rollin' rollin' rollin'

From:  Arnie Thompson, San Francisquito Watershed Project

We smashed all the records for volunteer attendance and amount of trash picked up at our last California Coastal Cleanup Day event, Sept. 20, 2008!  There were really too many folks to count accurately and the signin process devolved into utter chaos, so we had to “guesstimate” our numbers and trash volume, but we feel pretty confident that we had around 300 people picking up roughly 5000 pounds (just over two metric tons) of trash!  I spent a good hour and a half baking in the sun out at the Palo Alto recycling center, sorting out the brown, clear and green glass, the aluminum cans, plastic bottles and misc. recyclables.  Sweet!

And now, a shout-out to some of the groups in attendance!  Thank you to Eastside, Youth Community Services, the Girl Scouts, College Track and Sea Grant – we hope to see you out there for National River Cleanup Day in May 2009 and/or for the next CCD in September 2009.

Here are a few more of my favorite photos from the event!

They went thata way!

Sea Grant takes out the trash

Now that's quite a haul!

Creeks: San Francisquito, Bear, Los Trancos

Howdy, howdy. Just a couple notes after a few days in the creek. First, there are fairly large numbers of large sticklebacks upstream from the Lunar Rocks. While this is not all that exciting nor wildly unexpected, I find the dynamic nature of fish distribution interesting – we haven’t had sticklebacks upstream from Lunar Rocks since we started annual work in 1997. It took a couple years for roach and stickleback to reinvade Los Trancos after the 1998 season, but it always seemed puzzling that sticklebacks weren’t able to make it past the not-so-great falls at Lunar Rocks. Kind of neat anyway. I’m not sure how far up they’ve made it – we’ll check over the next month.

Secondly, there are a lot of YOY steelhead in San Francisquito Creek this year – likely more than we’ve seen in nearly a decade (as our methods have changed, exact comparisons are tough to make, but each pool upstream from the old Boething pumphouse to 500 meters upstream from Lunar Rocks has 10 to 20 young steelhead). Not many 1+ steelhead – but each of the bigger pools has a few. So steelhead seem to have had a good year in SFC – more areas need to be checked, but it looks good. And contrary to the early season observations (which found basically no fish of any types), roach, stickleback and suckers are also doing well – large schools of young fishes.

Thirdly – while I haven’t done the upstream reach of SFC, I haven’t seen any non-native fishes in the creek. This is very good as in 2006 large numbers of largemouth bass and some sunfish were found scattered all the way from Searsville dam to the golf course (2007 water conditions made surveys difficult and not too effective). It looks like most did not survive the high flows. Good.

And lastly, for some reason our observations of turtles is way up – a minimum of 16 have been observed. This is not all good news as a fair number of these are turning out to be non-native red-eared sliders, but it looks like at least four of the individuals sighted are western pond turtles (which is still better than we’ve seen during the last five plus years). Note that no red-eared sliders have been seen at JR – a bunch are at Felt and one was seen in Lagunita. Obviously someone is moving turtles around……….. So please be on the lookout for turtles.

With water levels dropping, I’m not sure how well the rest of the surveys will go… but well see.

Come help us keep our creeks clean and safe!

The San Francisquito Watershed Council is organizing two (2!) separate events for National River Cleanup Day that are equally beneficial to our local environment. Both aim to remove trash from our waterways; improving water quality, helping preserve habitat for wildlife, and keep our community clean and safe.

Both events will occur simultaneously as part of the wider National River Cleanup Day event. If you want to volunteer, you can choose the event that is best for you.

When: Saturday, May 17th, 2008

Why: to help conserve and protect our natural environment

Cleanup Site #1: San Francisquito Creek Cleanup.

When: 9:00am to 12:00pm (come early to avoid the rush to sign in)

Where: Meet on the corner of Manhattan Ave. and Woodland Ave. in Palo Alto map

Details: Bring some old shoes and old clothes; we’ll bring the gloves, trash/recycle bags, water, snacks, etc. We’ll drop into the dry creek bed and remove trash upstream and downstream.

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Cleanup Site #2: Adobe/Barron Creek floodplain Cleanup – Kayakers needed!

When: 8:45am to 12:00pm-ish. There is plenty to do!

Where: Meet on the corner of E. Bayshore and Elwell Ct. in Palo Alto map

Details: This area is WET this time of year, so we are looking for those with Kayaks! Our kayakers will need plenty of ground support from volunteers on the creek bank, so all those interested please apply. Parking is available on the street, but kayakers may drive up to the creek to launch their boats. Those in the kayaks/canoes will pull trash out of the wet areas, those on the bank will remove trash from the bank and support the kayakers. Depending on time/progress, volunteers may perform other beneficial tasks (such as brush clearing) to enhance the stream environment.

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If you would like more information, you can contact Ryan Navratil at Ryan@SanFrancisquito.org.

The event attracted some media coverage locally and regionally:

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=7885

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/02/MNRK10DPD6.DTL

Talks by researchers, engineers, and resource managers provided a great deal of insight as to the future of our water resources in the area.

http://www.youthcommunityservice.org/staticpages/index.php/twocreeks

C/O Doug from Cal-IPC

All-

The California Invasive Plant Council (Cal-IPC) is engaged in a weed mapping project to tell us not only what’s happening in our ecological sphere, but what’s happening in areas around our local ecosystem.  The latter is just as important for weed management because it tells us what we can expect to be coming down the hills or along the highways.  This information is not only valuable, but reliable, and data that are constantly updated are the keys to successful weed management.  Please see the graphic below that describes the prevalence of Stinkwort in California as well as areas likely to support the weed’s colonization in the future.  Well done, and thanks Cal-IPC!

The Tuolumne River Trust is looking for volunteers to help out at two upcoming events — the Big Bend Bash and SalmonAid.  These will be great opportunities to work with like-minded people who care about our rivers and wildlife.  And you get in free!  Please let me know if you’re available.

As an added bonus, I’m attaching an excellent article about the Tuolumne from Monday’s San Francisco Daily.

Many thanks.

-Peter

2nd Annual Big Bend Bash
May 17 (Saturday), 4-8pm
Great food, music, games and canoe rides on the Tuolumne River
Located at 4507 Broyle Road, Modesto
Information: http://www.tuolumne.org/content/article.php/20080319105701914 <http://www.tuolumne.org/content/article.php/20080319105701914>

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SalmonAid 2008: A Festival of Music, Food and Culture
May 31 & June 1, Noon – 7pm
Live music, food and drink, information booths and much more
Located at Jack London Square, Oakland
Information: http://www.salmonaid.org <http://www.salmonaid.org/>

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DATA ENTRY — We also could use some help entering names and contact info into an Excel spreadsheet ( you can do it from the comfort of your own home).  Please let me know if you’re able to help.

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San Francisco Daily
April 28, 2008
SF plans river water grab from exhausted Tuolumne River
By Richard Cole

Greener-than-thou San Francisco has a dirty little secret – a plan to drain more water from the already exhausted Tuolumne River and sell it to Hayward, which probably doesn’t need it.

Environmentalists, local governments and California Fish and Game officials are raising an uproar about the plan, saying it will further decrease the already dwindling numbers of salmon and trout in the river.

“We have seen dramatic declines in Salmon on the Tuolumne,” said Peter Drekmeier of the Tuolumne River Trust. “From 18,000 it has fallen to only 180 in the last eight years – a drop of 99 percent.”

Fifty-nine percent of the Tuolumne’s natural flow is already siphoned off to San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy water project and various irrigation districts, he noted.

But San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission is proposing to eventually take another 25 million gallons per day from the river, calling it the “preferred alternative” in its environmental draft study.

More water will be needed, not by San Francisco, but by other Hetch Hetchy customers, especially the city of Hayward, which has projected enormous urban growth.
SF: Customers need water
To some degree, said Tony Winnicker, spokesman for the commission, San Francisco is legally bound to satisfy its customers.

“We have 2.4 million customers in four Bay Area counties, and we are obligated to bring them drinking water,” he said.

The cities and other entities that buy water have projected an increasing need that will raise Hetch Hetchy’s current 265 million gallons a day production to 300 million gallons in the future. But hold on a minute, said Drekmeier.

“Sixty percent of this increased diversion would go to outdoor use, principally irrigation,” he said. “We’re not talking about water for drinking and bathing – the majority of it would be for watering lawns.”

That’s a perfect use for recycled water, not fresh Tuolumne River water, he said.
Hayward may revise estimate
Almost half of the increase is for Hayward, and was requested long ago, when heavy growth seemed likely. Current city officials were horrified to find out how much water their city had asked for, and are very likely to revise that estimate, Drekmeier said.

The water diversion could also potentially undermine the one thing that all sides agree on – the seismic strengthening of the outdated Hetch Hetchy water system. Because it is part of the same environmental impact report, likely lawsuits against the water diversion could halt the seismic safety project, a result no one wants, said Drekmeier.

Many local officials – including the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which will ultimately review the report – are on record as opposing the Tuolumne River diversion.

And the Public Utilities Commission may be seeing the handwriting on the wall, Winnicker indicated.

“We have to meet our customers’ demands,” he said. “If we can do it in a way that still protects against drought and avoids taking as much water from the Tuolumne, through conservation and recycling say, I know the commission is very interested in that.”

And if Hayward or other water customers come to the commission and say they have reduced their projected future demand, that will help preserve the river as well, Winniker said.

-Ryan

From:  Peter in Palo Alto:

“Please take one minute to help protect the Tuolumne River.  Here’s how.

Today the SFPUC voted to increase its water conservation budget from
$1.8 to 2.8 million per year, a 64% increase!  This is great news,
because every gallon saved stays in the Tuolumne.

Please take one minute to send an email to the SFPUC Commissioners
thanking them for their vote.  It’s important for them to see that
hundreds, if not thousands, of people are paying attention to their
actions.  This will help us when it comes time for them to vote on
the Water System Improvement Program.  If you’re associated with an
organization, please mention that too.

Your message could be as simple as this:

Dear Commissioners,

Thank you for voting to increase the SFPUC’s water conservation
budget by $1 million per year.  This will help make San Francisco a
more sustainable city while protecting the Tuolumne River.

Sincerely,
(Your Name)

Of course, if you want to say more, that would be great, just don’t
let it get in the way of sending something.  There’s all sorts of
great information available at http://www.tuolumne.org/content/
index.php?topic=programs_bayarea

Here are the Commissioners email addresses:

acaen@sfwater.org
dhochschild@sfwater.org
rsklar@sfwater.org
LPatricio@sfwater.org
mhoush@sfwater.org

Thank you for helping to protect the Tuolumne!

-Peter

P.S.  The Tuolumne River Trust could always use your support.  To
make a donation online, please visit http://www.tuolumne.org/content/
article.php/donate

“

The San Francisquito Watershed Council has worked on this site in the past, so a fair amount of our effort went into removing the tiny resprouts from previous years’ seeds. This would indicate we are making progress at the site, and I expect to see even fewer plants along Cow Hill Rill next year. We also stumbled on a patch of mature plants (some even >3m tall). Our volunteers made short work of this difficult job, so thank you again!