Bay Area Council Meeting Saturday, March 3, 2012

Transcription

1 Bay Area Council Meeting Saturday, March 3, 2012 Richardson Bay Audubon Center Tiburon, CA 76 Greenwood Beach Road Tiburon, CA AGENDA Attending: Jerry Karr, Napa/Solano Helen Lindqvist, Marin Barbara Salzman, Marin Rich Cimino, Ohlone Mike Lynes, Golden Gate Laurie Graham, Sequoia Nelle Lyons, Sequoia Jennifer Rycenga, Sequoia Garry George, Audubon California Melissa Pitkin, PRBO Dan Grout, Island Conservation Chapter Reports/Audubon California Board report NAPA/SOLANO Jerry Karr 1. Recruiting new Board members. New Board member worked 15 years for Yahoo, and is trying to get donations online. Jerry suggested that all chapters should have electronic payments on their website. 2. Flyway Festival at Mare Island. Chapter participated. Chapter is now leading walks at American Canyon. There is an amazing new trail system along the Napa River at Wetlands Edge Drive. 3. Chapter is relocating meeting venue. SEQUOIA AUDUBON Jennifer Rycenga, Nelle Lyons, & Laurie Graham 1. GBYBC Great Backyard Bird Count. Chapter chose local parks. GBBC Link: 2. Chapter does 5-7 trips/month. 3. Discussion of FACEBOOK/Bird walks/birding the Net Mike Lynes reported that Golden Gate has learned that FACEBOOK is not bringing in new people. Jerry suggested that chapter leaders look at Audubon California s blog. Garry suggested reported that Audubon California posts every few hours on FACEBOOK and asks questions like what is the first bird you saw today.

2 4. Chapter is happy with San Mateo Peninsula birding sites online, and Jennifer offered the template for any other chapter that would like to do a birding site guide online. San Mateo County Birding Guide Link: 5. Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica. Golf Course is habitat for RL Frog and SF garter snake. SF Supervisors approved a plan to go forward with discussions to work with Golden Gate National Park Service to manage the land. SF Mayor vetoed the plan. San Mateo BOS is now interested in taking over management of the golf course. Sequoia Audubon with Wild Equity have filed a CEQA lawsuit against City of SF over the process. The site is prime coastal marsh habitat. Joe Morlan has offered a letter of support to Sequoia. 6. Cargill Salt Ponds Development: New org Redwood City Citizens United is conducting a precinct by precinct organizing plan. DMB is having problems acquiring water, and may be considering a desalination plant, and they are discussing building levees. Santa Clara Valley Audubon has offered support, and Golden Gate Audubon also offered support. There was an article on Cargill in SF Chronicle 7. FACEBOOK is taking over the old Sun Micro System campus. Sequoia is working with Santa Clara Valley to look at the re-development plans for the campus which is industrial property along the SF Bay and is recommending that FACEBOOK and GOOGLE, whose campus is also along the Bay, each have a biologist on staff. 8. Natural Resource Coalition (NRC) for San Mateo County Sequoia Audubon is working with other community and volunteer groups who are concerned about the natural resources in San Mateo County, particularly in county parks. The coalition is preparing a framework to present to the county Parks that would serve as an agreement between the groups and Parks. The agreement will set out guidelines to facilitate the groups involvement in preserving, protecting and interpreting the natural resources in the parks. The NRC plans to meet with Parks management to present the proposal for the agreement framework. 9. Sierra Club is backing a proposal to outlaw leg traps. Bird conservation groups use leg traps to get rid of non-native animals such as red fox, so do not support a full ban. Arthur Feinstein is head. GOLDEN GATE Mike Lynes 1. Altamont: By the end of 2011 they repowered in Contra Costa County (480 turbines replaced with 60-70) and started operations last week. NextEra is developing the EIR for holding in Alameda County. The programmatic EIR for all wind operations in Alameda County should be in its first draft in April. Alameda County monitoring team of Science Review Committee reported that there has been 50% reduction in mortality due to removal of highest risk turbines, atrophy of other turbines, repowering, and other measures, but part of that could be also be contributed to fluctuations in populations of birds. Final report due out in April. Golden Gate will consider a press release at that time. 2. Alameda Wildlife Refuge: VA issued a biological assessment and USFWS rejected it as well as the new biological assessment. East Bay Regional Park has joined the process and there is a possibility of a conservation easement or some other protection for California Least Tern. 3. Golden Gate National Recreation Area: GG summited comments on Master Plan regarding access to Alcatraz and breeding birds on rocks. National Park Service also announced that they will issue a Supplemental EIS on the policy on dogs in GGNRA. 4. DON T TAKE THE BAIT: GG worked on campaign with City to get rid of 20 broadcast rodenticides so that they can only be used under licensed situations. Huge impacts on raptors. Campaign involves hardware stores agreeing not to sell the 20 rodenticides. Raptors are the Solutions (RATS) is in the lead for the campaign. 5. America s Cup: July September GG appealed the EIR for America s Cup which covered the water. America s Cup is in a time of year when rafting birds are at a minimum, but the EIR did not address rafting birds. The EIS however covers Alcatraz and GGNRA and does not cover nesting and roosting seabirds. There are activities that occur in July during breeding season.

3 6. Human disturbance report could be helpful in the America s cup. GG emphasized again that Audubon California should coordinate with chapters if they are doing work in an area where a chapter is also working, such as San Francisco Bay. OHLONE AUDUBON Rich Cimino 3900 acres of irrigated alfalfa fields attract Swainson s Hawks, other raptors, Long-eared Owls, Merlin, Kestrels, other owls that feed on the gophers and voles that come to the tops of the vegetation to escape the water. Pegasus Solar has applied for a CPU for 2,400 acres to rezone from ag to industrial solar. 1. County of Alameda has no solar siting policy. Rich is a stakeholder in Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, and also worked on the East Alameda Land Use Plan. Save Our Hills, CNPS, Save our Vineyards, Tri-Valley Conservancy, Sierra Club, Ohlone Audubon and others made a coalition to meet with County Planning and discuss their concerns regarding the development of solar. Rich suggested making a raptor reserve of the land using the mitigation funds from Altamont settlement. Coalition appealed the CPU that County granted to Cool Earth solar and County denied the appeal on Tuesday, February 28, Board of Directors is sustaining bird walks per month. MARIN AUDUBON Barbara Salzman 1. Drake s Estero: 92% of the public comments favored the National Park Service and not the Oyster Farm according to Environmental Action Committee of West Marin. 2. Marin sent a support letter for East Bay Regional Parks litigation for failure to protect the public trust against Chevron for Longwharf. 3. Marin joined with Sonoma County orgs and threatened to sue owners of Port Sonoma Marina and the owners agreed to do an EIR. BCDC and other long termed management agency are having a meeting on the future of dredging and where to put the dredging material. Currently they are putting dredging material in the Bay, but it is limited. 4. Pt. Reyes Bird Festival is end of April. Barbara is doing talk on acquisitions. 5. Barbara is concerned if the bird studies are sufficient for Angel Island State Park for the Water Trails. Mike suggested that Barbara look at the biota section of the America s Cup EIR. 6. Barbara is concerned about mooring buoys being an inappropriate use of the public trust. MADRONE AUDUBON By from Susan Kirks 1. We had a meaningful presentation at our February membership meeting. Dr. Shawn Smallwood who's done a lot of biological work at Altamont Pass talked about Wind Turbines and Impacts on Wildlife. Sonoma Co. is still working on a renewable energy policy so the info from Smallwood's presentation will be helpful for us in Madrone to monitor and intend to positively influence wind energy and its direction in Sonoma County. Shawn described a test that is about to begin on the Flo Design technology at Altamont Pass. He feels encouraged initially about the possibility this could be less deadly than the horizontal axis bladed turbines that kill all the wildlife. 2. We're still working on our Breeding Bird Atlas update. 3. The appeal of the decision on the Dutra asphalt plant next to Petaluma's wetlands has been filed. 4. We have an annual bird festival coming up at Lincoln Elementary School on May 2. It's a day-long bird and wildlife celebration and education event during the nesting season of herons and egrets in the trees near the school. Last year there were over 300 nests of great white egrets, snowy egrets, great blue herons, blackcrowned night herons and cattle egrets. It's led by our former Audubon President Janeann Erickson. SANTA CLARA VALLEY AUDUBON by from Shani Kleinhaus

4 1. Panoche Valley: Our appeal brief is due April 1st. 2. Burrowing owls: two weeks after the City of San Jose removed sheep from hundreds of acres of habitat at the Water Pollution Control Plant, lots of squirrels and gophers - and 4 burrowing owls - moved in. SCVAS is working with the city to install artificial burrows and implement a new burrowing owl preservation plan. In the City of Mountain View, dozens of acres are being converted to burrowing owl habitat, and the implementation of a Burrowing owl preservation plan is in progress. 3 pairs seem to have started nesting already. Please show video if possible (togethergreen habitat work): 3. Google, Facebook, Apple are building new campuses. We advocate for Bird Safe Design, other bird protection issues. We try to work with the giants. Not easy. We advocate for the inclusion of a biologist in their "sustainability" teams. 4. Google wants to build 3 new bridges over Stevens Creek (to a total of 5 in less than a mile). With NASA, they produced an environmental document that we are commenting on. We are advocating to eliminate at least one of the new bridges from a sensitive location. 5. Working on issues related to herbicides application and vegetation management in our creeks. 6. In Cupertino, long term advocacy is bearing fruit: restoration of Stevens Creek (multi million project) is entering its second phase, and we are working with the planners on the third phase. The name of the area where our offices are located is about to change from McClellan Ranch Park to McClellan Ranch Preserve. This reflects a cultural change in City staff and government, from an anthropocentric to a more ecological view. 7. Climbers are challenging a year-round closure of a rock outcropping used by a pair of Peregrines. The birds use it all year round, nest successfully. Its a small rock - no buffer, no alternatives for the birds if displaced. This is also the only pair of peregrines known to nest in our county. So... we are supporting the Parks And Recreation Department in closing the site. Help us advocate? San Francisco Bay Joint Venture report Barbara Salzman 1. SFB Restoration Commission reported on bond measure for restoration postponed until economic conditions returns. 2. Spartina Committee reported on cat feeding stations there s one in Marina and one in South Bay and one near airport where Clapper Rails were beheaded. Update on Farrallon Islands Melissa Pitkin, PRBO Dan Grout, Island Conservation USFW Service and Island Conservation have planned a project to remove a large mouse population on the islands, and Burrowing owl population feeding on the mice. When the mouse population declines seasonally, owls feed on Ashy Storm- petrels. Wild Care, Marin County s wildlife rehab came out against the rodenticide proposed by Island Conservation. A flyer has been posted on National Audubon Strategic Plan & Chapters Garry George Garry George gave a presentation on the National Audubon Strategic Plan approved by the Board of National Audubon in the October meeting, and how it relates to chapters. For those of you with PCs the January 12, 2012 webex that includes PPT along with narrative by David Yarnold and Lynn Tennefoss is available for download along with the PPT

5 PowerPoint Presentation only: PowerPoint PDF Question: Why isn t San Francisco Bay on the list of Priority IBA for Pacific Flyway? Why only Arctic Slope? Answer from NAS Science Chief Gary Langham: Those listed places are the approved large landscapes for projects that went through the strategic planning process. There will be a whole new process and system where flyways can suggest sites by describing the opportunity to make a difference for birds, funding, capacity, etc. These could be large mega-areas like SF Bay or smaller ones. Support from NAS will depend on extent to which sites strengthen the strategic plan overall, but all IBA work will get some level of support too. More to come--that's the main message. Question: Is NAS raising money for this strategic plan? Are we expected to pay for the opportunities listed in the Plan? What is the budget of NAS? Answer: Total budget of NAS is 85 million/year. The Strategic Plan isn t about raising more money, but about allocating the funds in the budget more strategically. That being said, there will be efforts to raise money around the different objectives, projects and programs in the Strategic Plan. Jerry Karr on Audubon California Board rep from BAAC Jerry reported that his term expires in September, and urged all chapter leaders to consider a nomination of a chapter leader from their chapter to represent BAAC on the Audubon California Board. The nomination period is currently until April 30, Nominations must be made by a Board of Directors of a chapter in the BAAC region. Elections will be held from May 1 with each chapter allowed one vote. Winners will be announced on June 1 and the new Board rep will take their seat at the September Audubon California Board meeting. Nominations should be sent to ggeorge@audubon.org by 5 pm on April 30. Adjourn