Join the League for Coastside Protection in cleaning up Surfer’s Beach tomorrow, Saturday, May 30 from noon to 2pm.

We will provide gloves and bags. Wearing closed-toed shoes and sun block is highly recommended. High school students who volunteer will receive Community Service Credit ­ get signed off at the LCP table.

There will be free CDs from Kings of Leon and Pearl Jam and tickets to see the All American Rejects at Konocti Harbor from LIVE 105 (while supplies last), for whoever finds the most interesting piece of garbage, or, whoever reads this email and asks for one of those prizes after picking up trash!
League for Coastside Protection hoodies will be available for purchase at the LCP tent, along with answers to your questions on Coastside issues.

Sign in at the LCP table in the parking lot just south of the RV lot by the jetty. Due to limited parking, you may have to park in the dirt lot across the highway.

Thanks for your help in cleaning up our beaches. For more information, please call Dana Kimsey at 726-1309 or go to our website at http://www.lcp.sanmateo.org.

Dana M. Kimsey
Co-chair
San Mateo County League for Coastside Protection

Members of the Pacifica Shorebird Alliance have started conducting observation of shorebirds along our local beaches. In doing so, we have settled on the recording model used by CA State Parks HMB for recording of Western Snowy Plovers. Since we will be submitting our recordings at Pacifica State Beach to CA State Parks, we have been asked that observers be trained by the volunteer program from Half Moon Bay. This is also appropriate since we plan on recording the local population of the Western Snowy Plover.

The training is composed of an evening training program of about 2 hours and follow-up beach walks with docent trainers and mentors until an observer is signed off. If you have an eye for bird identification, this would probably only be two beach sessions. For experienced bird watchers the beach sessions would be optional.  Personnel from the Half Moon Bay program have agreed to come to Pacifica to do the first portion of the training and we are reaching out to members of the community who want to join our efforts.

With climate change and increasing pressure on our coastal birds, we are interested in getting a baseline for current populations and track what many are reporting as changes in bird distributions and migration patterns. You don’t even have to be a beginner bird watcher, you will get training and mentoring. Observations currently consist of making a sweep of a beach/location for about 30min when you have the time to do so, and recording wildlife, location usage, disturbances, predators etc…

This training session will start here in Pacifica with follow-up beach walks in Half Moon Bay. The beach component should be over the following three weeks and be completed by the first week of July. Those follow-up beach sessions can be scheduled at your convenience with the initial training session here in Pacifica. If you are interested, please send us an email at [email protected]

Training Session
Wednesday June 10th
7:00pm to 9:00pm, Pacifica Community Center
Directions will be posted on our web site: www.pacificashorebird.org

Dyer Crouch
Pacifica Shorebird Alliance

April Vargas will be covering the county’s proposed updates to its Local Coastal Program (LCP) at tonight’s Midcoast Community Council (MCC) meeting. The LCP is the county’s plan for the unincorporated Midcoast. It is required by the Coastal Act and must be approved by the Coastal Commission.

MCC will meet at 7:30 pm at the Seton Medical Center Coastside, Marine Boulevard & Etheldore, Moss Beach. Take Highway 1 to Marine Boulevard and follow hospital signs uphill. Attendees must park in upper parking lots per hospital policy (turn left just before the end of the main driveway).

The county will be holding a hearing on the update at Half Moon Bay High School on June 16 at 5pm.

Coastal Commission staff rasised a number of significant issues with the county’s proposal. Some that were identified by the county as significant are listed below, but I’m sure there’s more that other folks in the Midcoast are interested in seeing covered.

• The scope of the proposed changes, which revise the amendments approved by the Board, as well as policies of the LCP that were not proposed for change.
• New policies that require demonstration of adequate public service capacities and restrict the allowable capacity of public works projects.
• A recommended prohibition against individual private wells and septic systems within the Midcoast urban area.
• Replacement of the County proposed 75-unit annual limit with a population growth rate of 1%, and application of this limit to secondary dwellings units.
• New policies that replace Countywide stormwater pollution control requirements with detailed construction, erosion control, drainage, and treatment standards.
• Deletion of a policy that would enable the County to resolve conflicts between LCP policies in a manner that is on balance the most protective of coastal resources.
• A prohibition against the formation or expansion of special districts until public service capacity issues are resolved.
• New traffic mitigation, monitoring, and reporting requirements.
• New requirements for the provision of coastal access trails and related studies.
• Deletion of a proposed incentive to provide affordable housing units.
• Requirements to designate the Devil’s Slide bypass alignment as a Linear Park and Trail and rezone this area to Community Open Space.
• Changes to land use designations and allowable uses on the Burnham Strip.

The Cunha Intermediate School Band Boosters will host an E-Waste recycling collection event on Saturday, May 30th 2009 from 9:00am to 4:00pm at the Cabrillo School District office parking lot at 498 Kelly Avenue, Half Moon Bay (next to Hatch Elementary School). All proceeds from the event benefit the band program at Cunha Intermediate School.

E-waste items that can be recycled for free at the event include computer desktops, laptops, keyboards, monitors, televisions, cell phones, pagers, and many other items. "We can take almost anything with a plug," say organizers. "Just drive up and we’ll unload for you."

Items that cannot be accepted include fluorescent bulbs, furniture, large appliances, refrigerators, solvents, paints, or oil.

"Recycle your e-waste at this event and you’ll be doing two good things at the same time" say organizers, "Greening the community and filling it with music."

There’s unexpected wild food for the picking on the Coastside. The California Report (on KQED) has a story about an "urban food forager" who comes to Half Moon Bay to collect wild greens, these and other plants from other Bay Area places are sold in gourmet retailers in San Francisco and via community supported foraging organizations such as ForageSF. The story acknowledges that foraging is not legal in state parks.

The Coastside Land Trust announced today the appointment of Patrick Ryan to its Board of Directors.

Patrick brings an extensive background in community service, land transactions and real estate negotiations to the Coastside Land Trust Board of Directors.

Patrick currently serves on the San Mateo County Historical Association Board of Directors as the Captain of the Major Divisional Annual Support Campaign.

Patrick Ryan, a resident Half Moon Bay and of the coastside since 1973, has enjoyed years of horse ownership, is an avid hiker, and enjoys walks on the beach with his family. He was educated at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and the University of Nebraska.

The Coastside Land Trust is dedicated to the preservation, protection and enhancement of the open space environment including the natural, scenic, recreational, cultural, historical, and agricultural resources of Half Moon Bay and the nearby areas for present and future generations.

Docents for the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District have scheduled free outdoor activities in May and June, all taking place on the District’s open space preserves throughout the South Bay, Peninsula and Coastside areas.

For further information, to make a reservation, or to obtain directions, please call 650-691-1200 or refer to the District’s Web site at www.openspace.org.

Friday, June 5, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve, meet at El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve
"Unique Redwood Trees"
Join docents David Milburn and Susan Peterson for a six mile hike to visit unique redwood trees in the Lobitos Creek area. Along Bald Knob Trail with distant views, your stops will include the "Reiteration Tree" with a buttressed secondary trunk and the "Chimney Tree" with a large goose pen.  Some off-trail hiking required. You will carpool to the trailhead. Reservations are required on or after May 22.

California at minimum should monitor and probably should regulate groundwater use, according critics quoted in the New York Times.

Since 2006 the surface of the aquifer, in the Kaweah subbasin of the San Joaquin basin, has dropped 50 feet as farmers pumped deeper, Mr. Watte says. Some of his pumps no longer reach far enough to bring any water to the surface. ...

Recent scientific studies indicate that in the long term, climate change is diminishing the potential for the Sierra snowpack to generate enough runoff. Aquifers are thus a crucial insurance policy for water users.

Critics argue that refusing to monitor and regulate groundwater could prove catastrophic to the state’s real estate sector and its $36 billion agricultural economy. ...

But even Mr. Schwarzenegger is heeding the growing drumbeat on groundwater. Issuing an emergency drought declaration in February, he asked local governments and water districts for the first time to supply the state with data on groundwater supplies.

Compliance so far has been spotty, said Mark Cowin, deputy director of the state’s Department of Water Resources. "In a lot of cases," Mr. Cowin said, "it’s simply a matter of the information not existing."

On the grass-roots level, resistance to monitoring is based not just in a property-rights credo but also in a belief that the state can ride out any dry spell. ...

Don Mills, general manager of the neighboring Kings County district, sees only two solutions: recharging aquifers by creating asphalt- and agriculture-free zones where water can be pooled to percolate down to the aquifer, or pumping less.

San Mateo County’s recently-released groundwater study was unable to draw firm conclusions about the security of the Coastside’s groundwater supply because of inadequate data collection by the county. From the study:

However, as the study progressed, it was determined that safe yield and groundwater/habitat relationships could not be accurately assessed due to the limited availability of well data, concerns regarding the accuracy of the data, and information gaps regarding surface water flows.

10 beautiful gardens on the tour, plus a special bonus feature with garden coaching and lavender essential oil production. Recipients can pick up their booklets and reception tickets starting at 9am at the info booth.

Hours: 10am to 4pm. Reception at Harley Farms from 4-6pm.

Info Booth opens at 9am in front of the Pescadero Post Office. Tickets are available online or on the day of the tour in front of the Pescadero Post Office at the corner of Stage Rd. & Pescadero Creek Rd.

• Gardens only tickets $25 each, $40 per pair
• Gardens & Reception Tickets $40 each, $70 per pair
• Reception only tickets: $20 each, $35 per pair
• Bring a friend save money when you buy two.

Proceeds benefit the children of the small, rural La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District through support of programs such as field trip sponsorships, art, drama, sports, fitness, scholarships for high school seniors, and educational travel.

I can’t resist saying it - I am in a jam.  A nice gooey, tangy jam.  A gorgeous golden gemmy delight and a  glimmering mess of bright jelly red.

The weather is to blame so lucky me, and lucky some of you around the Holidays as jam season has come early to Lobitos Creek Road. It seems those weird late rains made a mess of the raspberries and banged up the apricots, so I was able to get a passel of both on the cheap, and made jam in the fogbanks these past few evenings.  Apricot and raspberry.  Oh, my. 

I scorched the last batch of apricot while listening to Selected Shorts, which will not surprise my friend Elmer, but rescued it nicely by sauteing up a big ol’ pile of onions with ginger and rice vinegar, adding to the unintentionally carmelized apricots thus transforming the whole magilla into a very tasty chutney which I am looking forward to glazing a spring chicken with any day now. 

Really, I am looking forward to spring in general.  It was supposed to be here a few weeks ago, but seems to have changed places with late winter.