Thank you to all the people who made the Federal US Army Corps Development meeting such a success. The positive energy from the people overflowing the Country Club main room was incredible.. For those who couldn’t attend, please note, the meeting was videotaped and will soon air on channel 5.
Thank you to Channel News 10 for coming out to film part of this meeting, as well as giving the RMDCCC a pre-interview opportunity to educate the public on why we had to raise our issues all the ways up the federal flagpole.
For those who missed it, here’s a list of the pre-scheduled speakers who were part of the original agenda:
- Dr. Graham Fogg (Professor of Hydrology UCD and expert on the Cosumnes River)
- Candy Chand (resident)
- Janis Eckard (resident)
- Brad Sample (PhD Wildlife Biologist and resident)
- Campbell ingram (Head of water resources at the Cosumnes Preserve--The Nature Conservancy)
- Betsy Weiland (Habitat 2020- and SARA Save the American River Association
- James Pachl (Attorney for Friends of the Swainson Hawk (FOSH) and speaking for ECOS *(The Environmental Council of Sacramento)
- Karen Enstrom (Environmental Analyst for the CA Water Resources, speaking as a citizen)
- Julie Sams (resident)
- Dr Glen Holstein (Botanist for the California Native Plant Society--CNPS) **
- Carol Witham (Vernal Pool biologist and state expert on vernal pools with (CNPS) * *
- Sean Wirth (zoologist with Save our Sandhill Cranes (SOS ) and naturalist for the Cosumnes Preserve)
- Becky Waegell (zoologist and former manager of the Cosumnes Preserve)
- Rick Bettis engineer with the water forum
- Dr. Bill Durston--Candidate for Congress and member of Physicians for Social Responsibility
* Note: ECOS (along with the Attorney General) challenged the inadequate Sunrise Douglas environmental document all the way to the State Supreme Court and won
** CNPS recently challenged the US Army Corps of Engineers in Federal Court (and also won) over the Corps lack of proper review at the Preserve.
It was wonderful to see so many experts offer their support. In some case, the RMDCCC has worked with government regulators and environmental groups for years, sharing documents, taking them on tour as well as having multiple meetings. In the end, they came out in full force to support Murieta.
In addition to those who spoke, thank you to Holly Herod and Jana Miliken of US Department of the Interior--US Fish and Wildlife, who could not attend but sent strong letters supporting many citizen’s environmental concerns.
And thank you to Paul Jones of US EPA who has worked for 2 solid years (after coming on tour with me in 2006) to preserve Murieta’s unique environment. Paul was unable to attend due to a family emergency, but parts of his two powerful letters to the corps requesting cumulative review were read into the record. Thank you, Paul, for never giving up.
As for the Us Army Corps: thank you to Andrea Jones, Kathleen Dadey and Michael Jewell for giving us this rare opportunity at a federal public meeting of this type And thank you to the Corps for your numerous calls to my home and the opportunity for the RMDCCC to meet with you privately in your office to share our concerns.
Lastly, thank you to the residents who continue to call and offer support, and who never gave up when 4 supervisors offered local entitlement to developers without engaging proper environmental analysis.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at PatCan85@hotmail.com [1] or call me on my cell at 955 2027. Thank you!
Candy Chand