Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from the Ventura River Watershed Council!
We hope that everyone took some time to relax and enjoy themselves over the holidays. As we head into the year of the horse (a year for working hard to build more economically and environmentally sound communities), now is a good time to reflect on what we’d like to achieve. As individuals and as a council, What is our vision for a healthy and prosperous watershed?
Here at the office, December and January are designated months for writing! We have been busy writing and designing the Ventura River Watershed Management Plan, and as you all know have taken a short hiatus from our monthly council meetings. We’ve made a tremendous amount of progress so far, although there is still much work to be done. One of our major goals is to complete the plan by spring.
A big “thanks” goes out to our leadership council and members for getting our group to this point in the process! We are just a few months of hard work away from reaching one of our main objectives!
Although our fingers are still crossed, rain has not been quite as plentiful over the last couple of months, as we have hoped for… (check out this recent article in the Wall Street Journal on California’s worsening drought). While there are many different issues we are all working on, it seems as though water scarcity may try and take center stage this year. So then, how might we (as a council) think about addressing the pressing issues around water scarcity in the upcoming year?
While we recognize that California is no stranger to the ebb and flow of limited rain, lack of water and impending water use restrictions are an inevitable part of the coming years. As described in the article, “Record-low precipitation in 2013 has worsened California’s drought, draining reservoirs, forcing farmers to keep fallow thousands of acres of fields and leaving some ski resorts high and dry during the busy holiday season.”
So it seems, in the year of the horse, hard work for our group may mean innovation, experimentation and implementation on the water efficiency front! LET US BEGIN! … or continue, rather.