Final Ventura River Watershed Management Plan Approved!
At their March 5, 2015 meeting, the Watershed Council approved the Ventura River Watershed Management Plan – the watershed’s first comprehensive, stakeholder developed management plan.
The plan was produced over the course of two and a half years under the direction of the Council and represents the combined effort of numerous people and organizations.
The plan contains four parts and an executive summary:
Executive Summary. Provides a quick overview of the entire plan. Its concise narrative describing the watershed’s key features and issues can be used in grant applications, reports, and to orient students of the watershed to the big picture.
Part 1. About this Plan. Starts with an introductory plan overview chapter, followed by a chapter that chronicles the history and structure of the Ventura River Watershed Council, and a chapter detailing the plan’s development process.
Part 2. Watershed Plan, Projects, and Programs. Contains the product of the Council’s consensus:
2.1 Plan Guiding Framework describes the purpose and values that guided the development of the plan, and outlines the plan’s goals and associated objectives and key findings.
2.2 Existing Projects, Programs, and Recent Accomplishments summarizes existing projects and programs and stakeholder accomplishments over a three-year period between 2011 and 2013.
2.3 Campaigns presents the Watershed Council’s proposed projects and programs organized into six focused “campaigns,” which present desired new projects and programs framed in the context of watershed management work already underway.
Part 3. Watershed Characteristics. Starts with an overview and quick facts summary of the watershed’s physical features, followed by six more detailed characterization sections which describe and illustrate the watershed’s physical features, geology and climate, surface water and groundwater hydrology, flooding, water supplies and demands, water quality, habitat and species and related issues, opportunities for access to nature, and demographics and local regulations. Characterization sections contain topic history, relevant statistical data, and assessment of current conditions. Each section includes a list of the key documents on that topic where readers can find more detailed and technical information.
Part 4. References and Supporting Material. Provides a key to the acronyms that appear in the plan, a glossary of technical and local terms, a listing of the source documents used to develop this plan, and a number of appendices that provide data and information that expand on information provided in the body of the plan.
The watershed management plan is now available for download on the Council’s website, both as a complete document and as individual plan sections.
Please help get the word out about the availability of this important resource: announce it in newsletters; let colleagues, students, teachers, and others you interact with know about it. You can also contact me (Lorraine Walter) at lorraine@ovlc.org to schedule a presentation about the plan to your group or board of directors. Finally, please use it! And if the plan has been a useful resource to you, please send in a note to let us know how.
Thanks to all who contributed to this major accomplishment!
Mar. 19 Free Film Screening – Water Take 1
The City of Ventura is hosting its annual Water Take 1 film screening and awards celebration on Thursday, March 19th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Century 10 Downtown Theater at 555 E. Main St. in Ventura. The online short-film contest highlights our relationship with water – how we look at it, how we use it and how we share it – and submissions come from all over the world. The films by the top 10 finalists will be presented and the winners announced.
The event is free, but an RSVP is required. Visit www.watertake1.com to RSVP and view the films entered this year. Flier.
Apr 9 Evening Council Meeting to Focus on Steelhead
Mark your calendars. The next meeting of the Watershed Council will be on Thursday, April 9, 2015. This will be an evening meeting, from 6:00-8:30 pm, at the Oak View Community Center, 18 Valley Rd., Oak View.
Adult Steelhead in Robles Fish Counter. Photo courtesy of Casitas Municipal Water District.
The entire meeting will be devoted to presentations and discussions about the endangered southern California steelhead trout and related management issues in the watershed.
See section “3.6.2 Steelhead” of the Ventura River Watershed Management Plan for background information.
March Council Meeting Information
At the March 5, 2015 Council meeting, Ron Merckling, with Casitas Municipal Water District, showed this short KEYT news clip on the status of Lake Casitas.
Bruce Kuebler, Ventura River Water District Board, provided this update on the effort to form a Groundwater Sustainability Agency for the Upper Ventura River Groundwater Basin:
An ad hoc committee to form a Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) for the Upper Ventura River Sub-basin consists of five agencies with participants as follows: Meiners Oaks Water District, General Manager (GM) Mike Hollebrands and Directors Mike Krumpschmidt and Mike Etchart; Ventura River Water District (VRWD), GM Bert Rapp and Directors Ed Lee and Bruce Kuebler; Casitas Municipal Water District, GM Steve Wickstrum and Directors Mary Bergen and Pete Kaiser; Ventura Water, Shana Epstein; and Ventura County Watershed Protection District, Tully Clifford. An MOU providing for equal sharing of start up costs, which will be primarily for legal counsel, is expected to be approved by all agencies by early April. The law firm of Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, and Schreck (BHFS) has been selected as counsel, with lead attorney being Russell McGlothlin, and the VRWD will enter into a contract with BHFS on behalf of the ad hoc committee after approval of the MOU. Stakeholder outreach will begin with a public meeting in mid to late April. The form of the GSA will be determined during the next year. The GSA will likely be formed by mid 2016.