This year the Conservation Committee stood ground on a number of issues. We agreed with the community in asking UCSC to consider other sites than the East Meadow for new housing development via our comments on the EIR for the West Campus Housing Project. We worked with the city to develop Bird Safe Design Standards for new buildings, a much -needed addition given our location within the Pacific Flyway. This is on-going work. We are supporting the Valley Women’s Club in their efforts to stop the unnecessary tree removal across miles of PG&E power lines. We wrote to the Water Quality Control Board regarding Timber Harvest Plans in the Big Basin Water District; the last botanical surveys of the area were done in 2004. We began raising awareness about light pollution, which negatively affects both wildlife and human health. We asked the city council to not approve a major development downtown, “Devcon”, due to the lack of inclusion of affordable housing via Measure O and the failure to adequately assess environmental impacts. We opened conversation with Congressman Jimmy Panetta regarding the proposed new trade deal, which lacks adequate environmental protections.

 

We also asked key environmental questions regarding the proposed rail trail including a request for an EIR to study alternatives and more properly assess environmental impacts. The environmental review for Segment 7 Phase 2 lacked inclusion of the Monarch butterfly habitat in the project area. Our pointing that out led to a recirculation of the Mitigated Negative Declaration. We submitted comments on the North Coast segment EIR where the protected Red Legged Frog resides directly along the tracks.

If you are interested in these and other environmental issues affecting our county, please join us at our meetings at 6:30 PM on the fourth Wednesday of the month at Londen Nelson Community Center.