Next month, the State Park and Recreation Commission will be holding a hearing in San Jose to take public testimony about the park closures and lifeguard staffing reductions.

In San Mateo County, Portola Redwoods State Park is also threatened with closure.  This park includes stands of virgin redwoods and its trails provide essential links with other parts of the open space system in our area. Check Bay Area Hiker for a hike you may want to take while you still can. There’s a great story about the potential closure of this park by Julia Scott on the Palo Alto Daily News site:

"There are so few opportunities to camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Unless you go all the way down to Castle Rock State Park, or Big Basin Redwoods State Park or Butano State Park (the only other campground in the county). It’s much more accessible to folks on the Peninsula side," said Bill Young, who leads hikes through Portola Redwoods and other local parks for the Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club

Among the 48 parks targeted for closure, the largest is Henry Coe State Park, which is mostly in Santa Clara County.  At 87,000 acres it is the largest State Park in Northern California and the second-largest in the State.

The public hearing will be on Tuesday, April 15 at 6pm at the Santa Clara County Government Center, 70 West Hedding Street, San Jose.  You will have a chance to speak and also to submit written comments.

Our governor has dropped a couple of his (ultra-prominent) appointees to the State Parks Commission for their opposition to running a toll road through a state beach, reports the LA Times.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has dropped his brother-in-law, Bobby Shriver, and fellow action hero Clint Eastwood from the state parks commission after their vigorous opposition helped derail a plan for a toll road through San Onofre State Beach in San Diego County.

The decision not to renew the commissioners’ terms, which expired last week, surprised observers and sent a strong signal that the governor expects loyalty from political appointees.

"This is a warning shot from the governor’s office to all of his appointees: Do what I say, no matter how stupid it is," said Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Los Angeles. "And I know of no project more destructive to the California coast than this toll road project."

NOTE: The deadline for this appears to have already passed.

Senate Bill 1295 by Senator Denise Moreno Ducheny (San Diego) would eliminate the Coastal Commission’s ability to appeal development permits granted by local governments up and down the coast.  Please write or fax Senator Darrell Steinberg, Chair, Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee.  Tell him you oppose SB 1295, and send a copy to Senator Ducheny.

What’s Happening

Senator Ducheny’s bill would eliminate the ability of the Coastal Commission to appeal coastal development permits granted by local governments.  While members of the public can also appeal these permits, citizens and non-profit organizations do not always have the resources or ability to monitor every single one of the hundreds of local permits up and down the coast and appeal the significant ones within a very short ten-day time frame.

Why this is Important

The California Coastal Act provides for oversight by the Coastal Commission over development proposals along the coast.  While the primary responsibility for reviewing projects lies with local governments, the Coastal Commission acts as an appeal body for projects that could adversely affect sensitive coastal habitats, scenic resources, water quality, or public access. The staff of the Coastal Commission receives notice of all local projects, and under the present law, can appeal them by having two Commissioners sign on to an appeal. Once appealed, the public has the opportunity to address issues of concern to them.  If the Commission’s ability to appeal projects is eliminated, many will fall through the cracks, and our coast could be seriously affected by inappropriate or harmful development.

What you can do

Please write or fax Senator Steinberg and send a copy to Senator Ducheny.  We recommend faxing as all letters must be received by March 18th and faxes have more impact than e-mails.  Please let us know that you have written [email protected]

Committee for Green Foothills hired Santa Clara county resident Cynthia D’Agosta to lead the organization.  Ms. D’Agosta will take the reins on May 1, overseeing its programs and fundraising as its new Executive Director.  The Committee for Green Foothills, headquartered in Palo Alto, works for open space and natural resources protection throughout San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

A native Californian, Cynthia’s community involvement and work experiences cover a wide range of leadership and team work on open space planning and natural resource protection.  After receiving her Masters in Landscape Architecture (MLA), from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and a BS in Science and Fine Arts, from UC Santa Cruz, Cynthia jumped right into the work of protecting the environment.   

She has spent the last 8 years working as the first Executive Director of a new local government agency, the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority.  Prior to returning to the Bay Area in 2000 for this position, Cynthia worked in Southern California on river restoration issues and park and open space planning for the County of Los Angeles and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a JPA of the Santa Monica Mountains State Conservancy. She is also a visual artist who uses landscapes as her inspiration and often her medium.

Join us for our Sanctuary Visitor Center Open House Celebration on Saturday, March 22nd from 1 pm – 4 pm.  Short of a three hour boat trip, this is as up close and personal as you may get to the marine life of the Farallones.

Discover why the sanctuary is famous for the "Big Three" (1) giant blue whales (2) white sharks and (3) the largest seabird rookery in the contiguous United States. Enjoy the Habitat Room featuring living marine life including sand crabs, monkeyface eels and more!

As a rare bonus, the historic Tide Station will be open for you to participate in a special lab featuring marine life eggs. Celebrate with the designers, educators, sanctuary staff and volunteers who have helped make the Sanctuary Visitor Center renovation a success.

For directions to Crissy Field Beach and the Sanctuary Visitor Center:
http://www.farallones.org/about_us/directions.php

EDITOR’S NOTE: Bill McKibben is one of my favorite writers. "The End of Nature" is still an important book on global warming, even though it was written 20 years ago. "The Age of Missing Information" changed the way I think about TV. And you’d be surprised just how much I think about TV. His latest book, "Deep Economy", emphasizes moving beyond growth and focusing on local and regional self-reliance, something that might have lessons for the future of the Coastside.

Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) opens its 15th Annual Wallace Stegner Lecture Series with Bill McKibben. McKibben, a former staff writer for The New Yorker, writes about global warming, alternative energy and the risks associated with human genetic engineering.

McKibben’s new book "Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future", makes the compelling case for moving beyond "growth" as the paramount economic ideal and pursuing prosperity in a more local direction. Our purchases need not be at odds with the things we truly value, McKibben argues, and the more we nurture the essential humanity of our economy, the more we will recapture our own.
 
Bill McKibben’s lecture will be held at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts on March 20 at 8:00 p.m., and will be followed by a question-and-answer session and book-signing reception.
            
For more information on the Wallace Stegner Lecture Series or to purchase a subscription, please contact POST at (650) 854-7696. Single tickets for Bill McKibben, N. Scott Momaday and Kaiulani Lee are $22 and can be ordered through the box office at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts at (650) 903-6000.

There will be an interactive presentation on global warming at Hatch Elementary on March 20, in conjunction with the annual Hatch Elementary School Ocean Week program where young students witness and confront the natural and altered effects of our ocean on our environment.

Lisa Dettloff will present on behalf of he Climate Project, a non-profit organization with the mission of increasing public awareness of the climate crisis at a grassroots level throughout the United States and abroad. The program is open to all Hatch School families and the community at-large, starting at 7:00 pm on Thursday, March 20, 2008, in the Hatch School Multi-Use room.  There is no fee. 

Save our Shores is back! We put together a Ocean Leadership Conference at the Harbor House starting next Wed. evening 6-9 pm. We’ll look at the issues of watershed health, fisheries and the Marine Life Protection Act, erosion, Pillar Point Harbor, and more.

Oceans need our help now more than ever!  Declining fisheries, increasing quantities of marine debris, and oil and toxins polluting near shore waters are just a few of the threats facing our oceans today.  Save Our Shores is holding an Ocean Leadership Conference in March for Coastside communities in the Half Moon Bay area!  Participants will learn about current marine conservation issues such as Marine Protected Areas, marine debris, and local coastal watersheds.  Presentations will be given by the honorable Fred Keeley, Bob Breen, Brenda Donald, and other members of the Coastside communities.

The conference will also provide hands-on tools for empowering participants to become advocates for healthy oceans.  After the conference, participants will work with Save Our Shores staff to assess the needs of Coastside communities and then design and implement activities to engage their community in ocean conservation.

The conference will be held at the Harbor House Conference Center in the Pillar Point Harbor, beginning March 12th.  It is free and open to anyone ready to learn about marine conservation issues, and enthusiastic about becoming an ocean conservation leader in Coastside communities.  Anyone interested in participating in the conference should contact Chris Reeves, Conference Coordinator at [email protected] or call: (831) 462-5660 extension 5# for an application.

Harbor House Conference Center at Pillar Point Harbor
March 12-22, 2008: Wednesdays from 6-9 pm and Saturdays from 9 am to 4 pm
FREE, but please RSVP. Food and beverages will be provided.
For RSVP, questions or more info contact Chris Reeves at:
(831) 462-5660
[email protected]

The state park’s Plover Watch volunteer program is seeking more volunteers to monitor and protect the snowy plovers and their habitat.  During the plover nesting season, from March to September, each volunteer spend at least four hours per month on the beach.  Volunteers receive ongoing natural history training, free passes for local state parks, and the satisfaction that they are helping preserve an important part of California’s natural environment. 

A free, one-day training workshop for prospective Plover Watch volunteers will be offered on two dates at the Half Moon Bay State Beach office located at 95 Kelly Avenue, in Half Moon Bay.  The workshop will be held on Saturday, March 15, and again on Saturday, April 5, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  To register for one of the workshops or for more information, call Ranger Nelle Lyons at (650) 726-8804, voice mailbox 7 #, or e-mail [email protected].

Along the San Mateo County coast, trained volunteers play a major role in protecting the Western Snowy Plover—a small shorebird that lays its eggs on the sand at a few California beaches every summer. 

The snowy plovers, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, may be found on several local beaches during the winter months.  In the spring and summer, the plovers congregate on the few beaches that can provide safe nesting sites, including Half Moon Bay State Beach—a busy recreational beach where a protected habitat is set aside for the plovers to nest.