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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 05041999 - SD3 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, AS GOVERNING BOARD OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY AND CONTRA COSTA COUNTY.FLOOD CONTROL ANIS WA'T'ER C{�NSERVATIJI�T DISTRICT FROM: The Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Coanmittee DATE: May 4,:999 SUBJECT: Presentation on the Status of the Alhambra Creek'Watershed Planning Committee's Efforts to Prepare a Watershed Management Plan for Alhambra Creels in the Martinez area. SPEECIFiC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMFNDA'ION(S)7 BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION _Recommended Action: HEAR presentation fto-.n the chair of the Alhambra Creek Watershed Management Pl&-ming Committee on the Status of the Committee's efforts to prepare a watershed management plan for the Alhambra Creep Watershed. Tt. FinanciAlImpact: None F� Cent trued on Attachment: SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE OTHER /2'� x� SIGNATURES : ACI€0' OF BOARD ON may 4,, 1999 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED XX OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS XX UNANIMOUS(ABSENT APES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTAIN: RIVIA:cl C;aadmi:llrnite-boAbo5-4 Attachrmtit Orig.Div:Public Works lib action k 43 is�t€3Jr# �4�ofth� Contact: Mitch Avalon—3I3 22,13) Ott t t3 tn€trr� U: the d 8 S txtl€A- Y s { �0I�raESCtt;�cat,e�B#�°��st� . C_ Alhambra Watershed Planning Committee ATTES14 4 j Resource Conservation DistrictH �� a UC Cooperative Extension iiu �visor9��.f �lMy 0 4�I �:d afrt ya ntz A . EnliM Natural Resources Conservation Service Martinez City Council Marsha Raises,City Manager,Martinez The Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Committee Page 2 1I1. Reasons for Recommendations and Background. In 1995, the Environmental Alliance, a local nonprofit planning group, approached the Contra Costa Resource Conservation District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service to assist in the development of a watershed management plan for the Alhambra Creek Watersheds The vision of the watershed management plan was to address the concerns of chronic flooding, urban developmental pressures, and land and water management practices in maintaining a healthy creek eco system in the watershed. It was understood that the people who live and work within the watershed are the ones most capable of making decisions regarding its management. On March 3, 19973 the Resource Conservation District called together a public meeting facilitated by the University of California Extension. From that initial meeting, the Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Committee was established. The Committee consists of 32 members representing all stakeholders within the watershed. Attached is a status report prepared by the Committee outlining the major accomplishments and progress that has been made to date on preparing the watershed management plan. Last year, the Resource Conservation District was successful in obtaining a CALFED grant to hire a watershed coordinator for the Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Committee, In March, the Resource Conservation District fired Sue Worley as the new full time watershed coordinator for the Committee. With full time staff support from the Resource Conservation District,the Committee expects to have the Watershed Management Plan completed within the next nine months. Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Group Progress report 2/25/99 Alhambra Creep Planning Group Progress Report Summary The Alhambra geek Watershed Planning Group is a community based group that is working by consensus to develop a voluntary plan for managing the watershed in a way that is acceptable to all stakeholders. Because we are community based and operate by consensus, building the plan takes time. Also, because of this approach, the plan we develop will have a higher probability of being accepted and acted upon. All concerned get a chance to be heard and no one can be Forced to accept what is unacceptable to them. We are a diverse group, bringing many points of view and many backgrounds to the process. We are helping raise awareness of the watershed and are demonstrating community interest and support for enlightened planning of its management. Our existence and our activities have provided support for some good things already. • The city of Martinez took successful preventive steps to cope with el nino flooding • Congressional support helped get funding for the Martinez downtown flood control project. • Downtown property owners overwhelmingly voted to assess themselves to help complete the financing of the project. The flooding project is being designed with up-to-date understanding of watershed and stream dynamics in mind. (Working with nature rather than fighting her). hard drive:geek stuff:Alh w/s Planning Group:Progress Reports: A C Watershed Progress Report Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Group Progress report 2/25/99 A Brief Description of the Watershed The Alhambra Creek Watershed is a special place. The rains that fall on its 18 square miles grow trees and grasses, and flow through Alhambra and Franklin Creeks, sustaining fish and other wildlife. More than 20,400 people live work and play here and share this space with each other and with the other creatures living here. We all take part in natural processes going on in the watershed. Alhambra creek rises in the hills of Briones Regional park; Franklin Creek rises in the ranches at the head of Franklin Canyon. They join downstream of John Muir's house and flow through neighborhoods and downtown Martinez to empty into Carquinez Straits at Martinez Regional Shoreline. The watershed is crossed by a freeway and two railroads. About 15% of the watershed's area is urbanized, the rest is undeveloped, with about 1/3 of it in public ownership and about 2/3 owned privately. About 20,440 people live in this watershed. Many more work in it or do business here. Downtown Martinez and many neighborhoods are here. The City Council of Martinez and the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors meet in the watershed.. Alhambra High, Martinez Junior Nigh, Jahn Swett, John Muir and Saint Catherine's schools are in the watershed. People come to get well at Merrithew Hospital, to settle legal matters in the Courthouse, to work at the County offices, to buy groceries and antiques, to have dinner, to see the fireworks and to get on the Amtrak train. The watershed's rangelands and woodlands are grazed by cattle and deer. Squirrels bury acorns, foxes and coyotes hunt and owls hoot. Hawks and vultures soar above it, while smaller birds dart among the trees and underbrush. Raccoons wash their dinners in the creeks. Fish swim in the creeks and crayfish burrow in them. This is a vital area, people have shared it with each other and with other living things for thousands of years. All of us share this space and share its resources. hard drive:creek stuff:Alh wls Planning Group:Progress Reports: A C Watershed Progress Report -2- Alhambra geek Watershed Planning Group Progress report 2125199 Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Group We are the Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Group. We are working to develop a plan to manage this watershed. Our goal is to help us live here and use this place in a way that promotes our well being, sustains us economically and protects the resources and health of the watershed so our grandchildren will have a chance to hear an owl hoot and see a stream splash. Stakeholders represented in our group include: • Watershed residents and landowners (many at creekside). • Watershed ranchers. • Fust Bay Regional Park District • City of Martinez • Contra Costa Resource Conservation District • National Parks Service • Contra Costa Mood Control District • Friends of Alhambra Creek • 'National Resource Conservation Service • Centra Costa Board of Supervisors • Martinez Land Trust • Cattlemen's Association • Urban Creeks council • Property bights organizations • Martinez Unified School District • Centra Costa Fire District • Martinez Chamber of Commerce We have no enforcement power, so compliance with our plan relies on people seeing that it makes sense for them and wanting to do it. This is home-rule democracy at its most elemental level: people finding ways to promote their own self-interest in concert with the common good. This is not easy to do, and we have worked for over a year to learn enough about the watershed and about each other to carne up with a set of goals. This is our Mission Statement: hard drivexreek stuff Alh wls Planning Crroup:Progress Reports: A C Watershed Progress Report _3 _ Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Group Progress report 2/25/99 Develop a sound watershed management plan, integrating all stakeholders interests in a lawful manner and voluntarily implement strategies that achieve the fallowing goals: • Ensure public health and safety through flood control and fire prevention management. • Protect individual property rights. • Enhance economic viability. • Achieve and maintain sustainable agriculture. • .Educate ourselves (planning group members) about watershed resources, needs, goals, and objectives. • Educate the public about the watershed management plan. • Protect, maintain, and improve the watershed's natural resources and biodiversity. • Maintain and enhance the character and quality of life within the watershed. We have organized ourselves into four subcommittees to further define these goals, develop more specific objectives and make recommendations for voluntarily implementing best management practices, • Developed Lands - work on the urbanized part of the watershed. • Open Lands - work on park and ranchlands. • Education - work on ways to convey what we learn to schoolchildren, creekside residents, public officials, regulators and other stakeholders and interested parties. • Writing and synthesis - assemble the work into an integrated plan for the watershed. hard drive:creek stuff:Alh w/s Planning Crroup:Progress Reports: A C watershed Progress Report -4- Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Group Progress report 2125/99 'sing funding from a grant, we have hired a fulltime watershed coordinator to pull together these efforts and to perform many of the staff functions needed to support the work of the committees and of the planning group as a whole. We have made considerable progress. We expect to produce a watershed plan this year. Some specific activities: Public Meetings We meet the first Tuesday of each month as a whole group, and in between in subcommittees. We have guest speakers who are specialists in watershed-related issues and resources and management techniques. Watershed field trips Members of the groups have conducted many field trips and tours of the watershed. In addition to planning group members, participants have been public officials, representatives of our congressman, members of the press corps, and members of the business'community. These have raised our own and other's awareness. This awareness has helped generate support in Congress for funding of the Martinez flood control project, has helped pass a self- assessment election to help complete the financing of the project. The city of Martinez took significant preventive measuresin anticipation of the major el nino winter of 1998, and as a result the effects were significantly less severe than the 1997 event even though the rainfall was significantly greater. The work of the planning group was important in supporting the political will to take these steps. Creek Restoration (Bioengineering) hard drive:creek stuff:Alh wls Planning Group:Progress Reports: A C Watershed Progress Report Alhambra geek Watershed Planning Group Progress report 2/25/99 Members of the planning group participated in a workshop to learn a technique that is low-cost, does not require permits and works with the natural processes of the creek to stabilize banks against erasion. This is a method that can be used by individual homeowners. Proper Functioning Condition Members of the planning ,group are participating in a workshop sponsored by the USIA to learn the stream assessment technique called "Proper Functioning Condition". This is a method that was developed for the Bureau of Lind Management to assess stream on BLM lands. Application to a mixed urban/undeveloped environment such as the Alhambra Watershed is an extension of this technique. We are working with the professionals in this field to adapt this method to our situation. If we are successful, this will provide a useful tool for other watersheds in the area, as well as help us better understand the condition of our own. Demonstration Project One of our members has offered his ranch near the headwaters of Franklin Creek as a site to apply Best Management Practices to demonstrate and fine-tune their effectiveness in managing agricultural lands in the watershed. Conclusion The Alhambra Creek Watershed Plan is a work in progress. We intend it to be a tool to help us sustainably live and work and recreate in this place. Even as we work to develop the plan, good things are beginning to happen, helped along by our work. hard drivexreek stuff.Alh wv/s Planning GroupYrogress Reports: A C Watershed Progress Report -6- In MM MM L06U CUNTEST WIN A FIELD TRIP FOR YOUR CLASS Got Pi fic ReMalsim f" Ywr Mik and a Frm DINNER lot 4* # 'v a ... Ko puft", ;,to ,oms. Entry forms are available at the following locations: > Martinez Public Library, 740 Court St. > Boys and Girls Club, 301 Alhambra Ave. ➢ City ball, 525 Henrietta St. voRECEIVED ➢ Leisure & Community Services, 610 Main St. > John Swett School, 4955 Alhambra Valley Rd. > John Muir, 295 Vista Wy. BSD OF SUPEFMS0R$1 OKMA COCA CO, ➢ Martinez Junior High School, 1600 Court St. Alhambra High School, 150 E. St. > St. Catherine's Of .Mena, 604 Mellus St. ➢ Patchin's School, 1124 Ferry St. ➢ Vicente Martinez High School & Martinez Adult School, 614 F St. For More Information Contact: Sue Worley at the Contra Costa Resource Conservation District 925-672-6522 AL AMBRA CREEK WATERSHEb * LOGO CONTEST WIN A EIELb TRIP EOR YOUR CLASS (If you like,you read this to your class as a group activity to explain the contest followed by tithe for logo creation. Entries doge outside of school or by individuals are also acce table. Gear Teachers and Students, We are the Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Group and we need your help. We would like you to make a picture for us. Who are we? The Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Group is a'group of your neighbors who are writing a plan to help make the Alhambra Creek ecosystem and our watershed a healthier and more beautiful place. We feel that no one knows better how to help our community than the people who live and work here. Many different kinds of people belong to the group. Our group has people who live in the country and the city, ranchers, business people, biologists, flood experts, people from government, teachers and scientists. We are all cooperating together to write a plan for the watershed that gives information to citizens about voluntary ways they might improve their community. We hope our work will lead to solving problems like flooding, and having the stream banks wash away, and to protect places for people, fish, animals and plants to live. What is a watershed? Everyone lives in a watershed. Watersheds are the places we call home. They are where we work and play. To get a picture of what a watershed is, imagine yourself standing on a bridge in downtown Martinez. If you look around you can see the tops of the hills on all sides. When it rains, all the water runs from the hilltops down toward you from as far away as Briones Park, Vaca Canyon and Franklin Canyon into streams and creeks. The creeks join together to make one big creek, called Alhambra Creek, that flows underneath the bridge out the Carquinez Strait to the ocean. The watershed is everything you see from the top of the hills down into the valleys and out to the strait. The watershed is a living ecosystem community that includes the dirt, rocks, trees, plants, air, water, animals, fish, insects, birds and people. It includes places like the parks, the farms, the oak woodlands, the city, the creeks, the marsh,;and your home. A watershed is a way to think about all of these things in our community as a whale. What happens in the uplands effects the valleys and creeks. All the pieces of the watershed are connected. The plan we are writing will help us think of ways to have cleaner water and a healthier place to live. We need a picture or design to use on the cover of our plan, for letters, tee shirts and displays that will tell people about our work. We want the picture to show what the watershed means to you or what it is like to live in the Alhambra Creek watershed community. It can be a symbol, a shape or picture of anything in the watershed or how you feel about the watershed. The picture could show your favorite part of the watershed; the whole watershed or how things are all connected. Try to keep the picture simple and the things in your picture big enough so people can see them clearly. The rules, prize details and entry forms are on the next page. Thank you for your help. Good luck. Sincerely, The Alhambra Creek Watershed Coordinator ALHAMBRA CREEK WATERSHED LOGO CONTEST � INFORMATION AND RULES � About the contest: � Our goal by offering this contest is to educate young people about watersheds, to introduce the concept of watershed level thinking in addressing natural resource and clean water issues, and increase awareness about the efforts of the Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Group. ' PRIZES 1, Place- # The winning child's class will receive: r- A naturalist led educational field trip program at a grade appropriate levelin the watershed.If the winning child is a Jr. Nigh or High School student they may chose which class they would like to take on the field trip with teacher approval. (Cost sharing may be offered to Jr. High � and High schools who must hire and can not afford a substitute to cover the teachers absence.) 4- Bus transportation. The winning child will receive: + Community recognition-The winning logo will be displayed for public viewing in the community. -t- The winning child and their teacher will receive recognition and a free dinner at an award ceremony held during the July 6Th Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning meeting. � �- A certificate of achievement. 2' and 3'Place will receives # 4* Community recognition- logos will be displayed for public viewing in the community. 4- The winning child and their teacher will receive recognition and a free dinner at an award # ceremony held during the July 6"' Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning meeting. # + The winning child will receive a certificate of achievement. # # RULES � 1. Entries must be postmarked or received by Friday, May 21,1999. # 2. Entries trust be B 1 x 11 in size. , Entries must be in color. Entries may be in any color tedium except those that have relief(are too bumpy to copy well). # 4. Contestants must be school age(K-12). � 5. Entries will become the property of the Alhambra Creek Watershed Planning Group. 6. All entries trust have an entry form attached. � 7. Entries will not be returned to contestants. ---------------- ----------------------------- -----------------_---_---.--_--_-------------_-- ENTRY F�7R�A - Name Teacher's blame (if applicable) � School Grade phone Mail Entries to : School Bulk Pick Up Is Available Upon Request Contra Costa Resource Conservation District Sue Worley � 5552 Clayton Rd. Concord, CA 94521