How to Use Less Plastic
Annual Coastal and River Cleanup Sept 15 at Felton Covered Bridge Park
Saturday, September 15 9am at Felton Covered Bridge Park, join us with Save Our Shores for the Annual Coastal and River Cleanup Day. Register on-site at Felton Covered Bridge or in advance on the Save Our Shores registration page. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Felton Meadow Clean-up with Mount Hermon July 16
Join us in the Felton Meadow on Monday July 16th from 9am- noon to help Mt Hermon clear brush. SLV CORE will have community service forms for any teenagers who wish to help! Meet at the entrance by Mama Mia’s at 9 AM.
Photo is of the Great Blue Heron. Any recent sightings?
5th District Candidate Forum
Please plan on attending the 5th District Supervisor Candidate Forum on May 3, 7pm at SLV High School. This forum appears to be an unbiased and nonpartisan event that does not support one particular candidate.
County Concedes – Felton Meadow Not Suitable for Development
Felton Meadow on a summer morning. Labeled by developers as a distressed, toxic "brown site" in need of redevelopment. Public agencies spent over $5 million in support of the developer. 4000 valley residents fought back.
The County of Santa Cruz this week conceded what we and the majority of our community have known for 7 years. That “an affordable housing project is no longer feasible on the Felton site and that the County loans with respect to the Felton site will not be repaid by the Developer” South County Housing Corporation.
$5 million and not one bit of public benefit. The ill-fated project defied the written terms and certainly the spirit of the Felton Town Plan and the concerns of the majority of the community. It ignored water and septic issues, endangered species, architectural vernacular, green building sensibilities, and the sincerity of public process.
The next use of the property appears to be recreational. We look forward to watching that process move forward authentically.
Air Quality and Outdoor Burning
Lots of talk about outdoor burning and its impact on air quality in the San Lorenzo Valley. This year’s winter season with its relative lack of air-clearing rainfall was particularly notable.
The Sentinel’s Jason Hoppin wrote about the issue.
Donna Smith of Ben Lomond sent this letter to the Sentinel:
Wow, was your air quality as bad as mine this week? I guess some of you haven’t researched health issues caused by soot particles that are created by wood fires yet: 50 to 70 percent of this toxic smoke is entering your home and lungs. Please join us at cleanvalleyair2012@yahoo.com to work toward clean air for all of us.
River Cleanup at Felton Covered Bridge
On Saturday, September 17th at the Felton Covered Bridge, SLVCORE.org coordinated with Save Our Shores for the Annual Coastal and River Cleanup Day. Participants came from all over the county. Students earned community service credit on site.
Save Our Shores Coastal and River Cleanups take place in Santa information on those efforts, please visit www.saveourshores.org.
International Cleanup Day is the single largest volunteer event on the planet. Volunteers in over 100 countries around the world work together to remove hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash and recyclables from our beaches, lakes, and waterways before they enter our oceans. In 2010, 6043 Save Our Shores volunteers removed 14,612 lbs. of trash and 4,760 lbs. of recycling from beaches and waterways within Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties in just 3 short hours. In California, 80,312 volunteers banded together to cleanup 953,476 lbs. of trash and 146,646 lbs. of recyclables, for a total of 1,100,122 pounds (results via www.coastal.ca.gov).
InternationalRivers.org
Check out InternationalRivers.org, an advocacy group for the world’s rivers and river communities. Their recent focus is on the Ethiopian government’s proposal to dam the Blue Nile, a project with significant environmental and economic impacts.
Conservation Blueprint for Santa Cruz County
Land Trust of Santa Cruz County and their Conservation Blueprint is featured in today’s Santa Cruz Sentinel editorial.
<<…The Land Trust has identified eight key areas in the county that will offer multiple environmental benefits if protected, including the Pajaro Hills, where the organization has already been preserving ranch and grasslands by working with large property owners. Other areas include the Watsonville Slough area, Corralitos, Interlaken, Larkin Valley, the upper San Lorenzo River region, North Coast watersheds, river and riparian systems, and sandhills in North County.
Ultimately, the Land Trust hopes to get 50,000 additional acres protected as new pressures on water supplies and wildlife habitat are created by a population increase estimated to be 35,000 over 25 years.
Santa Cruz County — with its coastline, redwoods, mountains, streams and ranchlands — faces ever-changing land-use and biodiversity challenges. Water is perhaps the biggest issue, with the overdraft of underground aquifers having become a major issue for agriculture and local water users alike…>>
Important information for the San Lorenzo Valley which has, in the recent past, been threatened by unsustainable high density development.
The Felton Meadow
