Thursday, November 20, 2014
Dear Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council members,
Today is the Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council meeting.
Event starts at two-thirty p.m. at the King Gillette Ranch.
Enter on Mulholland and head to the left when you get to the lake.
We are in the building with the big auditorium; event will be held in the back room on the right.
We have an incredible array of speakers so I hope that you can make it.
Please note that we are going to have to "flip" the agenda to accommodate the speaker from WBMWD and the speaker from Ventura; we'll have to fit in the normal updates and announcements later in the schedule. They'll be up at two-thirty and three p.m. respectively.
Also I have a sick kid, so I want to express my huge appreciation for my colleague Rosi Dagit who is stepping in on my behalf today.
Speakers today include:
1. Desalination Plant Presentation by Diane Gatza, West Basin Municipal Water District (30 minutes)
2. "The Nature Conservancy’s Coastal Resilience Ventura Project” by Lily Verdone, the Nature Conservancy (45 minutes)
3. Evergreen Fund: Solar in the Santa Monica Mountains by Robert Metcalf (20 minutes)
4. “The Making of a Modern Day Chief: Charlie Cooke.” Presentation + book sigining by Dr. Mary Gordon (30 minutes)
Diane Gatza is incredibly detail oriented so the desalination talk is fascinating -- she really knows desal plants up and down the coast as well as her own project.
The presentation on Coastal Resiliency is about adaptation after sea level rise. INCREDIBLY important and key researcher Lily Verdone is giving the talk herself.
The presentation on the solar fund idea is given by Robert Metcalf who has already succeeded in the entrepreneurial space in the solar arena -- this is a new approach to funding solar in the Santa Monica Mountains. Worth exploring.
Last but not least, a look at a great local leader by a dedicated historian Mary Gordon + a book signing.
What's not to love? Join us.
In the News
Federal v. State in Water Management Approaches
http://www.latimes.com/
Ventura Moratorium on New Wells
Passed by a four-to-one vote.
San Diego Moves Forward on Water Recycling
Blue Fin Tuna
Ask your sushi-ya, grocery store, fish retail shop to STOP selling bluefin tuna. And can we declare these fish endangered while there are still some out there swimming?
Sailor's Lonely Pacific
Forgive me if you have seen this story before but it is really worth considering this been-there, seen-that perspective.
Saltwater Fish Extinctions?
Yes the study is from 2006, but the essential drivers in the research remain all too plausible.
UPCOMING EVENT
GO WILD with the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains Native Plants Sale on Saturday December sixth at the Topanga Ranch Motel. See attached flyer. Please forward to those who you think might want to join us.
Contact me to pre-order plants.
GO WILD: HOW?
Keep Your Green
Looking to help your garden GO WILD but not sure what to do first? Hire one of our biologists to spend ninety minutes with you on site planning. Email Steven Williams <keepyourgreen@rcdsmm.org>
Walk in beauty.
Sincerely,
Melina Watts
Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Coordinator
Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains
malibucreekwatershed@gmail.com
http://www.rcdsmm.org/santa-
Melina Watts
Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Coordinator
Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains
malibucreekwatershed@gmail.com
http://www.rcdsmm.org/santa-
Need some beauty in your life?
Join us at the RCDSMM Native Plants Sale and GO WILD
GO WILD and make all holiday shopping green.
Date: Saturday, December 6th
Location: Topanga Ranch Motel, to be confirmed
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
To pre-order plants, contact Melina Watts at malibucreekwatershed@gmail.
Follow the Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council on twitter: @melinaswatts
Join us on Facebook: Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council
Friday, November 7, 2014
TOMORROW is RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival at Pepperdine University + Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council Newsletter
Dear Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council Members,
Tomorrow night is the last night of the RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival.
Join us at Pepperdine University in Malibu at the Elkins Theatre at six-thirty p.m. for an incredible evening.
Students and faculty with ID free.
Tickets available in advance online: WildScenicBu.
For a moment of enchantment, watch the trailer here.
Check out our slate.
Internationally famous filmmaker / environmental lawyer Teresa Tico is flying in from Hawaii to join us for a Q + A
Find out more about Teresa Tico:
Heal the Bay Blog: http://www.healthebay.
Malibu Surfside News: http://www.
Take a look at one of her earlier films, Miss South Pacific, a clear audience favorite at the Malibu Film Festival two years prior.
Public Workshop for Proposed Projects for Enhanced Watershed Management Plan
Date: Thursday, November 13
Time: 6:30 - 8:30
Location: King Gillette Ranch
Malibu Library Speaker Event: Jodi Hilty
Wednesday, November 19, 7:00 pm
| |||
NEXT SANTA MONICA COUNCIL MEETING: SAVE THE DATE
Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council Meeting
Date: Thursday, November 20th, 2014
Time: 2:30 - 5:00
Location: King Gillette Ranch
Agenda attached.
Should be AMAZING.
Speakers at next SMMWC Meeting:
"The Nature Conservancy’s Coastal Resilience Ventura Project” by Lily Verdone, the Nature Conservancy (45 minutes)Desalination Plant Presentation by Diane G., West Basin Municipal Water District (30 minutes)Evergreen Fund: Solar in the Santa Monica Mountains by Robert Metcalf (20 minutes)“The Making of a Modern Day Chief: Charlie Cooke.” Presentation + book sigining by Dr. Mary Gordon (30 minutes)
GO WILD with the RCDSMM: Annual Native Plants Sale on December 6th.
To pre-order plants, contact … me.
Melina Sempill Watts at: malibucreekwatershed@
ABOUT THOSE NATIVE PLANTS…
A Look at National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat Program by UCLA IOES
UCLA IOES recently conducted a study of how the Certified Wildlife Habitat supports water conservation, habitat restoration and carbon sequestration of primary greenhouse gas CO2.
PROGRESS ON A GILL NET BAN
Great work by HTB staffer Dana Murray:
STOKED TO RECYCLE STYROFOAM?
City of Malibu Can Turn Your Fluff Into a Surfboard
City of Malibu is stoked to be working with Sustainable Surf Waste to Waves on America Recycles Day Malibu! Drop off polystyrene foam packaging at the collection event at Malibu City Hall Nov 1-15 to keep it out of landfills and the ocean, and it will be recycled into environmentally friendly surfboards! Event info at http://tiny.cc/qkzjox
IN THE NEWS
Are Microfibers the New Microbead?
BPA Bans?
"In France the decision has been taken to ban BPA from food packaging from 1 January 2015 as a result of health fears."
Cash Receipts = BPA Source?
Drivers' Toll on Wildlife
Thanks to Beth Pratt, NWF for the share.
Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council Twitter Link
If you twitter, feel free to follow me at @melinaswatts
Walk in beauty.
And take some time to go outside and sit in the sun. Serenity matters.
Sincerely,
Melina Watts
Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Coordinator
Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains
malibucreekwatershed@gmail.com
http://www.rcdsmm.org/santa-
Melina Watts
Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Coordinator
Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains
malibucreekwatershed@gmail.com
http://www.rcdsmm.org/santa-
Need some beauty in your life?
Join us at the RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival at Pepperdine University.
Watch the trailer for the RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival here.
Buy tickets here: WildScenicBu.eventbrite.
Special Guest: Theresa Tico, Environmental Lawyer + Filmmaker
Films About Water
RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival
Saturday November 8th
Reception: 6:30
Time: 7:00 - 10:00
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Introduction to State Senator Fran Pavley
Hal Helsley, former Los Angeles County Planning
Commissioner and Nancy Helsley, current Treasurer and Director of the Board at
the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, both
requested that I share this speech, an introduction to State Senator Fran
Pavley at the RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival on Saturday.
Raise
your hand if you already know who our State Senator is.
In Malibu and adjacent areas, we are represented by
Senator Fran Pavley. Prior to that she was our Assemblymember.
I would suggest that apart from President Barack
Obama she might be the most important person in the United States.
[Audience erupts.]
Hear me out, hear me out. Ten to twelve years ago when all the smart people
I knew started freaking out about the inevitability of climate change, pretty
much equating it with the onset of the zombie apocalypse, she saw the rise of anthropogenic
climate change as a budgeting issue – an inappropriate relationship of energy input
and output. As with any troubled budget,
she saw this as a situation that with core changes and good planning, could be
managed and resolved.
So while the rest of the country had its head dug
in the sand ignoring the onset of climate change, she approached climate change
as a math problem and decided to create legislation that would reduce climate
change.
If California were a separate nation, we’d be the eighth largest economy in the world –
so her success in working with California's legislature has borne fruit.
In the nineties, her legislation to promote cleaner
cars included laws stating that car manufacturers selling cars in our state not
only had to reduce tailpipe emissions, they had to sell a percentage of cars that
are ZEV.
Anyone
want to tell me what ZEV stands for?
Right. Zero Emissions Vehicles.
In essence, this legislation forced the car
companies that wanted to continue to sell cars in the State of California to
build and sell EV and ZEV cars.
The response of the car companies?
They took it to the California Supreme Court – and the State of California lost that one.
They took it to the California Supreme Court – and the State of California lost that one.
So she took it to the U.S. Supreme Court – and won.
Her work setting the framework for carbon-trading markets is a model that
is being studied and emulated all around the world. She’s spoken to national
legislative bodies in such countries as Japan,
Norway and Canada about these legislative efforts.
Currently AB 32 requires a reduction in
statewide climate pollution to 1990 levels by the year 2020. The
largest polluters are the primary target including factories power plants and
oil companies. About half the required pollution reductions have already
been made, so the program is on track to be a success that other states and
nations follow.
The positive impacts on our state’s overall carbon
footprint are going to be breath-taking – or perhaps breath-adding.
In addition to her seminal work reducing climate
change, the Senator has been a huge advocate
for children, for the developmentally disabled, for our State Parks and for clean water and for maintaining water supply. Her legislation on groundwater is a critical dose of good
sense in an era of ongoing drought.
As an historian, I have to mention that she is a great-granddaughter of William
Jennings Bryan who ran for President in 1896.
As a parent, I love it that she spent 28 years teaching school.
As a staffer at the RCDSMM, I must tell you that she served on our board in the early days of her career as an elected official.
And, as someone who believes that the next
generation has the capacity to heal and restore our earth, I want to tell you
that my personal favorite piece of her legislation resulted in environmental education standards being
built into the curriculum for students in California.
Please welcome our honored guest, State Senator Fran Pavley.
-- Melina Sempill Watts
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Friday, September 12, 2014
Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council Meeting: Save the Date, Great Events, News Announcements for Now...
Dear Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council Members,
![]()
G2 Green Earth Film FestivalDates: October 17th -- October 19th
Location: The G2 Gallery -- Nature & Wildlife Photography Supporting Art & The Environment
1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd. | Venice, CA 90291 | 310-452-2842
All screenings and activities are free.
Link: http://www.calendar.
818 597 8627 x 104
Join the Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council on facebook for updates on news and events.
The Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Coordinator Program is a program of the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains and is funded by a Proposition 84 grant from the California Department of Conservation and via support from the Cities of Agoura Hills and Westlake Village, the California Department of State Parks, the California Association of Conservation Districts, Ozzie Silna, the National Park Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains.
A whole string of exciting events are brewing …
NEXT SANTA MONICA COUNCIL MEETING: SAVE THE DATE
Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council Meeting
Date: Thursday, November 20th, 2014
Time: 2:30 - 5:00
Location: King Gillette Ranch
Agenda attached.
Every speaker I contacted wanted to come in November…not September…so we're going with a full November agenda. Should be AMAZING.
Speakers at next SMMWC Meeting:
"The Nature Conservancy’s Coastal Resilience Ventura Project” by Lily Verdone, the Nature Conservancy (45 minutes)Desalination Plant Presentation by Diane G., West Basin Municipal Water District (30 minutes)Evergreen Fund: Solar in the Santa Monica Mountains by Robert Metcalf (20 minutes)“The Making of a Modern Day Chief: Charlie Cooke.” Presentation + book sigining by Dr. Mary Gordon (30 minutes)
IRRIGATION RESTRICTIONS
Las Virgenes Municipal Water District restricts outdoor water use to three days a week in response to the statewide drought.
EVENTS
Coastal Clean-Up Day
Heal the Bay and other partners across Los Angeles County are motivating … join in.
Date: September 20th
You can join current sites as an individual or you can set up a clean up site at the location of your choice.
Important: Due to a watershed perspective on trash pick up, there are many inland sites.
Location: The G2 Gallery -- Nature & Wildlife Photography Supporting Art & The Environment
1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd. | Venice, CA 90291 | 310-452-2842
All screenings and activities are free.
Link: http://www.calendar.
RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival at Pepperdine University
RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival at Pepperdine University: Climate Change Night
Date: Saturday, October 25
Reception:6:30
Time: 7:00 - 10:00
Location: Pepperdine University
Slate to be announced this week -- looks gorgeous so far
Special Guests to be announced -- hold your breath
RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival at Pepperdine University: Water Night
Date: Saturday, November 8
Reception: 6:30
Time: 7:00 - 10:00
Location: Pepperdine University
Slate to be announced this week -- looks fantastic so far
Special Guests to be announced -- will be wonderful
RCDSMM Native Plants Sale
Come Go Wild with Native Plants
Landscaping? Getting rid of your lawn? Pre-orders available for YOU. Email me: malibucreekwatershed@
Get all your holiday shopping done -- this year go wild with your friends and relatives .
Plants grown by Matilija Nursery.
Date: Saturday, December 6
Location: Topanga Ranch Motel at Pacific Coast Highway, requested, not confirmed
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES: WESTERN POND TURTLE POND RESCUE
Rosi Dagit, Senior COnservation Biologist, RCDSMM is committed to preserving our current population of Western Pond Turtles in Topanga -- and their pond is drying up. Keeping water in the system could rapidly become a life or death issue for the whole population. Volunteers are hand-carrying in eight gallon loads up a dirt path to the turtle pond.
Email me at malibucreekwatershed@gmail.com for flyer for dates and meet up location if you love turtles -- and/or if you want to start really feeling the drought.
CLASSES
Permaculture Class
Six month long permaculture class. See announcement at the very bottom of this email.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Selva International Wins Grant to Take Lawns Out in Los Angeles
Could be an opportunity for you to have help in conserving water at your home.
Certainly a great water conservation project. Check out announcement below this email.
GRANT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thanks to Drew Ready, Center for Watershed Health for sharing.
CAL FIRE’s Urban and Community Forestry Program has just released our grant solicitation for projects to be funded by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Our Concept Proposals will be due November 13. Please note the webinar scheduled for September 24 that is linked in the upper right corner of the page. In addition, we will advertise public workshops at six locations statewide in the next few days on the same page. We are very excited to reach disadvantaged communities with these projects that will help meet GHG reduction goals and provide numerous co-benefits.Any help you can provide by sending these links out to list serves, partner organizations, etc. would be most welcome.Here is the link to our funding page, followed by the link to our programmatic page. Let me know if you have questions.
SUPPORTING FUNDING GREAT GREEN PROJECTS
LA2050 is funding 10 projects this year up to 100,000.00 each.
Five of those projects will be selected by popular vote from the internet, five from their internal selection process.
There are many green worthwhile projects. Jump in and vote for some of the great ones…three more days until voting closes.
I did note that both TreePeople and Duvivier Architects, each long term partners of the Santa Monica Mountain Watershed Council had great p
IN THE NEWS
Antarctica: In the Category of ?
Blue Velella Wash Ashore
There is always something new under the sun….
Climate Change + the Little Hoover Commission
Walk in beauty.
Sincerely,
Melina Watts
Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Coordinator
Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains
malibucreekwatershed@gmail.com
http://www.rcdsmm.org/santa-
Melina Watts
Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Coordinator
Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains
malibucreekwatershed@gmail.com
http://www.rcdsmm.org/santa-
818 597 8627 x 104
Join the Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council on facebook for updates on news and events.
Support the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains: Donate.
The Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Coordinator Program is a program of the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains and is funded by a Proposition 84 grant from the California Department of Conservation and via support from the Cities of Agoura Hills and Westlake Village, the California Department of State Parks, the California Association of Conservation Districts, Ozzie Silna, the National Park Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)