JPA to discuss options in a closed-door meeting with legal counsel

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left:  Dr. Michael Hager, President, Friends of the Water Conservation Garden, and Lauren Magnuson, Interim Director of the Garden

January 30, 2024 (El Cajon) – Friends of the Water Conservation Garden and the garden’s new interim director, Lauren Magnuson, made impassioned pleas at a January 23 meeting,  asking the Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to allocate additional funds through June to help alleviate a financial crisis.

The Water Conservation Garden is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year. Magnuson. said, “We supported the community during the pandemic. Now we are hoping that the community will support us.”

The Garden has over $1 million in financial obligations, including large loans taken out during the pandemic and some smaller grant funds slated to be returned. Questions have been raised by the JPA over years of inaccurate record-keeping practices and borrowing by Friends to cover the Garden’s operating expenses, among other concerns.

“The Garden has significantly cut our monthly budget by more than half,” Magnuson told ECM in an interview earlier this month. “We unfortunately had to furlough a good portion of our staff and lean on current staff to absorb those furloughed positions.” She has pledged full transparency and open communication with staff and volunteers, scrambling to pull together financial records and options to help the garden grow and thrive in the future—though the task is daunting.

January 21, 2024 (Borrego Springs) -- The Anza Borrego Desert Natural History Association’s Education Director Mike McElhatton will lead a full moon nighttime walk in South Palm Wash on January 24 from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.  The moonlight walk is a tradition of the organization, now in its 13^th year.

Experience the unique and serene beauty of moonlight on the canyon walls along this a free 1.5- mile walk through South Palm Wash. Meet at ABDNHA to carpool. A flashlight, water, and good hiking shoes are required. Activity cancels with cloud cover or high wind. Call the Nature Center at 760-767-3098 to reserve. This walk is fairly easy with short moderate sections.

By Miriam Raftery

January 11, 2024 (Alpine) – Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit in Superior  Court on January 5 against San Diego County. The suit filed by Cleveland National Forest Foundation and California Native Plant Society contends that the county failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act when supervisors approved an environmental impact report in December for Alpine’s first community park. The Alpine Community Park, adjacent to Cleveland National Forest and Wright’s Field, would include a sports complex and more.

East County News Service

Photo: Orioles, by Greg Dunne

January 5, 2024 (San Diego) – Mission Trails Regional Park invites you to a birding basics class on Saturday, January 27 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

By Jessyka Heredia

Watch full video

 Friends of Loveland Reservoir invite public to meeting, hike Dec. 28

December 17, 2023 (Chula Vista) – Monday, the Sweetwater Water Authority held a public workshop to see how the community would like to use the $750,000 in state funding recently awarded by Assembly Bill 102 (AB 102) to Sweetwater Authority for Loveland Trail Improvements.

Carlos Quintero, General Manager of Sweetwater Authority, started off the workshop stating, “It’s very rare to get a grant with very few strings attached. So, we are looking at the community, certainly the East  County community and our rate payers to give us feedback.”

By Suzanne Potter, California News Service

Photo:  Giant Sequoia redwood trees, by Yaya  Ernst, AdobeStock

November 17,2023 (Sacramento) -- Have you ever wanted to see the California redwoods, play in the Sierra snow, take a dip at the beach or just throw a family barbecue at the park? This week, the state just launched a new strategic plan to make it happen for more people.

California just launched the "Outdoors for All Strategy," which aims to make the state's natural spaces more accessible, more welcoming and less expensive.

By Jordan Frey

October 10, 2023 (Ramona) — A male coyote pup who came to San Diego Humane Society’s Ramona Wildlife Center with a broken tibia in May is now back in the wild. The coyote was released back to the wild near Palomar Mountain in northern San Diego County, along with five other coyotes who were rehabilitated by San Diego Humane Society’s Project Wildlife program.

By Susanne Clara Bard

September 12, 2023 (San Diego) -- A striking black and yellow beetle called the goldspotted oak borer has been decimating oak trees in Southern California for more than 20 years, including on the ancestral lands of the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians on Palomar Mountain. The insects’ larvae burrow into bark, increasing drought stress on the trees. 

East County News Service

August 31, 2023 (San Diego) -- Crowley and the Port of San Diego broke ground for the shoreside charging station designed to provide clean energy for the company’s forth-coming zero-emissions tugboat, eWolf. Joined by key partners and community stakeholders, the ceremony marked a significant step forward in the industry’s journey to decarbonization and reduce emissions in the San Diego community. 

Source:  SDG&E

Photo:  Shelter Valley Community Center Board President Steve Bassett inspects installation at Shelter Valley Community Center site.

Connected devices such as energy storage and smart thermostats centrally managed to reduce demand on the grid

August 28, 2023 (San Diego) – As extreme heat records fall across the West and strain the power grid, San Diego Gas & Electric is piloting a new cleantech innovation known as a virtual power plant (VPP) to reduce energy demand and put electricity back on the grid during peak hours – all through leveraging the capabilities of customer-owned smart thermostats, rooftop solar, energy storage and other connected resources such as water pumps.

East County News Service

August 22, 2023 (Spring Valley) -- If your household or business has leftover paint you’d like to recycle, you can drop it off at Steele Canyon High School (12440 Campo Rd., Spring Valley) on Saturday, August 26th from 8 a.m.to noon. The event is organized by the nonprofit Paintcare.

East County News Service

August 16, 2023 (San Diego's East County)—Yesterday the  Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a published opinion vacating as “arbitrary and capricious” the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA) denial of a petition by an environmental organization, Backcountry Against Dumps.

The group sought discretionary review of a plan by Terra-Gen Development Company to construct 72 wind turbines, including 60 that would be 586 feet tall on the crest of the Coast Range on the Campo reservation in the Campo-Boulevard areas of San Diego's East County. The turbines would be roughly twice the height of the Statue of Liberty and located within the principal aviation corridor between San Diego, California and Yuma, Arizona.

Backcountry’s petition recognized the vital need for renewable energy to counter climate change, but pointed out that public and environmental safety must also be factored into project reviews.

It cited documentation showing the turbines would pose collision hazards to fixed wing and rotary aircraft, impair radar function, potentially trigger greenhouse gas-emitting wildfires due to wind-induced sparking of power lines, lightning strikes and overheating of rotors, impede aerial firefighting and other emergency response, and force air traffic to fly at higher altitudes more prone to icing hazards to clear these enormous obstructions.

By Suzanne Potter, California News Service

August 14, 2023 (San Diego) --Starting next year, low and middle-income families in California are expected to be able to apply for up to $14,000 in grants and rebates to make their home more energy-efficient. The U.S. Department of Energy has just released guidelines that allow California to receive $582-million from President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

By: Jessyka Heredia

August 3, 2023 (Rancho San Diego)—On Tuesday, members of the Valle De Oro Community Planning Group met at their regular monthly meeting to discuss the recently recirculated Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on the Cottonwood Sand Mine project that is proposed on 214 acres of land at the Cottonwood Golf Course. The goal was to approve a drafted letter to the County to share their concerns on the project.

By: Jessyka Heredia

Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/live/EfC-xnCUzmo?feature=share

July 25, 2023 (El Cajon)—Hundreds of residents showed up Tuesday evening to a public meeting held at Hillsdale Middle School, convened by The County of San Diego Planning Commission regarding a revised Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on the controversial Cottonwood sand mine proposal.  Those present in the packed room showed solidarity in opposition to the sand mine project currently under consideration by the County of San Diego on a 214 acre section of Cottonwood golf course in El Cajon.