The BVAS Conservation Mission

The BVAS Conservation Mission is to help educate BVAS members and the general public on important conservation issues, to influence public policy and programs in order to better protect the natural environment, and to actively support programs to protect, preserve, restore, and enhance natural ecosystems on a local, regional, national, and international level. Click here for details of how we accomplish this mission.

And you can make your conservation concerns heard in Washington by signing up for the Audubon Activist program!! Click the below image for details.

         


 

 

 

Conservation Matters

Buena Vista Creek Wins Reprieve

Carlsbad and Vista residents won a major open space victory at the Oceanside Planning Commission in July. The Commission voted 5-2 to protect a wide swath of Buena Vista Creek as part of the reclamation of the South Coast Quarry property. This property along Highway 78 at College Boulevard starts just above El Salto Falls and extends west to the already protected 134-acre Buena Vista Ecological Reserve. (BVAS members will remember that BVAS and Cal Audubon raised close to $20,000 towards the purchase of the ecological reserve back in 2006.)

Most of the 105-acre Quarry property is in Carlsbad, with only a 4-acre portion in Oceanside. Carlsbad, however, doesn’t have a mining ordinance in its regulations. Oceanside does have the appropriate ordinance, and was thus designated as the lead agency tasked with preparing and approving the reclamation plan.

At their July meeting, the Planning Commission determined that Buena Vista Creek must be restored to a natural condition, with a 100-foot buffer planted in native vegetation on either side of a terraced, meandering channel. The Commission also insisted on the preservation of an additional 50-foot planning buffer on each side. The owners of the property, Hanson Aggregates, will be required to put in place a management plan to keep the property within 200 feet of the Falls free of graffiti, trash and vandalism. The Planning Commission’s decision has not been appealed to the Oceanside City Council.

The Planning Commission’s actions closely mirrored suggestions contained in comment letters submitted prior to the hearing by BVAS Conservation Chair, Joan Herskowitz and Preserve Calavera president, Diane Nygaard.

It remains to be seen what will happen to the rest of the property. McMillan Land Development Company has a contract with Hanson to buy the property once it has been restored according to the approved reclamation plan. The City of Carlsbad wants to put 500 low cost homes there. It’s now difficult to see how such high density development can be shoehorned into the limited remaining developable acreage. Our dream – to save it ALL from development – may now be closer to reality. Funds would need to be raised to purchase the entire site, but the impetus and resources seem to be lining up. The Oceanside Recreation and Parks Commission and City Council support keeping the four acres in Oceanside as a park. The Trust for Public land is now actively involved, and the City of Carlsbad has already set aside $5 million that is available for purchase of open space. Carlsbad’s Citizens’ Committee for Open Space identified the Quarry property as its highest priority for funding. Now if only the Carlsbad City Council can be convinced to allocate those funds!

Together with the evolving plans for restoration of Buena Vista Lagoon, we are now closing in on an open space corridor alongside busy Highway 78 that could stretch almost 6 miles, from the waterfall to the waves. If we can provide the habitat, endangered Bell’s vireos and California gnatcatchers will come. Yellow warblers, yellowthroats, yellowbreasted chats, and maybe someday even a yellow-billed cuckoo, will be nesting in the willows. Imagine an interpretative trail that starts at El Salto Falls, the highest waterfall in coastal Southern California, and winds past rare riparian lands, lands rich in Luiseno and Californio history (here is the only California rancho still in the hands of the original family), through Buena Vista Creek Ecological Reserve, on alongside Buena Vista Lagoon, and past our Nature Center to the Ocean.

We can make this happen!

—By Dennis Huckabay

 

Current Conservation Issues and Position Papers

Click on a link below to open the indicated position paper in a separate browser window.

Comment letter on the Final EIR and Amended South Coast Quarry Reclamation Plan

Comment letter on the draft EIR for the Melrose Ave. Extension project

Comment letter on the Oceanside SAP

Letter to the City of Carlsbad requesting that Carlsbad complete its HMP Implementation Plan.

Letter to FCC regarding bird fatalities at communication towers.

Comment letter on Hyatt Place and North Coast Condo Project Draft EIR.

Letter in opposition to California offshore drilling proposal.

Letter endorsing Donna Frye's appointment to California Coastal Commission.

Letter to the California Coastal Commission supporting the Commission Staff Reports on City of Carlsbad HMP Implementation plan.

Letter to the San Diego Planning Commission regarding the County of San Diego Fire Management Plan Proposal

One-page flyer describing the Audubon Watchlist for 2007 and highlighting the San Diego County birds on the list.

Ric Shellhamer’s excellent video "Defending Buena Vista Lagoon" has been placed on YouTube and may be viewed by clicking here.

Salton Sea Restoration Plan - history and current status

Salton Sea Restoration Plan - map of the proposed plan

Letter to local newspapers opposing the proposed development on Buena Vista Lagoon

Letter to Oceanside City Council opposing the proposed concrete batch plant at Loma Alta Creek

Position paper on the Lagoon Restoration

Letter to Oceanside regarding the DEIR for the Former South Coast Quarry Amended Reclamation Plan

   
   
If you have any conservation alerts, comments, or concerns that you would like to bring to the attention of BVAS, please click here to send an email to the Conservation Chair, Andy Mauro.
     
     
     
 
Webmaster: Larry Spann

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