For other reports on Santa Rosa Creek and minutes of Stakeholders Meetings, go to Reports

Community members will be contributing local knowledge to the development of the Santa Rosa Creek Watershed Management Plan funded by a $300,000 grant from California Department of Fish and Game Fisheries Restoration Grant Program.  Led by Greenspace—the Cambria Land Trust, the community-based voluntary Management Plan will address watershed restoration priorities for the locally threatened Steelhead trout population. Working with project partners, Greenspace will host the first stakeholders meeting in August.

Greenspace has partnered with Arroyo Grande based Central Coast Salmon Enhancement to facilitate the stakeholder group. Salmon Enhancement has previously worked with stakeholders in Pismo Beach, Nipomo, Arroyo Grande, and Nacimiento and San Antonio Creek watersheds to develop voluntary plans. According to Stephnie Wald, Watershed Projects Manager with Salmon Enhancement, “By integrating local issues and priorities to the fullest extent that we can, we can better ensure community and funding support for recommended priority measures following completion of the plan.” Wald’s job is to manage stakeholder group’s input into the plan during the 18 month project.

Stillwater Sciences, a Berkeley based consulting firm, has been hired by Greenspace to collect information about sediment generation and movement, and creek channel changes of the waterways that make up the Santa Rosa Creek watershed. Information collected will be reviewed by a technical advisory committee (TAC) specifically formed for this project. Members of the TAC live or work in the watershed and/or the county and have local expertise needed to objectively review the data.  

The information collected along with stakeholder input will be used to identify and recommend priority activities for restoration actions to address factors limiting Steelhead populations. The recommendations will be integrated into the Watershed Management Plan, slated to be completed in about 18 months.

           
For more information about the plan or Greenspace, please contact Richard Hawley at (805) 927-2866 or rick@greenspacecambria.org, Post Office Box 1505, Cambria CA 93428.

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