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Mark your Calendar!Tuesday April 30th at the Palm, 7-9 p.m., North County Watch, Hopedance, and Sierra Club present "A Fierce Green Fire: the Battle for a Living Planet" ... the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement - grassroots and global activism spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change. Directed and written by Mark Kitchell, Academy Award-nominated director of Berkeley in the Sixties. Download the flyer (PDF) Salinas RiverThe Salinas River flows 174 miles from its source in the Los Padres Forest east of Santa Margarita in San Luis Obispo County to its outflow into Monterey Bay at Elkhorn Slough. The Salinas River is designated critical habitat for the endangered South-Central California Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and is habitat for three historically abundant independent populations. SCC steelhead spend 1 to 3 years in fresh water before emigrating into the ocean for 2 to 4 years and returning to spawn. National Marine Fisheries Service has unveiled an ambitious SCC Steelhead Recovery Plan which includes emphasis on the Salinas River. The Salinas River is listed on the EPA’s Clean Water Act 303d list as an impaired water body. #2 Guidelines Steelhead Flows (PDF) Water Rights ComplaintNorth County Watch is actively pursuing the successful conclusion to a Public Trust Water Rights Complaint that we filed in 2008 against the Santa Margarita Ranch for de-watering creeks that are designated critical habitat for endangered South Central California Steelhead (Onycorhynchus mykiss). As a result of our complaint, the State Water Board has installed 3 flow meters in Trout Creek on Santa Margarita Ranch to monitor riparian wells to ensure steelhead passage during critical winter spawning season and installed a reservoir gauge to record filling and withdrawals from restricted reservoirs. Water Rights Complaint 1 (PDF) Santa Margarita Ranch Santa Margarita Ranch in Northern San Luis Obispo County is a singular and splendid natural landscape. The Ranch is one of the last great ranchos and is the successor to Santa Margarita de Cortona Asistencia, established in 1787 as an Asistencia or sub-mission to San Luis Obispo Mission de Tolosa to minister to the large number of Chumash (Obispeño) Indians who inhabited the area. The Ranch today is approximately 14,000 acres of land containing pristine valley oak savannah, mixed oak woodland, native grassland, wetlands and riparian habitat, which support numerous special status species including endangered Central Coast Steelhead, red legged frog and California Condor. The headwaters of the Salinas River watershed originate on the upper reaches of the ranch. Ranch’s historic and cultural resources is beyond measure. It is one of the largest intact Mexican Land Grants remaining California today. The oldest Paleolithic find in California was unearthed here, and the descendents of the Chumash tribe and Salinan tribe continue their connection to the land’s many sacred sites, including burial grounds and village sites. The Ranch is adjacent to the National Forest and near other public lands connecting two important habitat areas on the west and east side of highway 101. It is uniquely situated nearly within its enclosed watershed naturally creating this important wildlife corridor. Tribune Lame duck may sway Margarita vote 12-14-08 (PDF) |
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