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Human Race Supports
Wetlands Education
Thirteen
students, teacher Deanna Young, several volunteers, and board member
Tiffany Hernandez and family (shown here) arose bright and early
Saturday, May 8th, to walk and run for wetlands education in the Human Race. The race followed a
6-mile course from Natural Bridges State Park along West Cliff Drive in
Santa Cruz. This group and other WWW supporters raised over $1300 to
benefit wetlands education at PVHS. Many thanks to all the participants,
donors, and supporting teachers! To see more, click here.
The
Human Race was part of WWW's Spring Campaign. You can still contribute
by clicking here. All contributions are greatly appreciated. |
Wetland Stewards Mentor Others
2010
has been a great year to be a mentor for the Wetland Stewards
After-School Program. Our high school mentors (Andrea, Fernando,
Jasmin, Sandra, Rudy and Miguel) have been teaching an environmental
after-school program at Mintie White Elementary School and Lakeview
Middle School. They are exploring neighboring watersheds and other
ecosystems, and they also took a field trip to Aņo Nuevo to watch and
study Northern elephant seals. Click here for more.
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Earth Day
in Watsonville
 
Hundreds
of community members came to Ramsay Park in Watsonville to celebrate
Earth Day and Day of the Child on April 25th. Watsonville Wetlands Watch
set up a booth where docents and Wetland Stewards led children of all
ages through wetlands bingo. Folks also got to learn about the local
fauna by visiting with Rocky, the gopher snake, and our taxidermied
animal specimens. Many smiling faces left our booth with a lasting prize
-- a native wetland plant! |
Students Restore Land!
 Students have been
working this spring replanting native plants and removing non-native
plants as a part of the 80 acre restoration project surrounding Pajaro
Valley High School. This spring's work has focused on upper Hanson
Slough. There have been many signs of recovery in this new habitat
(formerly a strawberry field), such as good growth from 4 and 5 year-old
native trees, and a healthy raptor population, including Red-shouldered
hawks, White-tailed kites, and Burrowing owls. For more photos by
Integrated Science teacher Rob Hoffman, click here.
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Snapshot Day Checks Water Health
In partnership with the Coastal Watershed
Council, WWW kicked off the wetlands water quality monitoring portion of
Project Tierra on May 1, 2010, Santa Cruz's official Snapshot Day.
Docents and other community volunteers participated in this regional
event which captures a snapshot of the health of 300 miles of coastal
watersheds. We collected data from 14 points in the Watsonville
Sloughs. Click here to learn more.
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Become a “Prosumer”
In this presentation on Thursday, June 17, 6:30 - 8:30
p.m. at the WERC, you'll learn to understand your PG&E bill and
reduce your use of electricity and natural gas to save money and the
environment. Smart Grid consultant Christine Hertzog will give a preview
of the revolution in the electrical grid, how your relationship with
electricity is going to change, and why becoming a “prosumer” is a good
thing. For directions and map, click here. Click here to learn
more about the talk.
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Determining the Future for Water
AMBAG, the Association of
Monterey Bay Area Governments, is sponsoring three Community Planning
Forums on water to explore how to reduce our water use and increase our
water supply as the Monterey Bay Area develops. Each forum will include
presentations from a panel of experts followed by a discussion and a
question and answer session. Also available are two facility tours to
see how the region is currently addressing current and future water
needs. For details, click here or contact Linda Meckel,
lmeckel@ambag.org, 831-264-5084.
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Planning for a 2035 Regional Blueprint
 From Bob Culbertson, WWW President:
“AMBAG (the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments) has some
regional authority. Currently the Cities and Counties have General Plans
that direct zoning and land use. This is a new layer of planning that
we will need to get involved with. It remains to be seen if a regional
General Plan will subordinate any of the more local plans, but whatever
comes out of the regional discussion will have some impact on local
plans ... so we need to have input.” For a schedule of community
meetings, click here.
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32-Mile Rail Line Purchase Approved
 An article on this major decision appeared in
the Santa Cruz Sentinel on May 7th. Bob Culbertson comments: “Note
that this rail line also borders Manabe/Ow and connects on to Pajaro
Junction and Salinas with the main Coastal Rail line. There has not been
much planning projecting use of this corridor to move the people of the
Pajaro Valley towards the beaches or North County locations but the
purchase keeps the options open for the future. Several miles of
the rail corridor border our sloughs so it is another planning
opportunity for WWW.” To learn more, click here.
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Watsonville Wetlands Watch advocates
for wetland issues, educates
elementary, middle, and high school students, restores degraded
habitats, preserves what remains whole, and teaches appreciation for
the unique beauty and life of the Pajaro Valley wetlands. In
cooperation with numerous other agencies, we support studies of and
planning for these sites. |
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