Despite contentious debate, the California State Water board approved a plan that would increase water flows in the Lower San Joaquin River and its three tributaries, the Tuolumne, Merced, and Stanislaus Rivers. The increased flows will improve the habitat quality for salmon and other species that depend on this water system – many of […]
In this very polarized political climate, any mention of leaving water in rivers, streams and reservoirs for the environment stirs up debate. The fight over water rights is nothing new in California. But in our region in particular, the debate is coming to a head. The State Water Resources Control Board is in the process […]
2018 was another successful year of organizing and carrying out volunteer stewardship and restoration projects for CSERC staff and volunteers. 11 workdays with 690 hours of service and 92 participants! Liz Gregg, CSERC’s associate director is the coordinator for our Center’s volunteer projects. She shared “I think the reason that I love organizing these projects is […]
Chinook salmon have made the long, arduous journey from the Pacific Ocean to our local rivers to spawn. Chinook salmon are an anadromous fish species. They are born in freshwater, move downstream to the ocean to live and grow for most of their life, and then return to freshwater to spawn (usually to the same […]
When CSERC staff sets up photo-detection cameras at 9,000’ and higher in our local mountains, our priority goal is to detect the rare Sierra Nevada red fox. If no foxes get drawn to the cameras, then our second priority goal is to get pictures of the elusive American marten. During recent photo surveys with four […]
When visiting national forest lands during the summer/fall grazing season, many CSERC members have observed the negative impacts of damage caused by livestock. Over the past two decades CSERC biologists have monitored selected meadows to take photos and measure grass heights prior to cows being brought onto the Stanislaus Forest by local grazing permittees. Then […]
THE SOUTH GROVE OF BIG TREES PARK – A GREAT FALL DESTINATION! On Friday, a volunteer and I spent a good portion of the day retrieving four of CSERC’s wildlife photo-detection stations from scattered sites far out in a roadless area in the Stanislaus Forest. During our 8 miles of hiking for the day, we […]
Back between 1900 and 1950, thousands of farm-raised turkeys were introduced into California wildlands by the State Fish and Game Commission with a goal to provide sport for hunters. The turkeys only managed to survive at marginal levels in most areas. So between 1959 and 1999, the California State Department of Fish and Game paid […]
Over the past few years, the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors intentionally took actions intended to throw out environmental policies that were unpopular with local building industry advocates. To the extent feasible, the new proposed revision of the County’s General Plan was intentionally created to respond to direction of the supervisors to attempt to […]
The Stanislaus Forest recently released a new version of its Over-Snow Vehicle Management Plan. That OSV plan is the latest attempt by the Forest Service to identify areas where snowmobile use is allowed within the vast local national forest, while supposedly ensuring that quiet recreation visitors to the forest also have places to safely […]