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Volume 42, Number 4, 2003 |
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Representative Sam Farr wins
National Sierra Club award
U. S. Representative Sam Farr has been selected to receive the prestigious Ed
Wayburn Award given for outstanding service to the environment by a person in
government. Representative Farr has had an outstanding environmental record in
the U. S. Congress culminating in the passage of his Big Sur Wilderness Bill and
Conservation Act of 2002. This bill added wilderness protection to 17,000 acres
in the Silver Peak Wilderness and 37,000 acres in the Ventana Wilderness both
in the Los Padres National Forest as well as some acreage near Pinnacles National
Monument.
Locally, in addition to the Wilderness Bill, Farr responded to protests from environmentalists
and stopped the Navy bombing exercises planned for Fort Hunter Liggett. He has
also been an unswerving proponent of affordable housing on Fort Ord, a previous
army base now under conversion. Affordable housing lessens sprawl especially in
areas like Monterey ... [more] |
Big Sur photographer Doug
Steakley to get Ansel Adams award
Douglas Steakley has been selected as the 2003 winner of the Sierra Club Ansel
Adams Award for photography which furthers the cause of conservation. Many in
Monterey County are familiar with Steakley’s stunning images of our local
landscape which have been featured in a variety of magazines, calendars and other
publications.
Five years ago, Doug teamed up with The Big Sur Land Trust to capture the incredible
beauty of the lands being preserved by the Trust. Since their relationship began,
Steakley has donated thousands of images of the protected properties to the Land
Trust for use. In addition to the generous donation of his images, Doug was also
the driving force behind the publication of Big Sur and Beyond, The Legacy of
The Big Sur Land Trust, a hardcover coffee table book ... [more] |
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Environmentalists’ work pays
off for Marks Ranch
Two years of determined effort by the Citizens to Save Marks Ranch and by LandWatch
Monterey County to prevent development of historic Marks Ranch on the Monterey-Salinas
Highway have succeeded. The owner of the property, St. John’s College, has
terminated the 28-year option they had with Las Palmas developers, Michael Fletcher,
Sr. and James Fletcher, to subdivide the oak-studded Marks Ranch property. The
Fletchers are noted for building on tree-stripped terraces ... [more]
Poor logging practices impair Santa
Cruz creeks
If you’ve taken a hike lately along the San Lorenzo River or any Santa Cruz
creek, you’ve probably noticed the sediment lining the creek or river bottom.
Or last winter, perhaps you saw how our rivers and streams ran brown during heavier
storms. This sediment is not all natural. Much of it comes from bleeding roads.
Many of those are logging roads. In addition to sediment washing off the road
and skid trail surfaces, failed culverts, landslides and bank failures resulting
from timber harvest activities have played a contributing part to this excessive
sediment in our watercourses. In Santa Cruz County most streams have been listed
as impaired for sediment under the Clean Water Act ... [more]
State Parks
recommends approval for inadequate Nisene Marks Plan
The California Department of State Parks is recommending approval of a seriously-flawed
Preliminary General Plan/Draft EIR for the Forest of Nisene Marks. This plan goes
before the State Parks and Recreation Commission on August 22 in San Jose. The
Santa Cruz Group of the Sierra Club has submitted comments to the Commission regarding
the inadequacy of the Draft Plan. The level of analysis in the plan is insufficient
to determine the impact of designated uses and development on habitat and species
within the park ... [more]
Club
provides Army Corps with new alternatives for Pajaro River
Dissatisfied with the dredging and floodwalls proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers
for the Pajaro River, the Sierra Club Pajaro River Watershed Committee commissioned
its own reports which propose flood protection measures that are environmentally
and economically superior. Two reports commissioned by the Club were delivered
to the Corps and State and Federal Agencies in July. The first, produced by Philip
Williams & Associates (PWA), a hydrological and civil engineering firm, presents
five new design alternatives which must be considered by the Corps. The one preferred
by the Club has a strong likelihood of being backed by state and federal resource
protection agencies who have made clear the present Corps alternatives fail to
meet current laws ... [more]
Cheney
loses appeal on secret Energy Task Force
In a victory for the rule of law and the public’s right to know, the D.C.
Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Bush Administration’s request to overturn
a lower court ruling requiring the Administration to produce information about
the secret meetings of the Cheney Energy Task Force ... [more]
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