The upcoming annual VWA general membership meeting will be held on Saturday, January 27, 2001. We're still in the process of making arrangements for a facility, so the exact location will be announced at a later date. But go ahead and mark your calendars, and you can fill in the details later.
The VWA is spearheading the local effort to expand the realm of wildland protection by way of Wilderness designation for USFS and BLM lands in the northern Santa Lucia, under the aegis of the California Wild Heritage Campaign. One new Wilderness Area and 13 additions to the existing Ventana and Silver Peak Wilderness Areas have been found suitable, for a total of almost 55,000 acres of protection. VWA members should be watching their mailboxes for California Wild Heritage Campaign information and a copy of our potential wilderness areas report that will be on its way to them shortly. For further information or to get involved with the efforts to expand local Wilderness protection, contact Gordon Johnson.
The VWA was informed by Steve Davis, Monterey District Battalion Chief, that the District will be receiving 100% of Most Effective Level (MEL) for fire staffing for the current fiscal year. This will result in a huge increase in personnel, as the District as been seriously understaffed over the past years at only 40% MEL. The fire crew and engine will be re-established at Arroyo Seco this coming year, and another crew and engine will be in place at the Indians in 2002. Many seasonal employees will now be kept year-round to provide staffing for fuels management, trail work and other essential work. For further information contact Steve Davis at the King City USFS office: 831-385-5434
The objective of the operating reserve campaign is to create a financial reserve for the VWA to ensure its long term financial viability and to provide emergency funds for wilderness protection. The VWA received a $10,000 one-to-one matching grant to encourage members to contribute to the Operating Reserve. Contributions received from members for this important effort will allow us to collect an equal amount from the $10,000 grant. If you have received a pledge card in the mail, please send in today your tax-deductible contribution. For more information contact Tom Hopkins.
At the November board meeting, a project to re-establish the Black Cone Trail was approved in concept, subject to generating the necessary support and raising the needed funds. The board acted because of the opportunity provided by the Kirk Complex Fire which burned almost all of the chaparral that has obliterated this trail for close to 20 years.
The project is planned in two phases. The first phase will be to remove the remnant burned chaparral from the trail corridor and to grub out plant crowns in and adjacent to the trail tread. This work will be undertaken by the VWA, the Sierra Club and Robert Louis Stevenson School. Each of these three groups will take responsibility for one third of the trail or about three miles. These trail clearing trips will be planed during winter and spring of 2001.
The second phase of the project is to re-grade the trail tread and possibly establish two trail camps. This is heavy work that requires more effort than can be accomplished by volunteer groups. Arrangements have been made to hire the Student Conservation Association to provide a trail crew for this grading work in the early summer of 2001. The SCA is a national nonprofit with a 40 year track record doing back country trail work using student volunteers on projects for the Forest Service, National Parks, BLM and other agencies and nonprofit organizations. The VWA is currently pursuing grant funding to allow us to hire the SCA for this portion of the project.
Other partners in the project include the Forest Service who will provide vehicle access to trail heads at the Horse Bridge and Marble Peak as well as providing the tools necessary for the SCA grading work. The Forest Service will also deliver the tools to the work site with their pack team. The bulk of the packing requirements will be provided by Carmel Valley based Ventana Mounted Assistance Group.
The benefit of this project will be not only the re-establishment of the Black Cone Trail but also the potential to create an ongoing cooperative relationship among these six different groups that could result in future collaborations on trail projects in the wilderness.
For more information regarding this project or to get involved, contact Tom Hopkins.
The lawsuit brought against the Forest Service by the VWA and the Center for Biological Diversity has been dismissed. The dismissal follows the Forest Service's agreement to withdraw both of their decisions to re-open the road to vehicular traffic and to remove the latest land slide.
To date there have been two VWA sponsored site-steward classroom training sessions. One was in July 1999 with 13 trainees, the other in May 2000 with 20 trainees. At least 10 of the 33 total are VWA members, and another 10 are from the Salinan Nation group, which incidentally hosted both events at its cultural center in Jolon. Most recently, on November 4th (at the Wagon Caves, on Forest land adjacent to the Hunter Liggett Military Reservation in South Monterey County) 18 of the trainees received their field training and full site-steward certification. These stewards may now find or be assigned to their own, or shared, archaeological sites. They are all officially authorized to tend to and monitor the several sites at the Wagon Caves complex. Our next step is to identify the Ventana Wilderness and northern Los Padres Forest sites most in need of protection and documentation. Assignments will be made accordingly.
For more information or to get involved in the Site Steward project, contact VWA Site Steward Project Coordinator Paul Danielson.
In early October, 2000, VWA and CNPS member Dave Nelson was hiking along the Coast Ridge Trail above the Big Creek watershed when he thought he recognized a rare mallow along the roadway recently scalped by Kirk Fire suppression activities. He took a small sample with him, and after keying it in Corky Matthews' book was pretty sure that it was Hickman's checkerbloom, *Sidalceas hickmanii ssp. hickmanii.* To be sure, he shared the specimen with local biologist Jeff Norman, who confirmed his identification. According to Dave, *Sidalceas* are in the mallow family (cheeseweeds, hollyhocks) and seem to speciate often; the Ventana is home to at least three other rare mallows.
Hickman's checkerbloom is a CNPS list 1B (rare & endangered) plant and Dave has filled out a National Diversity Database form to let California Department of Fish & Game know of the occurrence. This finding is the first on the Lopez Point Quadrangle. Dave's specimen will go to the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History herbarium.
For more information on Dave's find, contact him at dirtroad@redshift.com.
In late September of this year the US Forest Service acquired 784 acres of pristine hillside and coastal riparian habitat at the very southern edge of the Monterey Ranger District in San Luis Obispo County. The Trust for Public Lands bought the parcel from willing seller Joyce Williams, whose family had owned it for decades. TPL then turned around and sold the property to the Forest Service for $4.55 million. Williams retained approximately 20 acres of the ranch for herself, including the ranch compound alongside Highway One on San Carpoforo Creek. The balance of the ranch is now in the public domain, with access assured.
The ranchland lies on both sides of Highway where it crosses San Carpoforo creek. The portion on the western side by the beach, however, is still riddled with uncertainty as the Forest Service and the two adjacent private property owners attempt to define boundary lines in the alluvial plain near the creekmouth. Until such time as the boundary situation is resolved through surveys, the Forest Service has no plans to accomodate automobile parking in the area. But those with a will can find a way, as there are several wide spots next to the highway just south of the bridge.
The bulk of the 784 acres is on the upland side of the highway, and can only be reached on foot via a healthy hike that begins near the Ragged Point Inn. But the views and surroundings are sublime, making it well worth the effort.
For more information on this new Forest property, or to get more detailed instructions on how to access it, contact Boon Hughey at this project or to get involved, contact Boon Hughey.
The Big Sur Coastal Grazing EA, which will guide the level and management of commercial stock grazing on forest lands along the Big Sur Coast for the next 10 years, has been postponed yet again due to staff being directed to focus on the Forest Plan revisions. The EA was originally scheduled to be completed in the fall of 1999, and since then the grazing allotments have been allowed to continue operation on a term basis pending the completion of the EA.
The VWA Grazing Committee submitted extensive comments into the revision process during the scoping period for this project, and are awaiting the draft EA to take further action. For more information on this project or to get involved, contact Boon Hughey.
VWA members met with staff from the Coastal Watershed Council on Oct. 7, 2000 to take samples for water quality, conduct pebble counts and sample for macroinvertebrates at the confluence of the mainstem and Tassajara Creek. For further information or to become involved in the project, contact Steve Chambers.
A small group worked on the Cruikshank Trail and Buckeye Trail in the Silver Peak Wilderness on several occasions this fall. To find out more or to get involved in upcoming trailwork, contact Steve Chambers.
As of December 1, 2000, the VWA has a total of 115 dues paying members. We'd like to take this opportunity to heartily welcome all the new members who have joined since September 1, 2000.