Thursday, March 27, 2014

Update on the Santa Monica Mountains Watershed Coordinator Program at the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains

Dear Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council Members,

I want to reach out to you to give you an update on the Watershed Coordinator Grant program at the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains. 

The Watershed Coordinator program is funded by a three year grant from the California Department of Conservation, with support from an impressive array of community partners; the list follows on every email I send out.  I am funded for a half time position as Coordinator and we have some additional partial funding that goes to our Senior Conservation Biologist Rosi Dagit as Co-Coordinator. The current funding cycle of this program will be completed in 45 hours.

Note that in the past, our community, meaning cities, agencies and a philanthropist, have bonded together to financially maintain the watershed coordinator program, with a wide array of partners funding the program together; as a result, we have been one of only two watersheds in the state of California to have created and funded an entirely community based watershed program.

During the duration of the current California Department of Conservation grant, Rosi Dagit and I have implemented most of the goals of our grant; current funding wins come to:

Grant proposals funded to date: $1,136,000.00

Non-grant funding funded to date: $598,455.65

My end goal for this grant is to complete the writing of the Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds PlanThe current working draft is composed of a Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council Project List created by a  one hundred percent consensus based public facilitation process that elicited community input from a wide array of cities, agencies, non-profits, academics and concerned community members. Email me if you want to see at the draft project list.

One of the projects that has come out of the current grant is the web-based third edition of the  Living Lightly In Our Watersheds project; the second editions was updated in 2005. The third edition is going to be web-based and will include a blog that is planned to run for three years.  Currently, our Supervisor, cities and agencies have committed $45,000.00 towards this project. The ecoblog will include a Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council newsletter once a month and an ecoblog once a month, which will focus on effective Best Management Practices for our community.  To get an idea of what the ecoblog will be like, read this article I just wrote for Earth Island Journal onnativescaping.  The commitment, knowledge and insight of RCDSMM Director Nancy Helsley was crucial to the implementation of both the first and second edition of the Living Lightly Guide manuals.

One of the projects from past DOC Watershed Coordinator grant efforts is the film starring actor / environmentalist Wendie Malick, The Clean Water Act and Our Backyards.  The full film is now available on youtube; funders of the third edition of the Living Lightly Guide project want to have this accessible to our readership. If you have not watched this, I urge you to take the time to review this film to see how our communities aim to improve water quality.  As a side note, this film was possible because of the leadership and vision of Susan Nissman and the generosity and vision of many partners, most especially Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.  RCDSMM Director Nancy Helsley and former RCDSMM Director Carol Felixson were both central to the successful outcome of this project.

Email me if you would like to review the last three quarterly reports for the California Department of Conservation Watershed Coordinator Grant Program to give you a snapshot -- o.k., maybe more of verbal photo album -- of what has been going on with our watershed program.   

There may be funding for six more months' work from current watershed coordinators, focusing on drought alleviation related work; stay tuned.

Looking forward, the vision of the watershed coordinator approach to ecosystem restoration has always been to create a watershed plan -- and then to implement the plan, piece by piece.  As time goes on, the watershed plan is a living document that moves and grows as the people in the community ebb and flow.  The core vision remains: to restore our whole watershed.  Community successes like the Calabasas Creek Restoration, the Malibu Lagoon Restoration and the multiple city bans on rodenticidestyrofoam and plastic bags are direct outgrowths of education and planning efforts begun or continued within the context of the Malibu Creek Watershed Council, now grown up as the Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council. Look at the historic 44 Action Items, the result of two years of work via a consensus-based  facilitation effort by the original Malibu Creek Advisory Council and  see how many things this process has achieved. It is stunning. I want to thank former RCDSMM President Dennis Washburn for having the idea that this was possible then helping to make it happen and I want to thank each of the original members of the Malibu Creek Watershed Advisory Council for creating a new way to achieve environmental restoration success.

Bringing in the best expert speakers on relevant subjects meeting after meeting, the watershed councils, coordinated by the RCDSMM staff and chaired for over a decade by our former RCDSMM President Dennis Washburn, have raised the level of understanding and conversation about key environmental issues -- bringing in the best minds in science, policy, activism, agriculture, perspective, hydrology, engineering to help us all to grow as a group. There is a magic to putting stakeholders from cities, agencies, non-profiits and community members together that allows for minds to open and change to happen, I am always impressed by how much knowledge and intelligence is in the room.  Past and current coordinators have obtained funding and implemented piece by piece of the watershed plans both in Topanga and Malibu; for example, the recent $1,100,000.00 in IRWMP funding obtained by the City of Agoura HIlls fortheir long desired Medea Creek Restoration at Chumash Park is in hand because our watershed coordinator wrote the first draft of the grant for the city.  This is how we heal a watershed, one project at a time.

Let me know if you would like to work together to develop a long term vision and plan for growing and maintaining the Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council and for  obtaining long term funding to continue to implement our community watershed goals. 

For over twenty years, thanks to the initial courage of our community members and the RCDSMM Board of Directors and the evolving vision of an incredible array of environmental talent from throughout the Santa Monica Mountains including directors of boards, elected officials, city staff, agency staff and a number of outstanding academics, the former Malibu Creek Watershed Advisory Council and now Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council has been a leader in the watersheds of the Santa Monica Mountains and in the State of California.  

Let's grow and then exceed our environmental dreams for the Santa Monica Mountains in the years to come. 

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-monica-mountains-watersheds-council

310.383.9978

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.Dea

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council Newsletter: A Pulse in the Colorado River Bay Delta, Water Waste Elimination at LVMWD, Assemblymember Bloom Updates, News and a Great Job Opportunity

Dear Santa Monica Mountains Watersheds Council Members,

Is it the best of times or the worst of times? 

We are facing a drought reputed to be the worst in five hundred years and we just finally released a pulse of water in the Colorado River, wetting the Colorado River Bay Delta for the first time in nearly a decade.  Legislators are tightening up the final language for a proposed California Water Bond and now the remaining IRWMP funds associated with Proposition 84 will have to go towards water conservation projects.  

Every drop counts...

EVENTS
California Water Policy Conference
From Debbi Dodson: 
"The agenda for the CA Water Policy Conference has been posted. April 3 & 4 at the Claremont McKenna College. We've got some great topics,  and speakers."

WATER CONSERVATION IN THE WATERSHED
Mad at a Drip...or A Leak?
See water pouring off a lawn into the gutter? 
Pop over an email to stopthewaste@LVMWD.com
The water district will help the offender fix that. Nicely.

IRWMP UPDATE
Governor Brown wants unspent Proposition 84 Funds to go towards drought alleviation. His comment on incoming applications? "No fakey water conservation projects."   Remaining funds will be divided into two separate application processes; one is the "expedited" application which will be due in July, making OPTI applications due on April 1rst and the second "aggressive" application will be due in the fall. 

Have a great project? Go, go, go...

UPCOMING LEGISLATION FROM ASSEMBLYMEMBER RICHARD BLOOM
Banning Microbeads: 

CLEAN WATER ACT AND OUR BACKYARDS: IMPROVING WATER QUALITY IN THE SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS
This film is available for the first time on youtube, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdIxiaSJxf4

WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD
RCDSMM Senior Conservation Biologist Rosi Dagit receives the Woman of the Year Award from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors: http://laccw.lacounty.gov/Events/AnnualEvents/WomenoftheYear.aspx 

On a similar note, the Topanga Library also elected to celebrate Dagit’s career, including her work in the Topanga Digital History: http://www.topangamessenger.com/story_detail.php?SectionID=&ArticleID=6384    

LOCAL COASTAL PLAN
An internet search informed me that LCP also stands for "Lightweight Compact Pistol" which is so definitely not what I had in mind.  To save you from such an NSFW outcome, here are some relevant links:
Public Hearing Date and Location

Thursday, April 10, 2014 

Hyatt Santa Barbara
1111 East Cabrillo Blvd.
Santa Barbara, CA 93103
Commission Hearing Begins at 8:30 am

And in the local papers, see:

IN THE NEWS
Nativescaping: Habitat Restoration, One Garden at a Time

Colorado River Delta Restoration Stories
If you're having a bad day, check out some of these articles and you will be glad to be alive. I promise.
See these images of a devastated Colorado River Delta, receive water for the first time in about a decade:

It remains to be seen what happens next, but in the meanwhile, water is flowing into the historic footprint of the Colorado River Delta, giving hope to the desert.

Drought
Probably the most quoted story of this year: 

Here's a key excerpt: "For California, 2013 was the driest year since the state started measuring rainfall in 1849. Paleoclimatologist B. Lynn Ingram says that, according to the width of old tree rings, California hasn’t been this dry for about 500 years."

Greywater

Trees, Please

Are the "Good" Plastics = Actually Bad?

Pepperdine to Create Green Student Residence

Fishing Restrictions In Marine Sanctuaries
Per Heal the Bay facebook post: "Restrictions on fishing in marine sanctuaries appear to be working. In So Cal, compliance is high. The sanctuaries in Southern California coastal waters were created to curb steep declines in fish and other sea creatures."
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-marine-sanctuary-20140127,0,6844522.story#ixzz2rcQKviBi

Frack No?
Both Los Angeles and Beverly Hills place moratoriums on fracking. Thanks to Marcia Hanscom and Lauren Steiner for the updates. 

Glyphostates Causing the Demise of Monarch Butterflies? 
Want to help? Plant a corner of your garden in Milkweed. Recognize that a micro-orchard of milkweed is better than a solo plant; buy them by the dozen.

See attached photo of a Monarch Butterfly egg on a milkweed plant, thanks to Matilija Nursery at http://www.matilijanursery.com
Contact Bob Sussman at matilija@verizon.net to request permission to re-use photo.

Radioactivity In Our Kelp, Yes, No or Maybe?

Wilder Playgrounds = Nicer Kids?
It looks like our  efforts to green up our playgrounds will have unintended consequences in the nicest of ways ... let's continue to replace the asphalt quilt with something more organic: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/school-ditches-rules-and-loses-bullies-5807957

DWP Non-Profits Have to Divulge Financial Information

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
From Lily Verdone, The Nature Conservancy
Restoration Manager for TNC’s LA-Ventura Project.

The Restoration Manager position is based in Ventura and provides high-level technical leadership and support to the LA-Ventura Project on all aspects of habitat restoration, including, but not limited to: planning, permitting, fundraising/grant writing, implementation and monitoring. The Restoration Manager will require a wide range of skills, including the ability to manage projects independently, as well as, track the progress of projects being led by others and coordinate community support. S/he will advance the project’s restoration program by identifying, developing, and managing large-scale restoration projects. S/he will manage contractors and contracts; assist with fundraising by writing and managing funding proposals; assist with preserve management programs, stewardship and public access; assist with research, real estate and other general project support; and further the Conservancy’s strategic goals through advancing conservation within the project area. It is essential that the Restoration Manager take the initiative to solve problems as they arise, seeking input and equitable solutions. The Restoration Manager should have a passion for conservation and be highly motivated.

The job description is attached, please distribute widely. All applicants must apply through www.nature.org/careers.

CHILDREN IN OUR WATERSHED
Dinner This Friday Night at Chipotle in Malibu -- Children In Our Watershed
This Friday is a fundraiser at Chipotle in Malibu for Michael and Kim Bonewitz and their eight children; if you mention that you are buying dinner to support the fundraiser, then fifty percent of all proceeds go directly to the family. Already parents to three children, Kim and Michael adopted five children when their mother died last year.  In the absence of biological parents, these children belong to our watershed. Please join us for the fun -- every little bit helps. 

Walk in beauty.

Sincerely,
Melina WattsSanta Monica Mountains Watersheds Coordinator
Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains



malibucreekwatershed@gmail.com
http://www.rcdsmm.org/santa-monica-mountains-watersheds-council

310.383.9978

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.