Conservation Committee activity during this year feels like working the dinner shift in a busy restaurant. Despite the pandemic, numerous development and land management projects are being processed by city and county governments in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
Our East Bay CNPS Chapter’s conservation work entails researching issues, allying with other environmental and community advocates, analyzing complex project documents for permanent impacts to rare and unique native plants and plant communities, preparing written comments, speaking before elected officials, and planning next steps to achieve beneficial conservation outcomes.
Autumn is a time to take stock and thank some of the many people who have given their time to help in this effort. In addition to each member and supporter who renews, donates, or volunteers for our CNPS East Bay Chapter work, we also recognize the following people who championed our region’s native flora this year.
- Organizing with Friends of Tesla Park to designate Tesla as a non-motorized historic and natural resource preserve:
Beth Wurzburg, CNPS East Bay Chapter Conservation Committee member
- Working to pass the Save Sand Creek Initiative on November 3 to protect the “prettiest three miles in Antioch” on its south border:
Lesley Hunt, CNPS East Bay Chapter Conservation Committee contributor
- Organizing and advocating for a more sensible plan for Richmond’s Point Molate as a cultural and historical resource and visitor destination with a shoreline hills regional park and playing fields for youth:
Writing comments on the city’s environmental impact report, reaching out to residents by creating and distributing a 12-page newspaper and using many other means of sharing information, and speaking to appointed and elected officials about a better alternative for Point Molate than SunCal’s massive shoreline condo development:Point Molate Alliance, with support from:Litigating against the Richmond City Council’s violation of the Brown Act in settling with a developer on plans for Point Molate behind closed doors:
Many dedicated Richmond residents
Robert Cheasty, executive director, and Roberta Wyn, staff member, Citizens for East Shore Parks
Norman La Force, Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter East Bay Public Lands Committee Chair and SPRAWLDEF Co-Founder and CEO
CNPS East Bay Chapter Board of Directors and Conservation Committee
Several other remarkable organizations and individuals (unfortunately, too many to list here)Norman La Force and Stuart Flashman, environmental attorneys - Answering the need for rare native plant data sets for the Altamont Landfill Open Space Advisory Committee’s (ALOSC) Eastern Alameda County Land Conservation Priorities:
Heath Bartosh and the staff of Nomad Ecology with ALOSC Committee support, especially from Dick Schneider, Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter Tri-Valley Group
- Conducting a two-day plant-cover survey in advance of a planned prescribed burn for the Moraga-Orinda Fire Department (MOFD):
Cynthia Adkisson, Allison Kidder, Ivy Poisson, Judy Schwartz, Delia Taylor, CNPS East Bay Chapter members
Dave Winnacker, MOFD fire chief
Dennis Rein, MOFD emergency preparedness coordinator
- Advocating for East Bay Regional Park trail-use standards that consider all trail uses, especially keeping narrow trails safe and inviting for the many walkers and equestrians who enjoy them:
Helen Burke, chair of the STEP Alliance (Safe Trails, Environmental Protection)
- Coordinating collaboration among the CNPS East Bay Conservation Program, the CNPS Santa Clara Valley Chapter, and the state CNPS Conservation Program to develop comments on the environmental impact report for the proposed huge Del Puerto Canyon Reservoir east of Livermore:
Christine Schneider, CNPS East Bay Chapter Conservation Committee member
Judy Fenerty, CNPS Santa Clara Valley Chapter board member
Isabella Langone, state CNPS conservation analyst - Working with East Bay Regional Park District Stewardship Department and Fire Department staff on vegetation management in the vicinity of endangered pallid manzanita populations at Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve and Sobrante Ridge Regional Preserve:
Judy Schwartz and Marcia Kolb, CNPS East Bay Chapter Conservation Committee members
Michele Hammond, Kristen Van Dam, and Rose DeVries, East Bay Regional Park District staff members
- Developing a new Instagram account for CNPS East Bay to reach out to new members, announce programs, and enlist the public to take action on conservation issues:
Ivy Poisson, CNPS East Bay Chapter Conservation Committee member
- Informing chapter members through our monthly newsletter about what CNPS wants to see included in the East Bay Regional Park District’s Land Use Plan Amendment and CEQA review for the Las Trampas Wilderness Regional Preserve:
Tri Do, CNPS East Bay Chapter Conservation Committee member
- Conducting mowing and grazing to remove thatch build-up from invasive Harding grass on the heritage coastal prairie at the University of California Field Station along the Richmond shoreline:
Alicia Bihler, UC Berkeley Office of Environment, Health and Safety environmental protection interim manager
UC Berkeley Facilities Services staff members
Other UC Berkeley staff members
- Consulting with the CNPS East Bay Conservation Program on the treatment of sensitive native plant communities under CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act):
Megan Keever and Nicole Jurjavcic, CNPS East Bay Chapter Vegetation Committee and Stillwater Sciences
- Advancing CNPS East Bay’s Conservation Program:
Joanna Garaventa, who joined our chapter as part-time conservation analyst in March of this year to provide timely staff support to the chapter’s Conservation Program. Joanna worked on numerous projects, including the Contra Costa County General Plan 2040, and she researched native plant impacts in several draft environmental impact reports. While she will not be continuing in this role, we want to thank her for the valuable assistance she provided to the chapter during this busy time, and we sincerely wish her the best in all her future endeavors.
- Supporting our CNPS East Bay Chapter’s Conservation Program with membership renewal, service, and financial contributions for conservation campaigns and technical help:
You
CNPS East Bay Chapter’s Board of Directors
Each of CNPS East Bay Chapter’s hard-working committee volunteers
State CNPS’s conservation, communications, and science staff members in Sacramento
To adapt a phrase, “It takes an organization.” Thanks to our members and supporters like you, CNPS East Bay continues to show up and advocate for conserving our unique, loved, and valuable native flora in this rapidly changing and evolving region.
— Jim Hanson, Conservation Committee Chair, CNPS East Bay Chapter
November 2020
