Mission: The Valley Women’s Club is dedicated to community action, awareness and leadership in environmental, educational, social, and political concerns that affect the health and welfare of the San Lorenzo Valley and our community.
Mission: The Valley Women’s Club is dedicated to community action, awareness and leadership in environmental, educational, social, and political concerns that affect the health and welfare of the San Lorenzo Valley and our community.
Environmental CommitteeThe Environmental Committee works to protect the watershed and to educate the public on forestry issues, erosion control, hazardous waste, recycling and other issues. We also monitor government policies and procedures. Events River & Road Cleanup with Save Our Shores: September 25, AM ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS Fall 2010 VWC Environmental Committee Reviews Proposals for Big Basin State Park’s New General Plan
The General Plan must consider all the features and uses of the Park, from the heart of Big Basin itself, up 236 to Little Basin, and over the summit and down to the Coast at Rancho del Oso. This includes all the roads and trails, structures, infrastructure needs (sewer systems, water systems, maintenance), waterways and watersheds, and native flora and fauna – and defining lasting priorities. The process includes an Environmental Impact Report and public input, and there are now three alternative plans under consideration. Plan 1 significantly expands recreational use in all areas; Plan 2 mandates protection and restoration of the redwoods and natural environment of each area; Plan 3 focuses on the areas’ historical importance and restoration/preservation of historical structures. Big Basin State Park was created to protect centuries-old trees from the massive logging that was denuding the slopes of the Coastal Mountains at the beginning of the 1900s. Over the century since its founding, it has gone from an isolated site to a major recreation area that has been underfunded, understaffed, overused, and insufficiently maintained for decades. Some trails are maintained thanks to the remarkable dedication of volunteers who meet monthly to work on them, but only small stretches get this attention out of the miles of heavily used trails. There is inadequate enforcement of regulations, including restrictions to dogs, mountain bikes and horses, causing more problems with the trails and threatening wildlife. Even food scraps tossed out by campers and hikers, considered benign because they biodegrade, are a major problem because they attract ravens, jays and raccoons into the Park. Increasing numbers, and concentrating those species in the Park is a threat to birds’ eggs & young (including those of the endangered Marbled Murrelet) and to aquatic species (like red-legged frogs) that are struggling to survive. Understanding the impending impacts of global warming is not receiving any attention either. There are many private roads and residences around the irregular borders of the Park. It is a part of the Skyline to the Sea Trail that attract thousands of hikers, horse riders and mountain bikers to our mountains. All three of the proposals would connect more trails together, spreading to Castle Rock and Portola Redwood State Parks, allowing greater access to wild areas, and opening those areas to noise, trash, food scraps and erosion – even if only hikers were permitted. Other popular recreational uses, including riding horses or mountain bikes, cause significantly more damage than hikers to the soil, destroying plants and increasing erosion (see expanded article). Even among the members of the VWC’s Environmental Committee, there are differences of opinion about recreational use. Everyone agrees that Plan 2 is the best of the plans, in that it puts environmental restoration and protection as the highest good. There was unanimous consent that the expansion of facilities in Plan 1 is unacceptable. Enhancing the uses of the historical structures, as in Plan 3, is a good idea, but their preservation should not be at the expense of the trees and wildlife. The idea of reducing vehicular traffic into the heart of Big Basin by establishing a new headquarters, parking area and other facilities up at Saddle Mountain (by the road into Little Basin) and providing a shuttle for day use visitors, is excellent (Plans 1 & 2). Shrinking the range of human impact in all three major areas (Plan 2) would improve the health of the forest and its wildlife and would make the visitors’ experiences more meaningful, and the historical structures can be preserved and used to enhance those experiences (parts of Plan 3). Assuring that the more destructive recreational uses are limited to specific areas where mitigation, maintenance and enforcement are actually feasible (2) would also help improve the chances that the various types of wild lands, from old growth forest to chaparral, can be healthy enough to provide habitat for native species and to endure the changes in weather patterns due to global warming. Some feel that bicycles and horses might be allowed into the wilder areas if they are limited to fire roads and specific trails. This would be dependent upon expanded enforcement and maintenance, and a heightened awareness by all visitors of his/her personal responsibility for protecting the habitat, so that they would not abuse the freedom of access by going off the designated trails or failing to carry out all their trash and food scraps. Others note that irresponsible behavior by only a tiny percentage of these folks would cause irreparable damage, and that even the hikers are prone to taking shortcuts, forging new paths, and leaving their trash behind. None on the Committee, not even the dog owners and lovers, felt that dogs should be allowed beyond the paved areas of the Park because they harass wildlife. Some felt that no mitigations could be effective and that a significant reduction in recreational activities should be considered by the planners. Many other details of the Plans were discussed, and exciting ideas like hiring people to serve like the old-time Forest Rangers who were naturalists, not gun-carrying law officers, were proposed. Our comments and concerns will be summarized and presented to Dave Keck, Project Manager for the General Plan. You are urged to review the proposals and submit your comments as well. Keck can be contacted at generalplan@parks.ca.gov, or (916) 651-1216. Loretta Halter – An Educator and Writer with Heart You will delight in the books written by Loretta Halter, a 4th grade teacher who lives in Boulder Creek, and teaches at Seven Trees Elementary, a school located in a high crime area over the hill. Written for upper elementary and middle school age children, the stories and illustrations are creative and vibrant, and scientifically sound.
It is obvious that Loretta loves teaching and delights in children. She provided a wonderful activity for the Environmental Committee’s booth at the Earth Day celebration in Santa Cruz last April. She bought redwood tree seedlings and small pottery pots, and stickers and pens. Soon a stream of children were decorating the pots and then transplanting the seedlings into them. They proudly carried them home to plant in their yards. While they were working, Loretta filled their minds with information and stories, and words of encouragement and praise, so each child left knowing he or she was important, and valuable and talented. She teaches in a community where the children have very little exposure to nature, yet she managed to get some of the parents involved a couple of times this year in carpooling so the students could participate in a restoration activity at Natural Bridges, and at Little Basin nature preserve through the Sempervirens Fund. |
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Big Basin State Park is, for the first time, undergoing an extensive process to create a 
Her first book, A Voice for the Redwoods, takes you back in time, about 500 years ago, starting with the germination of a Sequoia Sempervirens redwood tree. Seen through the eyes of a native American child, the tree grows – and then lives many generations longer – a wonderful history of the tree and its surroundings, with scientific detail you absorb painlessly through the story. Several years ago, shortly after the book was published, Loretta provided several dozen to the VWC to sell, to benefit the Environmental Committee. 
