ECOS FIELD TRIP — ECOS’ Sandhill Crane Tour 1/21

Please sign up to attend ECOS’ Sandhill Crane Tour, volunteer field trip, on Friday, January 21.

We’ll meet Mike Savino, our tour lead from Save our Sandhill Cranes, and check in with him at:

Woodbridge Ecological Reserve (AKA Isenberg Crane Reserve), 11154 W. Woodbridge Rd, Lodi
Please print a parking permit for your car, by clicking here. If you cannot print one, that’s OK, you will be covered by another person having one.

Mike will talk about crane biology, behavior, and conservation status. We will then drive to a viewing site for sandhill cranes. Bring your binoculars, dress with layers for the evening, and wear an N95 mask for Covid (we’ll have N95 masks for whoever needs one). ECOS members Tina Suarez-Murias and Rob Burness plan to be with us to add to the discussion.

4:10 pm arrival at site
4:25 pm tour start
~5:50 pm wrap-up and depart

Directions from Sacramento (allow 40 minutes from downtown Sacramento to Crane Reserve):
• Take I-5 south, exit at Peltier Road. Turn left to go under I-5, and turn right (south) at the frontage road (Thornton Road). After 2 miles, turn right (west) at Woodbridge Road (see sign “Phil & Marilyn Isenberg Sandhill Crane Reserve”). Continue 2.5 miles to a pullout on left side. This is the Reserve’s South unit, where our tour will begin.

Disparate Interests Pan Elk Grove’s Expansion Plans at Sacramento LAFCo Meeting

December 18, 2017

Elk Grove News.net

Notwithstanding their 40-plus minute presentation, the City of Elk Grove was criticized at last week’s meeting of the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) for its plans to enlarge the city. The criticisms, which were made by a variety of interests, condemned Elk Grove’s planned expansion through the sphere of influence (SOI) process.
 
The presentation to the LAFCo commission was made by Elk Grove assistant to city manager and planning specialist Christopher Jordan [sic] at the Wednesday, December 6 meeting. Jordan’s presentation, which was as much part history lesson and part public relations pitch, focused on the city’s state-mandated general plan update and three current SOI applications, which are the initial steps to annex property.
During public comment, the presentation was criticized by three environmentalist, two agriculture interest, and one Elk Grove resident. There were no public comments in favor of Elk Grove’s expansion plans.
 
Speaking on behalf of the Mother Lode chapter of the Sierra Club, [and Co-Chair of the Environmental Council of Sacramento’s Habitat Conservation Committee] Sean Wirth noted there was nothing in Jordan’s presentations on the effects on the environment. He also opined what environmental documents included in the application were faulty. 
 
“If this new SOI is approved outside the urban services boundary, there is going to a general belief that other areas nearby will also be able to be part of this sphere,” Wi[r]th said … [“It is going to be impossible to do conservation in that area. The effect will be that it is going to be too expensive to buy any land there.”] … .*
 
Wirth also noted flooding that occurs every seven to ten years on the southern portions of the city along the Cosumnes River which affect sandhill cranes. When flooding occurs, the cranes flee to higher ground and if the land is developed, they will lose habitat. 
 
Speaking for agriculture interests was Bill Bird from the Sacramento Farm Bureau who in part echoed Wirth. Bird said agricultural uses were not taken into account and once the land is annexed, farms will be abandoned for a variety of reasons.
 
“When you consider all three sphere of influence amendments, you are talking about taking roughly 1,800-acres out of agricultural production,” he said. “Once these amendments are granted, the writing on the wall for farmers is crystal clear – the message is – GET OUT!”
 
Addressing Elk Grove’s performance regarding employment development was resident Lynn Wheat. In her comments Wheat noted there was no mention of the quality of the new jobs developed, the 2,000 promised new jobs should the Wilton Rancheria gain approval of their proposed casino will be low wage hospitality jobs, and that the Elk Grove Unified School District remains the largest employer in the city.
 
Wheat also noted former Mayor Gary Davis’ announcement two years ago that NRC Manufacturing, whom he called a large Silicon Valley concern, was locating to Elk Grove. Since that time NRC has not relocated any of their operations to Elk Grove.
 
“A firm from the Bay Area NRC was to come a couple of years ago,” Wheat said. “Since it was presented to our city council and spoken about we haven’t heard anything, so the joke in our community is N R C stands for not really coming.”

Click here to read the full article.

Click here to read the comments the Environmental Council of Sacramento have submitted on these attempts by Elk Grove to enlarge their city.


*This sentence was originally misquoted and the meaning was unclear. It was corrected for the purpose of this post.

ECOS’ Comments on the Delta Tunnels

This comment letter is not intended to be exhaustive as pertains the myriad of problems with the tunnels project now reborn as “California WaterFix,” but rather it is intended for us to officially go on the record opposing this project because of the enormous deleterious environmental impacts in our region, and because of the inadequate analysis in the RDEIR/SDEIS as well as the inadequate avoidance, mitigation and and minimization measures proposed to address those impacts.


 

10/30/2015

2015 10 oct 30 BDCP comments image

See our comments submitted on October 30, 2015 by clicking on the letter above or here.


 

11/08/2015

2015 11 Nov 8 CA Water fix comments image

See our comments submitted on November 8, 2015 by clicking on the letter above or here.