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Conservation Corner
by Robin Egan
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Report from March, 2008 Conservation Meeting:
If April Showers bring May Flowers, I wonder what March showers will bring? First, I’d like to congratulate Heath Wakelee as this year’s recipient of the Jim Coleman Conservation Award, which was presented at the GBF Annual Dinner in March. He has played a very large role in our conservation committee over the years, and we thank him for all of his time and effort.
Edmund Sullivan, Senior planner for Placer County, attended our March conservation meeting, briefed us on the Placer Legacy project and answered our questions. We spent about 40 minutes discussing the project and agreed to continue to support our commitment of $10,000 as seed money for construction of two cascade fish passages in our local watershed in order to promote restoration of the Chinook Salmon and Rainbow Trout resources in the Auburn Ravine. This project is the fulfillment of over 2 years of effort by GBF conservation, led by Heath Wakelee and Edmund Sullivan at Placer County. Stay tuned for more information as we schedule the presentation of our donation at an upcoming Placer County supervisor's meeting. GBF hopes to get additional PR from this in the local press.
Well, we have many opportunities for members to volunteer their time and expertise this month. Back in January, the conservation committee recommended, and the board approved, a grant of $3,000 to be given to the Placer Nature Center located in Auburn to support their Watershed Explorers program. Activities are designed to challenge and engage students in hands on investigations and critical thinking about water resources. Curricula are based on student grade level and aligned with the California Content Standards in Science. Placer Nature Center’s Watershed Learning Center exhibits, nature trail, quality hands-on materials and visual aids augment programming concepts. Each year they also have a “Family Day”, this year’s being held on Saturday, April 12th from 11 am to 2 pm. They have asked if we could provide a few volunteers to provide demonstrations and/or information on fly-fishing, casting, tying, etc. Please contact Robin Egan at (916) 396-0030 or Tggr514@yahoo.com if you are able to volunteer for this activity.
Roseville is having an Earth Day celebration on Saturday, April 19th, to be held at their new Utility Exploration Center and we still need 2 more volunteers! The event kicks off at 10 a.m. and will feature several activities speakers, and environmental workshops that will run throughout the day. GBF will have an information table there. The city will have tours of the exploration center (www.roseville.ca.us/explore) a one-of-kind learning center featuring hand-on exhibits for students to learn how to preserve the environment. They also will hold a panel discussion on climate change, have an environmentally friendly ventriloquist and magician to entertain the kids, representatives to discuss rebate and incentive programs to help people go green, and vendor booths showing energy efficient products and services. The most important topic to emphasize at the GBF table will be the classroom fish-rearing program. The 12 pm and 2 pm slots are still open. Please contact John Carroz at (916) 782-0802 or Dave Baker at (916) 315-0715 ASAP if you are able to volunteer for these times or have any questions.
Sign yourselves up at the April general meeting and grab your waders for the removal of invasive water hyacinth along Linda Creek in East Roseville on Saturday, April 26th. Water hyacinth, widely distributed because of its large purple flowers, has tremendous growth and reproduction rates and its free-floating mats cause substantial problems. Please contact Dave Baker at (916) 315-0715 if you have any questions about this activity.
We are also working to develop an ongoing multi- year agreement with a college/university for our annual GBF scholarship donations. The GBF donation would be given to assist graduate students working on freshwater and/or anadromous fish and the habitats upon which they depend. We will expect the school to agree to provide a description of the specific area(s) of research our money will be supporting and some form of brief annual report or presentation, on the status and/or findings from the research associated with our donation and/or the most significant results from the school's overall fisheries related graduate research program. This approach should make it much easier for the Conservation Committee to grant a scholarship every year. In the past it took considerable effort each year to start the process, evaluate individual proposals, and grant scholarships. Our new approach is intended to eliminate this work and hopefully making it essentially self-sustaining.
Last, but not least, the FERC re-licensing issue has been tabled until further information can be received from James Navicky of the CA DFG. Ron Otto will keep the committee updated as he receives the information.
Until next month…. Robin Egan |
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