Sierra Club
Redwood Chapter Newsletter
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Lake Group Report Victoria Brandon | |
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Big Win for Cache Creek The Lake Group is thrilled to report that on October 6 we achieved our number one conservation goal for 2005, when the Governor signed legislation adding 31 miles of Cache Creek to the State Wild and Scenic River system, with its ecological values affirmed and the threat of new dams eliminated permanently. This triumph belongs to everyone who cares about the Creek, its watershed, and the future of California -including all our members who signed petitions, sent letters, and made phone calls, and also the Lake County Board of Supervisors which gave a unanimous endorsement. Unfortunately the North Fork upstream from Highway 20 was omitted. Unlike the main stem of the creek, which flows through federal lands proposed for Wilderness designation, most of the North Fork's corridor is privately owned, and achieving Wild and Scenic protection depends on strong support from neighboring landowners - who mostly seem eager to place stringent safeguards on what has been described as an angling paradise. Plans for a "North Fork Wild & Scenic" bill will probably take shape early in the New Year. Rattlesnake Island: Another Winner Rattlesnake Island, the largest island in Clear Lake and home to the Elem Pomo for many thousands of years, contains at least six archeological sites of uncommon importance, including one village that has been named the "type site" for the entire Southeastern Pomo region. It was excluded from Elem trust lands in the 19th century, apparently by clerical error, and subsequently passed through a series of owners, but its cultural treasures, which undoubtedly including many human remains, still remain almost untouched. |
Earlier this year, by another stroke of bureaucratic misadventure, the present owner (an Emeryville businessman) was granted a permit to dig a septic system. The BOS and Planning Commission had to act quickly to prevent irreversible damage, and the owner, who doesn't seem to want to take "no" for an answer, has subsequently filed additional applications for development. Now the State Office of Historic Preservation has alleviated the threat, by approving the island for the National Register of Historic Places, with a recommendation as a National Historic Landmark, which means that the Planning Department is virtually certain to require a (very expensive) EIR before granting any permits whatsoever. Although Elem leaders Jim and Ray Brown, and archeologist John Parker, deserve most of the credit, the Lake Group is proud to have helped. GMO regulation: Down But Not Out On October 11 the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to reject a proposed ordinance placing a 30-month moratorium on the cultivation of glyphosate-resistant ("Roundup Ready") alfalfa in Lake County. It now seems likely that the Coalition for Responsible Agriculture (the group that drafted the alfalfa ordinance, of which the Lake Group is a member) will follow the lead of other northern California counties by proposing a ballot initiative measure to restrict genetically engineered crops. For ongoing information visit the Coalition website, www.lakelive.org/alfalfa. |