ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

! MY kind of GREEN Coalition! !!

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Have you connected with Paul Jenkin from Surfrider Foundation and the Matilija Coalition? Paul is our local expert on the watershed, and has been involved in this issue since its inception.

He posted this on September 4, 2007.
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/pjenkin/matilija/news.htm
The first step in the Matilija Dam Ecosystem Restoration project begins this week, with the Arundo eradication program. Work will begin in Matilija Canyon, starting in the reservoir area above the dam, and will utilize foliar spraying of herbicide. The intent is to move to the headwaters and "get" all the Arundo in Matilija Creek before moving downstream as far as the Highway 150 bridge. Over 200 acres of this weed have been identified in the watershed.

Although just about everyone recognizes there is some negative impact of herbicide application, the long term goals are to save water, reduce flooding and fire hazards, and restore the native habitat. The eradication program will use "BMP's" (Best Management Practices) intended to minimize overspray and water contact. The Matilija Coalition and Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper played an active role in ensuring these BMP's were included in the plan.

For the remainder of the year, Stream Team water monitoring in Matilija Creek and downstream will include sampling for "glyphosate," the active ingredient in Rodeo, a version of Roundup herbicide approved for use near water. We hope our samples come up negative, but if herbicide is detected in the river the operations will be modified and carefully monitored.

For more information on the eradication plan and water quality monitoring see http://matilijadam.org/reports.htm
For the Matilija Coalition 2001 Field Survey see http://pages.sbcglobal.net/pjenkin/matilija/arundo.htm

Coincidentally, this week's "High Country News" has an article about weed control that is relevant to the situation in the Ventura River - http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17192

"long term goals are to save water, reduce flooding and fire hazards, and restore the native habit" ...

this is all corporate bs, propaganda.

the only 'science', is corporate science, that of murder.

there is no permaculture here, RETURNING the ground water and wetlands and forests ... they are only here to make it their personal science monstrosity. [these people do not know of the connectivity of all living things ... of the electric, organic, etc. relationships of life and water ... continent-wide and planet-wide. they only know how to REDUCE populations, to sterilize worlds, to pave the planet and box it up, and sell it as petrochemical 'fast' food.]

the only consequence, and the design and intentions, will be to expand Monsanto and it's cohorts, and the government, and REDUCE the amount of native species ... and ALL species ... in the Ojai Valley.

that is what, and only what, POISON does, and ditto the US Forest Service and it's Fire Control programs. the US Forest Service is a quasi-Military jobs program, whose agenda is making money for it's cohorts, and shrinking the forests and making them into sterile management projects.

no one, at City or County or State or Federal level is actually increasing the size and diversity and old growth of the forests ... they are simply there to control the PR and the management of them, for power and money.

~~

and, yes, Paul Jenkin is a friend ... doesn't mean we are dishonest with him!