Date Correction: Groundwater Management Agencies are Forming and Want Your Feedback
In the June 9th Council Newsletter, the announcement of the following two meetings had an error in the date of the Mound Basin meeting. Please note the correct dates and locations below:
Upper Ventura River Groundwater Basin
Formation Forum
TODAY, June 14, 2016 at 6pm
Oak View Community Center
18 Valley Road, Oak View, CA
to learn more visit: www.uvrgroundwater.org
Mound Groundwater Basin
Formation Forum
THIS Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 6pm
Community Meeting Room, City of Ventura City Hall
501 Poli Street
Ventura, CA
Training Opportunity: Ventura River Watershed Steelhead Monitoring
The Tri County Fish Team is offering a Steelhead Monitoring Methods and Protocol training on July 27th and 28th in the Ventura River Watershed.
The training will be provided by CDFW Coastal Monitoring Program Staff and Dave Hankin, Professor Emeritus Humboldt State:
§ Overview of Fish Bulletin 180—California Coastal Salmonid Population Monitoring: Strategy, Design and Methods
§ Passive Fish Passage Monitoring Techniques and Equipment
§ Designing and Conducting Population Abundance Estimates
§ Population Monitoring (redd surveys/counts, spawner surveys, out-migrant protocols)
For more information and to register, please contact Steph Wald at Steph@centralcoastsalmon.com or 805-471-3789.
Funding Opportunity for Community Engagement
On Monday, May 23rd the Watersheds Coalition of Ventura County (WCVC) General Membership workshop focused on the Proposition 1 Disadvantaged Communities (DAC) Involvement Grant Program. This is a new grant program designed to provide funding for activities which will engage and empower residents and organizations within DAC areas to participate in the Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) Process, to build capacity to address water supply and water quality needs, and offer technical assistance for project design, among other activities. This new program offers an exciting opportunity to create new partnerships in identifying new, integrated, multi-benefit projects which will resolve water supply and water quality challenges within local DAC areas.
At the meeting on May 23rd we discussed some sources of information to help us identify service gaps and unmet needs: water availability letters, housing authorities, general plan infrastructure assessments, the Community Action Commission, Fire Departments (fire flow requirements), Division of Public Health Drinking Water Compliance Program, and local mutual water companies. We may need to consult other sources of information as well, as we consider the needs in our region.
As part of the grant process we will be creating a DAC task force for the WCVC IRWM Region. The role of the task force will be to assess the needs in our Region, specifically in the identified DAC areas of the County, and to develop a list of activities that will help us to address the needs in those areas through involvement of community members in those areas. A task force with representatives of all three IRWM regions will be also be formed – to provide oversight to the DAC Involvement Grant Program and guide the decision making process. We will be inviting people to participate in the WCVC DAC task force, but welcome anyone that is interested. Please let us know if you’d like to be part of the local DAC task force.