Local Advocacy and Issues

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Greenspace was a founding member of the statewide Pitch Canker Task Force and assisted in the production of the Pitch Canker Action Plan. In addition to the extreme threat of Monterey pine mortality from introduced pitch canker, with increasing forest fragmentation and the development of an urbanized forest, other insects and pathogens have proliferated in the native Monterey pine populations. Greenspace monitors and advocates for the health of the threatened native Monterey pines and the coastal live oaks in our area and on our properties.  The Cambria forest faces challenges as climate-change-driven drought and consequent disease and infestations take a toll, particularly on Monterey pines. 

Cambria’s water supply depends entirely on the groundwater aquifers associated with Santa Rosa and San Simeon Creeks. The Creeks flow from their respective headwaters and both terminate into lagoons, which ultimately connect to the Pacific Ocean. In addition to the domestic and agricultural demands for water upstream, environmental demand in the form of adequate instream flows is necessary to sustain the Creeks’ high quality habitat for a variety of aquatic and terrestrial species. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) designates the Creeks as critical habitat because they provide habitat for federally threatened South-Central Coast Steelhead and federally endangered Tidewater goby.

In 2010, Greenspace received a major grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to develop a technically sound plan to address the strategic and scientific needs for watershed management, restoration planning and steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) recovery in the Santa Rosa Creek watershed, which includes the town of Cambria and nearby agricultural holdings. The objectives of the SRCWMP are to assess existing creek conditions, prioritize limiting factors for steelhead, and identify and prioritize restoration recommendations to address these limiting factors, and improve physical functions and ecological conditions in the watershed.

Documents are available here for download as primary source material for better understanding the environmental issues that are critical to the SLO County North Coast area. They include public records of state agency reports and correspondence, Greenspace advocacy documents and resource management plans. Please feel free to use them for research. We only ask that you provide clear citations in any articles, correspondence, academic papers or publications. Thank you.