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Moreno Valley Group

Photo by Ann McKibben
                  Bluebird Box Nature Walk, San Jacinto Wildlife Area, March 2008

 Contact Information:
Moreno Valley Group of the Sierra Club
P.O. Box 1325
Moreno Valley, CA 92556-1325
Chair: Mike Millspaugh
Email: movalleygroup@yahoo.com

Issues We Are Working On:

1. Protecting the San Jacinto Wildlife Area
2. Local land use, transportation issues
3. Preservation of city trails, open space, hilltops/skylines

Chair/Air Quality - Michael Millspaugh
Vice-Chair -
Secretary - Ann McKibben*
Treasurer - Ellen Absher*
Conservation/End species - George Hague*
Membership - Theresa Carson*
Outings/Wilderness - Dan Clark
Newsletter - Theresa Carson*
Group Rep/Water quality/Habitat - George Hague*
Conservation Ed – Michael Millspaugh*
Webmaster - Marty Langley

Group Update:

On February 22, the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) sent out a “Notice of Availability and Intent to Adopt a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) for the San Jacinto Wildlife Area Habitat Restoration Plan.”  According to the document, the project started in June 2007 and stopped in September 2007.  Now there are further plans to construct more ‘habitat.’  In previous editions of our group news we have noted that the California Wildlife Conservation Board approved giving state funds to the California Waterfowl Association to build artificial wetlands at the San Jacinto Wildlife Area (SJWA) without any environmental review for the project.  A Negative Declaration was issued last summer.  Apparently DFG is using this MND as the environmental document for both of the ‘projects’.  As a reminder, last summer’s ‘habitat restoration’ included the destruction of burrowing owl habitat, burying of two burrowing owls, and the loss of habitat for threatened and endangered plants.  (The San Jacinto Crownscale is not found any where else in the world; Spreading Navarretia is protected under the Riverside County Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan on the SJWA; and Thread-leaved Brodiaea is the third most rare plant on the SJWA.)

 George Hague, conservation chair of the Moreno Valley Group, the Friends of the Northern San Jacinto Valley, and other organizations and concerned citizens submitted comments on the MND during the comment period.  Some of the concerns included:  the document lacks accurate information on all levels; there is no clear information on what activities have been completed and what are yet to be completed; it lacks proper plant survey information; completed ponds block or partially block the San Jacinto River ‘floodway’ on the SJWA; loss of raptor habitat; how does this project mesh with the SJWA role as a reserve for the Riverside County MSHCP and Stephens’ Kangaroo Rat reserve; how can the SJWA be properly managed when there is no on-site biologist.  A full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) needs to be completed before this second phase of this project goes forward.  In particular, the EIR must map, avoid and provide mitigation for the completion of the project and the damage already done by the project to the habitat of the three plants listed above and other plants endemic to the soils found in and around Mystic Lake.  Go to Palm and Pine to read the rest of the story.....

(3RD TUE) 6:30 PM            SAVE OUR SKYLINE: BOX SPRINGS THRU THE BADLANDS   OPEN SPACE MEETING

NON-SIERRA CLUB EVENT                      SAVE OUR SKYLINE: BOX SPRINGS THRU THE BADLANDS

Help us preserve Moreno Valley’s northern skyline & secure a natural open-space corridor between the Box Springs Mountains & the Badlands, including the upper basin of Reche Canyon.  We meet at the Coffee Grinder, 23580 Sunnymead Blvd., Moreno Valley.  INFO: Dan Clark, (951)924-2454, saveourskyline@roadrunner.com