The US Fish & Wildlife Service and San Francisco Zoo are cooperating to bring five male/female pairs of San Francisco Garter snakes to the zoo where we can see the endangered reptiles up close.  The SF Garter Snake is often described as of the most beautiful snakes in the world, and it’s certainly one of the most newsworthy. The presence of the snake can be a real problem for any development because under California law, unlike the California Red-Legged Frog, there is no legal way to mitigate a "take" of SF Garter Snakes.

San Franscisco Garter Snake no longer exists in San Francisco. It can only be found in San Mateo County.

Click "Read more" to see the USFWS press release.

The Coast Guard is transferring the Pigeon Point Lighthouse to to the California Parks Department in a ceremony at the lighthouse today.  The long account in today’s Mercury News is well worth reading.

Despite its significance, this landmark is being preserved with private money. The state park system has no money to restore the lighthouse. The private California State Parks Foundation is raising $5 million over the next five year to renovate the lighthouse, which has been damaged by time and storms. Meanwhile, the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has bought much the surrounding land to keep it from being developed.

The results of survey of Montara Water and Sanitary District customers by an anti-public ownership think tank [PDF of survey] are in and they’re pretty much what you’d expect.

At the end of 2004, residents of Montara Water and Sanitary District received a mysterious survey in the mail. The survey, from the libertarian Reason Public Policy Institute, explained that property taxes had increased as a result of the purchase of the water system from California-American Water Company (owned by the German utilities conglomerate RWE), and then asked them "Would you vote for this measure again knowing what you know now?" At the time, some Coastsiders characterized it as a "push poll".

The researcher, Adrian Moore, has made a career of arguing that private ownership of utilities is better than public ownership. And a number of private utilities, including the former owners of Montara’s water, contribute to his employer. Moore provided an pro-privatization FAQ to something called Coalition Against a Government Takeover which was fighting a public takeover of RWE-owned Kentucky-American Water Company.

If the survey was designed to make public ownership look bad, it has done its job.

By a two-to-one margin (62% to 31%), respondents said that would not vote to buy the water system again [PDF of survey results].

After that, the rest of the results are an anticlimax:

• 62% said the quality of the service was unchanged.
• 67% said the quality of the water was unchanged.
• 47% said the cost of water bills is "worse".
• 71% said the cost of property taxes is "worse".
• 76% said they were aware that Montara and Moss Beach homeowners are paying an additional $169 in property taxes since the bonds were issued to buy the water system.

There are plenty of cautions that should be observed before interpreting this data. The survey was released between Christmas and New Year’s Day—timing that is guaranteed to reduce response rates.  89% of Montara and Moss Beach residents who received the survey did not respond. Also, the survey was clearly biased against public ownership. I strongly recommend you read it for yourself. It focused out the negative (the cost of the bonds) without pointing the positives (local ownership and control of rates) of the acquisition. This could certainly have influenced those opposed to public ownership to respond in greater numbers.

However, because the survey didn’t ask people how they voted in the election, only how they would vote if they could do it over, we’ll never know if the sample was biased. In 2001, 81% of Montara residents voted to issue bonds to buy their water system.

Meanwhile,  Felton in Santa Cruz County is gearing up for an election on whether to buy out their own Cal-Am system.  This data should be very useful to Cal-Am their fight to keep Felton voters from buying them out.

There have been plenty of accusations and jokes about it here on the Coastside, but someone has documented a likely case of a transplanted endangered species at a development site in Sebastopol.

Endangerd Sebastopol Meadowfoam has been found on the site of a controversial development in Sebastopol, and a scientist for the California Department of Fish and Game says it was probably transplanted there by someone who wanted to stop the development. He won’t say how he determined this because he doesn’t want to encourage this kind of activity. But it sounds like maybe there was soil from its original location in its roots.

"People joke about this all the time—stopping a development by putting an endangered plant in its path," said Gene Cooley, a Fish and Game botanist who surveyed the meadowfoam last week. "I have 25 years’ experience with state and federal agencies, and this is the only instance I know of where it’s actually happened."

The fact that this is the first case this Fish & Game scientist has seen is probably more notable than the fact that the endangered species was transplanted.

The County Times has more information about Peninsual Open Space Trust’s land management, especially dealing with pampas grass.  Because POST’s goal is to transfer land that they buy to other agencies, management is not a big part of their budget. But they are responsible for managing properties while they own them. The articles says that POST’s annual budget for "stewardship" is between $500,000 and $1 million.

The Bella Vista Foundation has awarded Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) a grant in the amount of $30,000 to help complete the removal of pampas grass on the 6,391-acre Cloverdale Coastal Ranch in Pescadero, CA. The Bella Vista Foundation has supported POST’s land management activities on Cloverdale since 2002, granting a total of $130,000 for stewardship activities. As a result of this support Cloverdale Coastal Ranches’ grasslands are much more diverse and healthier than they were several years ago.

Click "read more" to see the rest of the press release.

Committee for Green Foothills, a local environmental nonprofit organization, has announced a call to artists for an exhibition with an emphasis on the San Mateo County coast.  Nature’s Inspirations:  Celebrating the Arts, a juried exhibition will be held on Sunday, October 2, 2005 at Strawberry Ranch in Half Moon Bay. The exhibition is open to all Bay Area artists; photographs and original landscape paintings only (oil, acrylic, watercolor, mixed media, or pastel; on paper or canvas). Entry fee is $15. Application deadline July 13, 2005.

The Jane Gallagher Award and $250 cash prize will be awarded to an artist whose work honors the places, people and organizations that inspire the protection of open space.  Selected finalists will participate in the October 2 exhibition.

The prospectus is available from the CGF website. For more information, contact Committee for Green Foothills, 650.968.7243, or [email protected]

Santa Cruz County supervisors, in a show of respect and support for the small unincorporated community of Felton (pop. 6000), took their board meeting on the road to Felton’s community hall last night.

The sole item on the agenda was whether to put a bond on the ballot to help Felton buy their water system from Cal-Am.

Two years ago, Montara bought its water system from Cal-Am, a subsidiary of international conglomerate RWE Aktiengesellschaft headquartered in Essen, Germany.  Montara Water & Sanitary directors Scott Boyd and Kathryn Slater-Carter attended and shared some experiences from Montara/Moss Beach’s water system purchase.

A community group known as Felton FLOW, inspired by Montara’s success, has been gathering facts and working to put together a feasible plan.  The meeting rewarded their efforts, and puts them on the path to a June election.

The supervisors heard from a standing-room-only crowd, speaker after speaker imploring them to put a bond on the ballot to give them a chance to own their own water.

The crowd with the 5-0 vote with applause and a standing ovation.

Montara Water & Sanitary District (MWSD) is hosting community workshop at the Farallone View Elementary School’s multipurpose room. The meeting will run from 7:30pm to 10pm.

At the last workshop, attendees requested information on rate structures. This year, attendees will get a history of how the district got where it is, rate structures, progress in improving the water system, the Alta Vista Well, and water treatment projects, among other items.  There will be time for Q&A.

A summit of all the agencies responsible for water on the Coastside—in partnership with a host of other utilities, conservation organizations, and government agencies—will be held next Thursday in Half Moon Bay from 9am to 4pm.

The goal of the meeting is to balance the uses of the Pilarcitos Creek watershed. Coastside water use and quality is the responsibility of a bunch of agencies (Montara Water & Sanitary District, SF PUC, Coastside County Water District, and Sewer Authority Midcoastside—itself a joint effort of MWSD, Granada Sanitary District, and the city of Half Moon Bay) and the process of managing our water for home, agricultural, and the environmental use is complicated to say the least.

The people responsible for this complex system of water and waste will meet for a program that includes experts on water recycling, the current poor condition of Pilarcitos Creek, and how the creek can be restored. There will be an hour for Q&A, moderated by San Mateo County supervisor Rich Gordon.

The summit is produced by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Coastside County Water District, and Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside.  Partners, in addition to the producing agencies, include:

• California Department of Fish & Game
• City of Half Moon Bay
• Gulf of Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
• Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
• NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
• San Mateo County Resource Conservation District
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Committee for Green Foothills
• Peninsula Open Space Trust
• Pilarcitos Creek Advisory Committee
• Planning & Conservation League Foundation
• San Mateo County Farm Bureau
• Save Our Shores
• Surfrider Foundation San Mateo County
• Sustainable Conservation

This is a very important meeting—a watershed meeting in all senses of the word. I apologize for not getting this story online sooner, but I expected the Half Moon Bay Review to be all over it. The announcement flyer went out last Thursday and the press release on Tuesday morning.  There was nothing in yesterday’s paper, although the Review did run an announcement in February before the date had been chosen. It’s an all-day meeting, and most members of the public are going to need at least a week’s notice to get away from their jobs for this important meeting.

The meeting will be Thursday, April 28 from 9am to 4pm at I.D.E.S. Hall, 735 Main Street, in Half Moon Bay. Admission is free. And if you pre-register at 650.712.7765 you can reserve at free lunch. You can download the flyer and the agenda for the meeting from Coastsider.

Tell your friends.