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Subject: Alameda Creek Alliance update Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 19:43:05 +0000 To the Alameda Creek Alliance e-mail list: Upcoming East Bay creek events and meetings 1) Kickoff meeting of the Alameda County Watershed Forum Thursday, September 22nd – Oakland This meeting will provide networking and learning opportunities for the creek and watershed community of Alameda County.

Thursday, September 22nd from 6-9 PM, at the Tule Ponds Classroom of the Math Science Nucleus, 1999 Walnut Ave, Fremont (adjacent to Fremont BART), see directions at www.msnucleus.org/mapegg.html#TULE%20PONDS Join in an evening of networking, information sharing, and initiating the Alameda County Watershed Forum. Social hour will start at 6 PM, with refreshments. If you have a poster, brochures, maps or other information about your group, please feel free to bring them. Beginning at 7 pm, the agenda will include group self-introductions, an introduction to the forum concept and a brief presentation on the new River Parkways funding program from the California Resources Agency. There will also be updates on various programs of interest, including upcoming conferences, workshops, the IRWM planning process, and Calfed. Starting at 7:45 PM, there will be a discussion on priorities for the forum and how the group would like to see it function, ideas for future meetings and events. For further information and to RSVP (highly encouraged so we can plan for group size and refreshments), please contact Steve Cochrane at scochrane@waterboards.ca.gov or (510) 622-2337 or Dale Hopkins at dhopkins@waterboards.ca.gov or (510) 622-2362 by Sept. 19th. 2) Help restore San Lorenzo Creek in Hayward Saturday, September 24 – Hayward

East Bay residents can participate in the first phase of a planned San Lorenzo Creek restoration. A September 24 workshop will kick off efforts and train volunteers for restoration project's first phase. A native plant propagation workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to noon, September 24 at the Alameda County Public Works Agency office, 951 Turner Court, in Hayward. For information, call Paul Modrell at (510) 670-5248, e-mail paulm@acpwa.org, or visit www.baysavers.org/Programs/SLZ/greenway.htm. The project will restore the portion of San Lorenzo Creek bordering the south side of City Center Drive to Foothill Boulevard. Work along this 700-foot stretch will include protecting the creek banks beneath the Second Street bridge and restoring native plants along the creek's south bank. This area, adjacent to De Anza Park at Foothill and City Center, is strewn with trash and has been the site of Earth Day and other past cleanups.

A second phase next year will include the construction of trails, interpretive panels and a mural, and restoration of native plants on the creek's north bank. The area is part of the 48-square-mile San Lorenzo Creek watershed, the second-largest watershed in the East Bay. 3) State of the Estuary Conference October 4-6 - Oakland The 7th State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference will be held from October 4-6 at the Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland. For more information visit http://www.abag.ca.gov/abag/events/estuary/ 4) Public Scoping meeting for SF Water Supply projects October 11 – Fremont October 19 – San Francisco Alameda Creek Alliance members please plan on attending one of the October public meetings on the SFPUC plans for water supply projects. Scoping hearings for the SFPUC’s Environmental Impact Report for the Water Supply Improvement Program (WSIP) will cover planned water supply and infrastructure projects in the Alameda Creek watershed, including the Calaveras Dam replacement, Sunol rubber dam, Sunol Valley Water Treatment Plant enlargement, and fish restoration activities. Please plan on attending one of the meetings in Fremont or SF – wear your ACA t-shirt and speak out in favor of the ACA’s steelhead restoration proposals. I will send around detailed talking points before the meetings. The WSIP is a program to implement the service goals and system performance objectives established by the SFPUC for the regional water system in the areas of water quality, seismic reliability, delivery reliability, and water supply through the year 2030. For more information about the WSIP and the scoping meetings visit http://sfwater.org/detail.cfm/MSC_ID/104/MTO_ID/202/MC_ID/7/C_ID/2638/holdSe. The Fremont Scoping meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 11, 2005, from 6-8 PM at the Fremont Main Library, Fukaya Room, 2400 Stevenson Boulevard in Fremont.

The San Francisco scoping meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 19, 2005, from 7-9 PM at the Tenderloin Community School, 627 Turk Street (at Van Ness) in San Francisco. Written comments will also be accepted at these meetings and until the close of business on October 24, 2005. Written comments should be sent to the San Francisco Planning Department, Attn: Paul Maltzer, Environmental Review Officer, WSIP PEIR, 30 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 4150, San Francisco, CA 94103, or provided via email to diana.sokolove@sfgov.org. 5) Steelhead/rainbow trout listing and critical habitat for Alameda Creek December

The National Marine Fisheries Service has temporarily excluded proposed habitat in Alameda Creek from a critical habitat designation for Central California Coast steelhead trout. NMFS has taken a 6-month extension to make their final listing determination and critical habitat designation for the Central Coast steelhead population. In December 2005 NMFS will make a final decision whether resident trout (rainbow trout below the dams and landlocked steelhead trout above the dams) will be part of the listed steelhead population and whether to designate the Alameda Creek watershed as critical habitat. The SFPUC has opposed the listing of resident fish and designation of critical habitat. The ACA will mount a legal challenge if NMFS excludes resident fish in Alameda Creek from listing (due to genetic evidence that resident fish in Alameda Creek are related to and part of the listed steelhead population) or excludes the watershed from critical habitat.

PART II

 

Subject: Alert: Pombo Wildlife Extinction Bill Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 20:25:10 +0000

Pombo Extinction Bill in Congress The Center for Biological Diversity has sent out an alert that a bill to eliminate key protections of the Endangered Species Act is slated to be introduced in Congress next week. Representative Pombo's extinction bill would eliminate key protections of the Endangered Species Act. Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA) has stated that next week he will introduce a bill that would greatly rewrite the Endangered Species Act. Representative Pombo has long carried the message of developers and extractive industries and is Congress's loudest opponent of endangered species protections. Pombo is also chair of the House Resources Committee. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for Wednesday, September 21, and a committee vote on Thursday, September 22. Pombo has not yet released the full legislative language, but according to the summary, the bill would: * completely repeal protections for endangered species critical habitat * remove protections for species listed as "threatened" under the law * allow political appointees - such as Secretary of Interior Gale Norton - instead of scientists, to determine what constitutes the best available science * exempt federal agencies from the requirement to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on actions that might impact endangered species * bankrupt the endangered species program by forcing the Fish and Wildlife Service to pay developers to comply with the law. The Endangered Species Act is America's safety net for wildlife, fish and plants on the brink of extinction. Rep. Pombo's bill would eliminate many of the Act's protections for wildlife, including critical habitat protections. The Center for Biological Diversity press release about the Pombo bill is at http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/pombo9-15-05.html   You can look up members of the House Resources Committee, which will hear the bill next week, at: http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/fullcommittee/members.htm   You can sign up for Center for Biological Diversity action alerts at http://actionnetwork.org/BIODIVERSITY/join.html?r=Op1ZMbM13RITE If you would like to be removed from this e-mail list, please notify me by return e-mail. ************************************   Jeff Miller, Director Alameda Creek Alliance P. O. Box 192 Canyon, CA 94516 (510) 499-9185 Fax (415) 436-9683 E-mail alamedacreek@hotmail.com Web site www.alamedacreek.org   “Protecting and restoring the natural ecosystems of the Alameda Creek watershed”   The Alameda Creek Alliance is a non-profit community watershed group.  Please support our efforts by becoming a member.

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