Becoming Arizona

By 2100, Sacramento is expected to feel much like Phoenix. What can we do now to prepare for this hotter future?

Over the remaining months of 2019, the UC Davis Science & Climate Department will examine the extreme heat Sacramento residents are expected to face in future decades. What can Phoenix teach us about dealing with it? As well as efforts needed to build socially just, climate-resilient communities for the changes that lie ahead.

While Sacramento is not likely to become a carbon copy of Phoenix, it will get hotter. The series highlights UC Davis scientists, community leaders, residents and health officials from Sacramento and Phoenix to look at the sorts of solutions we are and could be embracing now to be ready for it.

Click here to view the series website.

Save Hinkle Creek

Preserving the Hinkle Creek Nature Area is vital to the success of the Hinkle Creek Center. The Hinkle Creek Center was built with a $740,000.00 public investment and a promise that the Hinkle Creek Center Nature Area would be preserved to interpret the natural, cultural and historical resources, and provide a recreational program space.  Save Hinkle Creek is actively working with Folsom City to finally fulfill the mission and purpose of the Center with upcoming nature, history and cultural programs, as well as guided hikes. Cutting down the oak woodland would greatly diminish the many stories waiting to be brought to life and enjoyed by everyone. The trees are our past, present and future!

HOW YOU CAN HELP!
We need all lovers of trees, creeks, wildlife and history to come and speak up for Alternative #1, the no-dig, increased maintenance and monitoring alternative, which ensures that the existing sewer line is maintained to the highest degree while still preserving the Hinkle Creek Nature Area.

The Folsom City Council meeting is on Tuesday, September 10 at 6:30 p.m.
Located on 50 Natoma Street, Folsom, CA 95630.

If you cannot attend the meeting, please contact the City Council members and simply state:
“I support Alternative #1, the no-dig, increased maintenance and monitoring alternative, to save the oak trees in the Hinkle Creek Nature Area. As far back as 1984 the value of this creek corridor was recognized by the Folsom City Parks and Recreation Commission along with the local neighborhood associations, and it remains just as important, if not more so today.”

For more detailed information on Hinkle Creek, please go to:
https://www.savehinklecreek.com/

The South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan is Here

By the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board
August 6, 2019
The Sacramento Bee

To say the South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan has been a long time coming is a vast understatement.

Two decades after the seeds were first planted, the plan is finally ready for Sacramento County supervisors to consider on Wednesday. They should approve it.

Developers would get a simplified and predictable process for federal and state environmental permits. And conservation groups would get large, interconnected areas of protected habitat, open space and undeveloped farmland.

Years of push and pull among groups representing developers, farmers, environmental and conservation interests, plus state and federal agencies, has produced a fair deal that most can support. While the success of this very complex framework depends on implementation and enforcement, that by itself is something of a miracle.

The co-chair of ECOS’s Habitat 2020 committee, Sean Wirth, has had an important role in bringing this plan to fruition.

Read more here.

Save the Pond at the Old Arena Site!, Aug 2019

In August 2019, Christy Berger of Sacramento Heron and Egret Rescue presented to Habitat 2020 on an active wildlife habitat that has been discovered the Sleep Train Arena property in Natomas. At this time, the property is owned by the owners of the Sacramento Kings professional basketball team.

Here’s a summary from Sacramento Heron and Egret Rescue’s website:

We were stunned when we first viewed the huge numbers of herons and egrets nesting at the pond, and overjoyed that they were nesting in a much better site than in a city neighborhood like many other nesting colonies, and are safe from cars and people. But they may not be safe for long if the property owners fail to preserve the pond. Below are some views of the pond and the wildlife that call it home (there are more than just herons and egrets!) You will notice some concrete structures and rebar. We found out that this site is an unfinished baseball stadium built in 1990. Because of the high water table in North Natomas, the excavated area filled in and over the years with trees and other foliage, creating nice wetland habitat.

Learn more

Click here to visit the website of Sacramento Heron and Egret Rescue. There you can learn more about the birds living at the old arena site and why the plans for this property should include preservation of this habitat chosen by the birds themselves, rather than further destruction of their habitat opportunities.

December 2019

On December 9th, ECOS/Habitat 2020 partnered with Sacramento Heron and Egret Rescue to submit comments to the city regarding the Arco Arena Reuse Plan. Click here to view the letter.

Photos by J. Roberson Photography