The county Planning Commission’s hearing on the Final Environmental Impact Report for the Big Wave development in Princeton will be Wednesday, Nov 17, 6pm, at the El Granada Elementary Multipurpose Room. You can download the agenda from Coastsider.

If you’re planning to sit during this hearing, which will probably last late into the night, get there early.  Big Wave supporters are promising to deliver 200 to 300 people to the meeting.

Press release from Cabrillo Unified School District

The Cabrillo school community will celebrate the near-completion of a major new construction and modernization project at Cunha Intermediate by holding a ribbon- cutting ceremony at the front (office) entrance to the school at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 18. The Cunha Intermediate Cub Band will provide “pre-ceremony” entertainment and students in the Cunha Leadership class will be on-hand to provide tours of the completed work immediately afterward.

The total cost of the work at Cunha is expected to be close to $27 million with most of the funding coming from a Measure K Capital Improvement Bond approved by Coastside voters in 1996. Completed work includes a new two-story structure that houses a band room, visual arts room, five science labs, and nine general education classrooms; a new library/multi-media center; significant renovations to Buildings A (including the office area), D (including new locker-rooms), E, and the Multi-Use Room; new blacktopping and landscaping; and exterior painting to give the entire campus a “new and uniform” look.

Two remaining projects at Cunha will be completed within the current school year: the construction of a new parking lot and student drop-off area at the south end of the campus following the demolition of the old B and C classroom wings and the addition of a new electronic message board at the north end of the school.

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District is holding an open house to share information and solicit input as it continues planning for environmental restoration and public access to the summit of Mt. Umunhum.

Thursday, November 18, 2010
Anytime between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.

Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District
Administrative Office
330 Distel Circle
Los Altos, CA 94022

This will be the second opportunity for the public to give input on the project. The first meeting was held September 30 in Los Gatos and was attended by over 300 people. Their input helped the Open Space District begin shaping a vision for restoration and public access at Mt. Umunhum that the public will comment on during the open house.

Julia Scott has an article in the Mercury News with more background on why State Parks is being sued over its management of Pescadero Marsh:

An unknown number of juvenile steelhead suffocate each year in the brackish waters of the marsh when rains force open the sandbar at the mouth of the lagoon and the ocean flows in like a fire hose, mixing layers of freshwater and saltwater. Scientists believe this mixing stirs up toxic hydrogen sulfide and robs the water of oxygen the fish require to breathe.

Time is of the essence for one of the last steelhead runs in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties. The marsh also hosts the largest population of threatened California red-legged frogs in the state, and the Pescadero group asserts that increasing salinity levels have substantially hurt the frog population as well as the endangered San Francisco garter snake and the tidewater goby. [...]

Everyone acknowledges something went wrong in the 1990s, when State Parks, which owns the marsh, re-engineered the water flow with levees, culverts and water gates. Many of these fixes quickly became defective but were left in place.

Juvenile steelhead grow up feeding in the marsh estuary before going out to sea when the sandbar breaks. Most seasonal lagoons have broken open by now, but this sandbar forms in the fall and remains unbroken until winter. Aquatic plants begin to decompose, which affects dissolved oxygen levels in the water. In 1995, locals witnessed the first steelhead die-off. [...}

Internal correspondence obtained by the legal team through the Freedom of Information Act shows that the Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Department of Fish and Game officials agree that they would like to restore Pescadero Marsh to a freshwater lagoon system, but they are stymied by a difference of opinion with State Parks, which wants to avoid re-engineering the marsh.

The city of Half Moon Bay and the Chamber of Commerce are holding a Highway 1 Trail ribbon cutting and median landscaping groundbreaking ceremony Monday, November 15 at 10am. Attendees are requested to park near the Burger King parking lot at the intersection of Highways 1 & 92.

On Monday, November 8, a Pescadero-based non-profit, the Coastal Alliance for Species Enhancement (CASE) filed a lawsuit in San Mateo County Superior Court requesting that the Court order the Governor as well as the Resources Agency, State Parks, and the Department of Fish and Game to comply with and enforce the California Endangered Species Act in the mismanaged, state-owned Pescadero Marsh Nature Preserve located on the coast of San Mateo County.

“This is not a step we took lightly.  However, after reviewing e-mails received through Public Records Act requests, it is apparent that long-time, ongoing, violations of the laws protecting endangered species and public trust resources have been willfully ignored in order to protect the state agencies themselves,” said Steve Simms, President of CASE.  “State Parks should not be afforded special treatment by its sister state agencies, the Secretary of Resources, or the Governor.  If the agencies charged with protecting California’s species and ecosystems refuse to do their jobs, we must hold them accountable for the sake of the environment and all of California’s citizens.”

CASE names the Resources Agency, State Parks, and the Department of Fish and Game along with their Secretary and Directors for creating and then perpetuating the precipitous decline in San Francisco garter snake habitat and populations and the entire Marsh ecosystem.  Once they knowingly created this situation, they ignored the crisis to the point of eminent disaster.  The snake only exists within San Mateo County and is also a fully protected species under the Fish and Game Code.  CASE names the Governor under the Public Trust Doctrine as well as the California Constitution for failing to ensure that the laws of the state are enforced.

“This is a case where State Parks altered the marsh in the 1990’s and created an environmental calamity.  Perhaps more alarming is the fact Fish and Game, the agency charged with enforcing the laws for state listed species has known about these violations for years and, for political reasons, has failed to enforce the laws against State Parks who is a sister Agency under the Resources Department,” said Ronda Azevedo Lucas, CASE’s attorney.  “If a private citizen owned this marsh, they would likely be in jail.”

This Marsh belongs to the people of the State of California, and the Governor and the named agencies are responsible to hold this land and its species in trust for the people and for future generations.  The San Francisco garter snake is not the only endangered, threatened or protected species in peril. The California red-legged frog, Tidewater goby, Coho salmon, and the Steelhead trout are also at the critical state of collapse. “For nearly two decades we have tried to get someone, anyone, from the State to fix the Marsh.  Species should not be condemned to death.  The Snake and the entire Marsh ecosystem cannot afford any further delay,” Simms added.

CASE is a California non-profit, public benefit corporation, located in Pescadero, California.   More information is available on the organization’s website, www.CASEforOurEnvironment.org.

Coastside Land Trust invites you to join us on Saturday, November 13 from 10–noon, for a cleanup day at our Wavecrest area properties. Roll up your sleeves, grab your clippers, gloves and boots, and come out for some fun together on the blufftop.  We’ll say goodbye to selected invasive plants and garbage as we steward our lands together before the winter rains set in.

Meet in the parking lot at Smith Field at 10 am, at the west end of Wavecrest Rd, off Highway 1 at Cameron’s Pub.

Announcement: Coastside Land Trust is applying for accreditation with the Land Trust Alliance and invites your comments. See:  http://coastsidelandtrust.org/newandevents/current.html
Jo Chamberlain

Based on a press release from Jackie Speier’s office.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier and other "California representatives" will address the collapse of California’s salmon industry and what is needed to restore it. The event will be Saturday, December 4, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Mavericks Lodge and Event Center, 107 Broadway, Princeton.

Attendees will include Speier, other unnamed California Congresssional members, and "salmon experts including commercial fishermen, anglers, fish buyers, conservationists and small business owners".