President’s Message

I’ve written here before about solar energy development in the west, which I believe is CNPS’s great environmental challenge for this decade.

CNPS has been heavily involved in the fight to protect intact desert ecosystems, which are threatened by the “renewable energy gold rush”. I highly recommend reading the Coyote Crossing blog by Chris Clarke. His recent article “Desert Solar Is Not Renewable Energy” examines the irreversible impacts on desert aquifers, native plants, and vegetative communities. He also gives the dire statistics about the number of acres of our public lands that are slated for destruction, some on the “fast track”. Chris’s blog post can be found at http://faultline.org/index.php/site/item/not_renewable

Solar power is a part of our future, a crucial alternative energy source. But destroying irreplaceable desert habitats, wildlife and plants, much of which has not even been adequately studied so that we know what is lost, is not the best long-­-term solution for our health and lives. Alternatives to the alternatives must be sought and exploited. I hope you’ll take the time to familiarize yourself with this complex environmental issue.

Greg Suba, CNPS’s Conservation Director, is working hard on this fast-­-moving issue. From Greg’s recent update to the Chapter Council: “CNPS has been working with other conservation organizations to find solutions that will provide for increased renewable energy generation while preserving California’s native landscapes. Our message emphasizes the need to 1) site wind and solar projects on disturbed lands (private and public) through a regional desert conservation planning process, 2) develop more distributed (“rooftop”) and smaller-­-scale energy generation facilities, and 3) promote energy conservation measures. . . . There are nine solar, four wind, and one geothermal energy projects undergoing fast-­-tracked environmental review to begin construction and qualify for stimulus funds by the end of 2010. The CNPS State Conservation Program has intervened on the Ivanpah project, the farthest down the fast-­-track process. ” Keep up to date on our state conservation program and other state activities by visiting the website at cnps.org

Your membership helps support this and many other fights to save our native plants and our heritage. Thank you for your important support.

On June 17th, we held our annual Chapter Celebration. We had great food courtesy of Elizabeth Songster, Diane Wollenberg and Tessa Cone. Kathy Glendenning did an incredible job organizing our silent auction and raffle, which raised $2,000 for chapter grants, including school gardens and research grants. Many thanks to our business donors Roger’s Gardens, Tree of Life Nursery, Golden West College Native Garden, Acorn Naturalists, and artist Mark Kerckhoff, and our member and friend donors including Pegi Black, Jeff Upton, Fran Collato, Joan Hampton, Dennis Keagy, Bob Perry, Randy Musser, Beth Butterfield, Allison Rudalevige, Brad Jenkins, Nancy Heuler, Dan Songster, and Kathy Glendinning. (Please accept my apologies if you were inadvertently omitted from this list.) We are grateful to so many members and friends who attended our event and participated in the silent auction and raffle. It was a big success because of you!

—Laura Camp, Chapter President

CONSERVATION REPORT

CEQA STILL BEING CHALLENGED: The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is the state’s principal environmental law. It gives communities the ability to participate in decisions that determine how they grow, and how to avoid adverse effects from development. It also is the basis on which the enviro community can work to preserve rare species, hence their habitat, hence the natural open space lands that hold the habitat.
CEQA requires extensive public hearings and community input on projects that affect the community and nearby natural environment. Non-enviro critics consider these procedures to be onerous and time wasting, and blame them for holding up projects that would create jobs—thus implying blame for CEQA for current economic conditions.
Several bills that in some way would exempt projects from all or part of CEQA (thereby rendering the Act meaningless) are currently before the State Legislature. CNPS’ Legislative Consultant Vern Goehring and the Conservation Program have been working, on our own and with other groups, to get our message of opposition to these proposed bills to legislators. ACTION NOW: tell your State Assemblyperson and Senator (find them at http://www.legislature.ca.gov/portzipsearch.html) that you want a strong CEQA.2
OC PARKS & IRVINE RANCH CONSERVANCY: After more than a year of negotiations, the transfer of seven designated natural open space land parcels, totaling 20,312 acres, from The Irvine Company (TIC) to OC Parks was approved by the OC Parks Commission on June 17. Final approval by the OC Board of Supervisors took placed on June 29. The land transfer has been long-planned and is a fulfillment of OC’s Central-Coastal NCCP.
Most of the acreage encompasses the foothills at the northern end of TIC lands, abutting the Trabuco District; a 172-acre portion fills a gap in the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. All the many official documents (which include maps) related to the transfer are available at www.ocparks.com.
The Green Vision Coalition’s Land Transfer Steering Committee had worked with OC Parks administration since September to ensure that the transfer included:
• Enough funding: OC Parks administration is confident that the transfer includes sufficient funding to properly manage the lands.
• Preservation of the lands’ conservation values.
• Public oversight and transparency.
• A state-of-the-art management plan. See http://www.fhbp.org/projects/PDFs/Final-Q&A-on-Land-Transfer.pdf for background on the transfer and the part that Friends of Harbors Beaches & Parks/Green Vision, and the rest of the enviro community, had in it.
OC Parks Director Mark Denny’s message about the transfer:
Transferring ownership from a private corporation to the public ensures that the land will remain as protected open space.“Protected” = “special,” the land must be respected.
Educating the public to respect the land is most important, so that the public will understand what’s appropriate to do
in these special places.
Each of the seven parcels has its own Habitat Management Plan. A science-based team has been formed to synthesize the seven plans into one and coordinate it with OC Parks’ Management Plan. Public hearings will be held on the synthesis process in fall 2010. ACTION NOW: enjoy your local OC
Parks, and plan to participate in the upcoming hearings.               —Celia Kutcher, Conservation Chair

 

 

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