Another “30 Seconds To A Better Planet” Fire Drill From The Underground
Stanford University’s Searsville Dam is silted in, and it does little but disrupt the habitat for endangered steelhead on San Franciscquito Creek (one of the last unchanneled creeks in that part of the Bay Area).
Stanford’s trying to push through a Habitat Conservation plan that basically pretends the dam isn’t killing steelhead, and with about 30 seconds of your time, you can tell them (and the feds) that you’d like them to stop acting like Nestle and start acting a responsible institution of higher learning (“What, that old dam? Don’t worry about it, the fish love it“).
Click here, and you’ll find yourself at the Change.org site, where you leave can leave a public comment on the EIS (the public comment period ends Dec. 24).
Otherwise, there’s more to come from a snowed-in Underground.
See you in thirty seconds, Tom Chandler.
Big thanks Tom for highlighting this important effort to remove Stanford University’s destructive dam and recharge the last best wild steelhead watershed in the South San Francisco Bay!!!
Matt Stoecker(Quote)
Some day I’ll have to do a catch-up story on the effort. Keep covering it in bits and pieces.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
What? You want to take away the irrigation source for the golf course and deny the next Tiger Woods to the world (he said with irony from his ‘puter)? In all seriousness, there is a small (very) population of Steelhead that spawn in San Fransisquito Creek, with a very minor survival rate or smolts, due to summer heat. Removal of the dam would open up spawning area in the upper oak/redwood riparian zone. It’s time that this useless, silt infested monstrosity be removed. Sign the petition before it’s to late.
lowersierra(Quote)
It’s also time for Stanford to sack up a little. Some of the games they’ve played (including a recent attempt to withdraw a permit and change things up just prior to the closing of public comment) do not reflect well on an institution of higher learning.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Tom, thanks for pointing this out. I hear of tales of steelhead and salmon runs in the south bay area (Santa Clara county) from the old-timers in my fly fishing club, and I want to see that return so that if not my or the next generation, it would be a happy (ongoing) memory for my children’s children.
Albert Yi(Quote)
I know the feeling. I think it’d be cool if we actually had some coho salmon left up here when the two M sisters grow up, but if the black helicopter types in the north end of the county have their way, that may not be a reality.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Alright I want to post this to my social media site. I am trying to come up with a good catchy sentence or two to catch the eyes of my friends – mostly very liberal, few so conservative that their environmental policies can sometimes match the liberal’s, and the vast majority non-fisherman. Just about all of my friends grew up and still live in the Bay Area so it is an issue that I should be able to rile some feather and light some fires under peoples asses with.
¿¿How about – Save Bay Area Endangered Trout – Stanford University is trying to prevent the removal of destructive dams on their property that kill endangered species! Take 30 seconds to sign the petition.??
Noiso(Quote)
Reads OK to me, though you might stick “Steelhead Trout” in place of trout. Good luck and thanks!
Tom Chandler(Quote)
DO NOT SIGN THIS PETITION AS CHANGE.ORG WILL BOMBARD YOUR IN MAIL BOX.
YES, I AM SHOUTING … TO THE HILLS; AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!
GURNE(Quote)
Uhh, when you get an email from them, click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
This article made it on the first page of the print version today http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/01/07/noaa-confirms-federal-investigation-of-searsville-dam-operation/
DocF(Quote)