Posted on 06/20/2003 9:03:32 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer
Grant awarded, plan created to improve water sanctuaries in Santa Cruz County Jun 20 2003 12:00AM By
By MICHAEL SEVILLE
OF THE REGISTER-PAJARONIAN
Santa Cruz County has an immense concentration of watershed areas making up its world-class landscape. To help preserve and restore some of these water sanctuaries to their original state, the California Coastal Conservancy has awarded a $4.5 million grant to the county for environmental improvements including more than 100 watershed restoration projects.
"The Integrated Watershed Plan represents the future of watershed management in California," Sam Schuchat, executive director of the California Coastal Conservancy, said.
Also contributing to the grant was the California Department of Fish and Game and the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
What makes the plan unique is that many different entities have come together with one uniform plan that features a ranking of importance and probability.
By bringing several different agencies together including cities, the county and local environmental groups, an all-encompassing, five-year project called the Integrated Watershed Restoration Plan has been created.
The plan includes addressing erosion control, removing barriers that impede fish passage such as dams and culverts and monitoring the quality of water in lagoons.
The grant could prove enormously beneficial for Watsonville. Steve Palmisano, environmental manager for the city of Watsonville, said the main project in this area is the restoration of a parcel of land near Ramsay Park.
"The part of the grant that is specifically for Watsonville is to create an environmental review and (geographical) design for a piece of land that is along the Watsonville Slough that was once filled in and used by the city for trash disposal," Palmisano said.
The plans call for the piece of land to be restored to its original state by excavating soil and reintroducing native vegetation.
In other Watsonville sloughs and lower Pajaro River tributaries, the grant will specifically address environmentally sound farming practices that reduce soil erosion and safe use of pesticides and other chemicals associated with farming.
Karen Christensen, executive director of the Resource Conservation District, said that, in the past, various groups have created watershed assessments but have lacked the resources and coordination to get the plans implemented.
"What we had to do was find the common denomination between all the different watersheds and present it to the conservancy for the grant," she said. "In its conceptual state, the plan looks quite easy. But it is much more challenging to get the projects moving in real terms."
Palmisano said that plans for the slough restoration will begin this year and added that he is hoping the project could begin by next summer.
I can see with the implementation of the coastal conservancy's idea of environmentally sound farming practices, means that every farmer will be put out of business. The mean to stop all water from draining off of farmland into the Monterey Bay. If they succeed, can you imagine the economic and enviromental harm they will cause?
Hogwash! It will benefit the greenies and ruin the farmers. Of course, ruining the farmers is viewed as a benefit by the greenies.
What a howler! Where do they get this stuff?
Wait until it burns and the chickens come home to roost (we'll have to import them because the locals will be dead).
Although I guess this way they don't have to have the messy business of letting people VOTE on whether or not they want to keep the Constitution. The government just takes money to make the old switcheroo right under everyone's noses!
This is why I have a real problem with the advocates of County Sovereignty.
Not surprisingly, it is those counties of the West that have large federal land holdings manned with a scad of aggressive agency bureaucrats. The principal coordinating entity for their efforts is the old People for the USA network, but there are LOTS of property rights advocates who favor this approach.
I consider that approach perilous. Political preferences change, particularly with the gentrification, illegal immigration, and increasing numbers of bureaucrats we see in the West and such as we have seen go critical in Santa Cruz over thirty years ago. Unalienable rights do not change and are the exclusive province of citizens as protected under the Constitution. Empowering counties could leave citizens with LESS control of their property, should they need to appeal to Federal court for protection of those rights. As we both know it is the intent of Global Governance to operate through local bureaucracies. Thus I see county sovereignty as a temporal political advantage not grounded in immutable natural law.
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