 2005 to provide the public with extensive opportunities to advise how the District can best build relationships with its neighbors and amend its “Good Neighbor Policy”.

The meetings will be held on the coastside, on Skyline Boulevard, and in Los Gatos at the following dates and locations:

November 1: Pescadero
(7:30 p.m.- 9:30 p.m.)
La Honda-Pescadero Elementary School (620 North Street)

November 3: Skyline
(7:30 p.m.- 9:30 p.m.)
MROSD Skyline Field Office (21150 Skyline Blvd.)

November 17: Half Moon Bay
(7:30 p.m.- 9:30 p.m.)
Ted Adcock Community Center (535 Kelly Ave.)

December 1: Los Gatos
(7:30 p.m.- 9:30 p.m.)
Neighborhood Center (208  East Main Street)

Heal the Bay has released its 2005 California Summer Beach Report Card [PDF]. Overall, Coastside beaches did well, with 18 beaches in San Mateo County receiving A’s.  However, Pillar Point Harbor at Capistrano Avenue Beach [Google map], which received the County’s only F grade. Also, both Fitzgerald Marine Reserve at San Vicente Creek and Venice Beach at Frenchman’s Creek received grades of C.

However, for the most recent 4-week period, Pillar Point Harbor received a C and Venice Beach a D, with all other County beaches getting an A or A+. [Report card at Heal the Bay]

The problem at Pillar Point Harbor is long-standing. The site suffers from lack of circulation because of the breakwater, plenty of birds, and other sources of pollution from its use as a harbor.

San Francisco County received 11 A’s and 2 B’s, and Santa Cruz received 11 A’s but two of its beaches were closed this summer.

According to Heal the Bay, the overall water quality at California beaches this past summer was very good. Of the approximately 450 monitoring locations throughout California, 407 locations (91%) received very good-to-excellent water quality marks (365 A’s and 42 B’s). There were 41 locations (9%) that received fair-to-poor water quality marks (20 C’s, 6 D’s and 15 F’s). Overall, California’s summer beach water quality grades were slightly better than the summers of 2004 and 2003.

The grades are based on dry weather water quality data provided collected between Memorial Day and September 30, 2005. 

Heal the Bay

This month, Pillar Point Harbor received a C and Venice Beach a D.

In its endorsements for the Montara Water and Sanitary District, the Half Moon Bay Review seems to have gotten confused.

In endorsing Paul Perkovic, Bob Ptacek, and Peggy Ruse for seats on the board, the Review concluded:

That leaves Jim Harvey the odd man out. He was appointed to his current seat three years ago and generally agrees with the other incumbents on issues of planning and water supply. He has been a good steward; we simply found him the least strong of four good candidates.

Actually, although Jim Harvey was appointed to his seat three years ago, it was a two-year seat and he stood for election in 2003. In that election, he was endorsed by the Review over Peggy Ruse [Review’s 2003 endorsements], who was running against him for the two-year seat, and Harvey soundly defeated Ruse [PDF of election results], with 55% of the votes to Ruse’s 8% (she was fourth in a four-way race).

Coastsiders have written to the Review to set the record straight, but none of their letters appeared in Wednesday’s paper, the first after the paper’s MWSD endorsement appeared.

Review Managing Editor Clay Lambert replied to Coastsider’s email asking what happened:

I think even the folks who complain about the newspaper (at least those who take the time to correspond) know that I print virtually every letter I get—including those that are critical of me. Frequent writers also know that I print them in the order in which they are received. I ran out of room for about a half-dozen last week. I will make every effort to get them all in this week.

Jim Harvey, a good and thoughtful man who impressed me very much during our interview, was originally appointed and subsequently elected. That could have been more clear in our endorsement.

We have a lot of challenges with the County’s determination to expand the population faster than our supply of water. And we’re still digesting the purchase of our water system. Fortunately, the current members of the Montara Water and Sanitary District are sincere, hard-working and smart.

We don’t object to the idea of adding new blood to a board, but it’s difficult to make a case for Peggy Ruse.  I recommend reading her statement at Smartvoter. A lot of it is nearly incomprehensible. I don’t understand her argument we should vote for her because no resident of Moss Beach is on the board. She presents no support for her pie-in-the-sky proposal to bring Hetch Hetchy water into the district with a pipeline through the Devil’s Slide Tunnel. And she does not support her allegations that the board has a “hidden agenda”, other than their endorsement by the League for Coastside Protection, which she says has a “reputation for being no-growth”. That charge is leveled at the LCP all the time, but no one (least of all Peggy Ruse) has demonstrated it.

Residents of Montara and Moss Beach are lucky to have their current water board and we recommend voting for the incumbents.

Coastside County Water District (CCWD) could use a little fresh air. It is supporting the sale of connections to its water system by speculators for $30,000; it’s stockpiling large amounts of cash; it’s raising its employees’ pay and betterment benefits generously; and its infrastructure strategy is arguably designed to encourage development.  (For one view of these issues, read the analysis of CCWD’s budget at Voice of the Coast.)

Finally, with the Coastside seriously examining water recycling, we are about to enter into a huge debate whether the water we save should be used for growth or restoration.

There should be more conversation and debate about these policies, but the current board seems to have a consensus. There’s not a lot of public debate going on.

I sat in on the CCWD meeting where the board voted unanimously to charge close to nearly $30,000 for water connections. The board’s big concern seemed to be whether it was going to take away the profits of speculators whom the board members acknowledged were hoarding connections.  The consensus was, “That’s what markets are for.” But it’s not what water boards are for. Because it was a daytime meeting, I was the only member of the public in the audience.  An independent board member would assure that more than one voice is represented at these crucial meetings.

Jim Marsh is knowledgeable and experienced about the district. While he can’t change the culture of the CCWD board by himself, adding an independent voice to the board would improve the quality of the conversation at a crucial moment in the Coastside’s history.

The National Weather Service has announced that due to high winds (especially on the hills) from an incoming cold front, that there will be a fire weather watch from Saturday at 6pm to Monday at 6am throughout the Bay Area. Although some rain is forecast, it is expected to be extremely light.

Click “read more” to see the full report.

The National Weather Service has issued a high surf advisory from 11am Saturday to 5pm Sunday. This will produce rip currents and erosion as well as high waves.

A strong low pressure system presently centered approximately 500 nm west of the Washington/Oregon border has generated a large northwesterly swell that will impact the California coast beginning today. Swells are expected to peak Saturday into Sunday with heights reaching 15 to 19 ft. Swells will be steep due to the relatively short periods between swells. The northwesterly swell will continue through sunday and slowly taper off Monday and Tuesday.

During the last high surf advisory, which affected south-facing beaches, five people were swept off the Pillar Point Harbor breakwater.

Darin Bovile

Click on the image to see the full-size version.

Montara-based photographer Darin Boville sent us this beautiful image taken from just above Farallone View Elementary in Montara on Sunday night. Darin says, “We don’t get as many of them here as in other parts of the country--not enough dust blowing up due to the ocean, I suppose.”

Be sure to click on the image to see the full-size version. You’ll be glad you did.