BOARD REPORT FOR JANUARY – JUNE 2009
July 8, 2009
From Melina Sempill Watts, Malibu Creek Watershed Coordinator
Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountain
January - March 2009:
On sabbatical January -- March.
Worked some on Water Run-off Conference related materials; answered limited emails and phone calls.
February: Met with Nancy Helsley
Colleen Holmes honored by City of Calabasas; notified board and staff on February 5
May - June 2009:
1. Malibu Creek Watershed Council Meeting
Selected site, speakers, sent out agenda for MCWC meeting on May 21, 2009.
Highlights:
a. . Casey Burns, NRCS Biologist spoke on imperiled honey bees and increasing native bees via hedgerows + companion planting
b. Rosi Dagit, Senior Conservation Biologist, RCDSMM gives inspirational presentation on removal of the berm in Lower Topanga Creek.
2. Malibu Water Quality Event
a. Feature speakerJohn Izbicki – introduced to City of Malibu u by coordinator
b. Featured speaker Randal Orton suggested to City of Malibu by coordinator
c. Attended.
d. Requested film from Jena Chanel of City of Malibu.
e. Found funding to distribute same to member cities of Las Virgenes-Malibu Council of Governments.
3. IRWMP
Continued to stay connected with Co-Chairs and supporting chair; encouraged colleagues Rosi Dagit, Steve Williams and John Hendra to get RCDSMM projects into the mix. GO WILD project submitted thanks to RCDSMM staff.
4. Water Run-off Conference
Stakeholders wished to merge this with the POWER conference currently managed by Debbi Dodson; POWER group declined.
Alternatives to the conference are also under discussion. Community is interested in cost-saving on this project.
5. Creek Restoration Work
May; June – Discussed taking Clark Stevens to meet with Agoura Hills city Staff members Ramiro Adeva and Kelly Fisher to discuss the possibility the potential pricetag to do a city-wide creek restoration assessment/plan. Same suggestion for City of Calabasas staff, Thousand Oaks, Ventura County, Malibu, Westlake Village and Hidden Hills. Pending. Dr. Shelley Luce remains committed to supporting this endeavor subject to her funding constraints.
6. Cameron Benson, ED of Creeks Division of the City of Santa Barbara
Pending for Fall of 2010. See final report to SMBRC for details.
MCW Coordinator to confirm Benson availability/stakeholder interest in August.
7. USACE/Rindge Dam
Funding on hold due to Federal + State budget issues. Coordinator to stay in contact with both Jim Hutchinson and Marriah Abellard.
8. Native Plant Sale & Festival
MSW planning to approach staff about plans to do a low-cost approach to native plants sale for Fall at City of Calabasas.
9. Topanga Creek Restoration Efforts
A small native garden is growing at the Community House thanks to the good efforts of the Topanga Creek Watershed Committee. Spoke to them about possible funding opportunities with West Basin Municipal Water District. Spoke to Gus Meza and Leighanne Reiser at WBMWD about possible sites in Topanga Canyon, including Topanga Elementary and the Topanga Community House. Looks unlikely in the short term, may work in the long term.
10. Conferences
Planning to attend the H20 conference in the fall and the CARCD conference in the fall; nothing else pending due to funding constraints.
Did not attend G3 event due to funding constraints; did promote event heavily to targeted stakeholders.
11. Education/Outreach
Attempting to set a meeting with new editor at Topanga Messenger to discuss getting watershed events/issues into paper as per prior years.
Quoted (though asked not to be quoted) in the Malibu Times on issues regarding State Parks’ closures.
Crespi Carmelite High School interested in working with RCDSMM on landscaping issues and green building.
Began facebook for Malibu Creek Watershed Council; very simple way to promote key newspaper articles and events and to update stakeholders. Check it out!
12. Meetings
March 13: Met with Dennis; staff meeting Held off on work to determine funding/planning.
April 9: Spoke to Dennis re same.
April 23, 24: Edit on film
May 12: Met with Clark to discuss Coordinator position
May 21: Meeting
May 22 Worked with Larry Nimmer
June 12: Attended Staff Meeting
June 18: Attended Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission Meeting
13. Events
April 30: Attended Malibu Water Quality Symposium at Pepperdine
May 30: Attended event held by Senator Fran Pavley at Calabasasas
June 9: Suggested Clark attend TMDL working group
June 11: Attended Topanga Creek Watershed Committee
June 17: Attended Marine Protection Meeting at City of Malibu
14. Review of Malibu Creek Watershed Coordinator Program
Met with funders and stakeholders to discuss ongoing evolution of the program.
15. Newsletter
Began to send out newsletters at a rate of at least 4 per month.
16. List Serve
Updated and expanded list serve address list.
17. Organize AB 32/Climate Change Reduction Working Group, set meeting date and speakers
Approached David Lippman at Las Virgenes Municipal Water District to ask him to speak to the Malibu Creek Watershed Council in July on Las Virgenes Municipal Water District’s progress on AB 32 Compliance.
18. Organize existing files
Pending; not enough hours to do this yet.
19. Administrative Duties
Responded to calls and emails.
20. Funding
Met with partners to dicuss ongoing funding of the Malibu Creek Watershed Coordinator Community Program. Las Virgenes Municipal Water District + Las Virgenes-Malibu Council of Governments are both committed to this program for an amount of $5,000 per organization; checks are pending. When funding permits, the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission would like to participate to the amount of $10,000 per annum.
Actions:
* Approached Xerces society about speaking about bees; not able to afford to come right now;
* Updated RCDSMM calendar with events relevant to MCWC program; for example TAC, COG, SMBRC etc.
* Approached Tacy Currey at CARCD + Gail Chun at the Department of Conservation for Watershed Coordinator Program updates; due to melodrama with the State of California, the DOC Watershed Coordinator Program is temporarily frozen. An RFP will come out at some point for another round of funding.
* Promoted Green Garden Group class at Treepeople to a huge array of stakeholders; one of whom were so appreciative afterwards (i.e. Scott Harris from LVMWD), he sent me a thank you note after he passed their certification exam)
* Promoted City of Malibu landscaping class in Spanish; class was a HUGE success
* Asked Dr. Mitloehner from UC Davis (GREAT speaker at CARCD two years ago) to speak to the Malibu Creek Watershed Council about how he is working to turn cow methane into fuel + some urban energy co-ops from Germany that might work in our region. May attend in July.
* Suggested that the RCDSMM get facebook + twitter accounts
* Spoke to city of Malibu and Cornucopia about failed GO WILD garden site at Malibu high school; WBMWD may be able to fund this as a garden site
* Requested that Jena Chanel from City of Malibu film Malibu Water Quality Symposium at Pepperdine; she was already planning to do so and provided me with a copy of the DVD.
* Worked with Larry Nimmer on film from Water run-off Conference; got credits straightened out
* Joined new incarnation of MCW TMDL working group
* Sent Tacy Currey a suggestion to invite the leaders at G3 to talk at the next CARCD conference
* Forwarded letter suggesting ways to fund State Parks; exploring option of sending letter to the state from the Malibu Creek Watershed Council group
* Arranging tour of WBMWD facilities
* Arranging tour of Long Beach outfall
* LA TIMES journalist Emily Green asks to be on list serve
* Looked to see if Adopt a patch EPA grants are functional; not clear
* Created list of qualifications for self for County Proposals per request from Rosi Dagit and Clark Stevens
* Supported Steve/Rosi/Sandra efforts on IRWMP GO WIlD application
* Worked on Google calendar for RCDSMM
* Worked to find out more about proposed State Access Park Program to answer stakeholder questions
* Began to update list of media contacts
Attachments:
1. Agenda for MCWC meeting in May
2. Article from The Malibu Times
