I follow the activities of local government agencies throughout the Central Coast Region, keeping my eyes peeled for key land use policy issues. To keep up with the decision making process, I subscribe to various email alerts, and I encourage you to do the same, if you would like to move from observer to participant status. As an example, it’s possible to get on the email alert list for the Board of Supervisors of Monterey County. The Clerk of the Board will send you an email letting you know of upcoming meetings. I just got one, in fact, but it’s an invitation to a meeting that they won’t let me attend!

The Monterey County Board of Supervisors makes some of its most important land use decisions in secret, “closed sessions,” from which the public is excluded. By law, they have to tell the public that they’re having the meeting, but you can’t even listen, much less say anything yourself. The massive Rancho San Juan development was planned, literally, in a series of closed sessions. Now, the Board is doing the same thing with the “second largest” development in the County’s history, the “East Garrison” development on Fort Ord. This proposed development is on land that the public actually owns. And the Board is making decisions about how private developers will get to use it (in fact, get to own it) in closed door meetings. One of those meetings is today. Get the invitation to the meeting you can’t attend by going to www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Board of Supervisors Agenda
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/cttb/agenda0808.htm

To receive email alerts from the Clerk of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, contact the Clerk of the Board at .

The “Fort Ord Community Advisory Group,” also known as the “Fort Ord CAG,” is a public interest advisory body, formed to review and comment on the cleanup of the Fort Ord Army Base Superfund Site, to ensure that human health, safety and the environment are protected to the greatest extent possible.

Some of the land use issues involved in the transformation of the former Fort Ord from Army use to civilian use are very typical city planning type problems. Others, however, involve the need to clean up past incidents of toxic contamination. That’s where the Fort Ord CAG focuses its efforts. Under federal law, there does need to be an affirmative effort to involve the public, as toxic cleanup activities are planned and carried out. Requiring that kind of effort to increase citizen participation is one way that the federal government tries to address what are often known as “environmental justice” issues.

Tonight, the Fort Ord CAG will be meeting from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Monterey County Courthouse, located at 1200 Aguajito Road in Monterey. And don’t forget about those “typical city planning type problems.” The Fort Ord Reuse Authority, which has ultimate control over land use on Fort Ord, meets this Friday, at 4:00 p.m. There is more information on both these meeting at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Fort Ord CAG Website
http://www.fortordcag.org/

Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA) Website
http://www.fora.org

FORA Agenda for the August 12, 2005 Meeting
http://www.fora.org/Board_Aug1205.pdf

The Environmental Center of San Luis Obispo, known to its friends as ECOSLO, helps promote and encourage environmental protection activities in San Luis Obispo County. The long term health of our natural environment (something we can’t take for granted, unfortunately) directly depends on how we human beings conduct ourselves. We need to pay attention, and get involved, or our individual and collective actions, added up, can have disastrous consequences for the natural systems upon which all life depends (including our own lives, our civilization, our economy, and everything else).

This insight is certainly not a new one, though it’s an overwhelming thought. If we take the insight seriously, it becomes obvious that we need, as human beings, to organize ourselves to be able to “do the right thing” with respect to the environment. That means educating ourselves, and then actually changing our conduct, depending on what we learn. Climate change, global warming, toxic pollution issues… When you think about it, many of the most serious challenges we face, as a society, as well as individually, are linked to how we relate to the natural environment.

So, if you’re a San Luis Obispo County resident, you can take a step towards personal involvement and “doing the right thing” by checking out ECOSLO. They’re sponsoring a very nice hike this weekend, and there’s more information at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

EcoSlo Website
http://www.ecoslo.org/

PG&E went through a bankruptcy process several years ago. One of the company’s assets was 140,000 acres of watershed lands, used as part of their hydroelectric system. The bankruptcy proceedings led to a process by which the future use of these lands is now being evaluated, with the idea that there should be a way to provide perpetual protection for the watersheds, with all the public and environmental benefits that go along with that, while allowing for continued operation of the hydroelectric system.

This is a “big picture” type of planning process. It’s being overseen by the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, which has been assigned this management responsibility in a rather arcane set of legal settlement documents, related to the bankruptcy. If you’d like to participate, there are some upcoming opportunities to do that, most specifically meetings to be held in both Jackson, and Sonora – yes, that’s in the Sierras, not proximate to our own location here on the Central Coast.

Still, the future of these watershed lands does affect all Californians, including those who live in KUSP’s over the air broadcast area. That’s why former Assembly Member Fred Keeley was very much involved in this issue, and why John Laird, current Assembly Member, was the coauthor of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy Bill. Get the details, and find out how to become involved, at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

The Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council Website
http://www.stewardshipcouncil.org/

Notice of Upcoming Meetings
http://www.stewardshipcouncil.org/documents/
Open%20House%20Locations_Summer%202005.pdf

California Hydropower Reform Coalition Website
http://www.calhrc.org

Bankruptcy Legal Documents
http://www.calhrc.org/Stewardship%20Council.htm

For more information on how you can become involved, contact John Moore:

• Email:
• Telephone: 916-731-7153

Yesterday, I suggested that some of you might like to head off to the Sierras, to get involved in watershed protection efforts relating to the future use of lands that have been part of the PG&E hydroelectric system. But there are watershed protection opportunities available much closer to home, as well! I’d be remiss if I didn’t alert you to those.

In North Monterey County, the Elkhorn Slough Foundation is doing terrific work to help preserve and protect one of the most important estuarine systems in the world. Indeed, Elkhorn Slough is recognized for its global importance as a habitat for migratory and other birds. I encourage you to discover the Slough; hike it, look through the impressive Visitor’s Center, and then get involved in the “hands on” watershed restoration efforts being sponsored by the Foundation. Of course, you should also be paying attention to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, and their General Plan Update and land use policy decisions, because the insensitive over development of the Elkhorn Slough watershed puts everything that the Foundation is doing at risk.

On the Santa Cruz County side of the Pajaro River, Watsonville Wetlands Watch is also providing “hands on” opportunities to get involved in watershed restoration work. Plus, there’s a picnic this Sunday at the City of Watsonville Nature Center, 33 Harkins Slough Road, at the back of Ramsay Park. Click on the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org for more details.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Watsonville Wetlands Watch
http://www.watsonvillewetlandswatch.org/

Watsonville Sloughs Restoration (and upcoming picnic)
http://www.watsonvillewetlandswatch.org/calendar.htm

Elkhorn Slough Foundation
http://www.elkhornslough.org/

Help Restore Elkhorn Slough
http://www.elkhornslough.org/willow.htm