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| Image: Rare ridge top vernal pool, chronic mud puddle, or stunning high alpine lake, that's the big question. Recently I was able to witness that particular brand of obstruction that seems so at home on the highway 32 disc golf course. This site is so special and rare that it has received something close to $700,000 in studies and reports. Earlier this year the city hired a consultant to formally identify vernal pools and vernal swales on the disc golf site. The result... none exist. This reduces the cost of the project and allows it to move forward with more speed. That should allow improvements to be made that reduce recreational impact to the site sooner rather than later. That should make preservationists happy. Hmmm... that's not what happened. Instead the results of the wetland delineation study were questioned. The puddle in the photo above was identified as a rare ridge-top vernal pool by opponents of the project. On 11-19-09 the President of the Friends of Bidwell Park sent the picture above, and the emails below to the City Manager, Park Commission, and General Services Director. The concerns were discussed at Monday's BPPC meeting. Hello, I am attaching the letter I sent to Dennis a couple weeks ago regarding this matter and a photograph of a vernal pool on the Hwy 32 Disc golf site. As I said in my letter, there may or may not be jurisdictional wetlands on the site (to be determined by the USACOE). However, based on the quality of the report, and the omission of important information, analysis and rational regarding potential wetlands and other waters within the report, it would be difficult for anyone, including the USACOE to make an informed decision regarding significance. Friends of Bidwell Park and a good portions of Chico's citizenry care deeply about protecting natural resources in Bidwell Park (no matter how small and insignificant they may appear to others). It does not seem appropriate for the City to accept this report as complete or accurate; we request that the City provide a standard jurisdictional delineation conducted during the wettest part of the season and submit the report for USACOE verification, as stated will be done in the EIR. We respectfully request that this request is included in the next BPPC agenda. Carmen, Could you please forward this e-mail to all Park Commissioner's and City Attorney? Thank you, Josephine Guardino President, Friends of Bidwell Park This email was followed about 30 minutes later by another suggestion. Hello again. Thinking about it more and perhaps the issue could most efficiently be addressed if the City were to retain the consultant who conducted the delineation to revisit the project. Since this is all within the realm of CEQA, and public input is part of the review process, consider the existing preliminary delineation a draft report. As mentioned previously, there are at least 2 potentially jurisdictional features on the site. These have been well-known by many for years. They are mentioned in the resource inventory, in the baseline surveys, they have been pointed out to the City. Also as mentioned, the nature of the volcanic cap, thin soils and annual vegetation make for a difficult call in any but the best of climatic seasons. We are in a multi-year drought cycle. The Corps Wetland Delineation manual acknowledges such ambiguity in its Arid West Supplement. Why not, at a minimum, the City consider the existing report as a first draft, and request an amendment from the consultant. Give him a chance to address information that apparently was not provided to the Consultant by the City, nor considered by the City in its first review of the draft. It should not take too much time to revisit the site (after sufficiant rainfall and vegetaion response) and establish protocol three-parameter sample points within and next to the features, as is required for legal delineations. Incorporate the new data, provide the rational for the delineation based on these data, amend the report and submit it to the USCOE for verification. Josephine Guardino President, Friends of Bidwell Park The second email suggests more studies and waiting longer to complete them. Why? I think the reason is to delay the project as well as drive up its cost. Real, live, vernal pools, the kind that weren't found at the site, would require real, live, mitigations. They'd require real, live, consultants and real, live, money. In a follow up visit that occurred more recently the consultant and Army Core of Engineers confirmed the not-so-rare ridge top puddle status of the water in the picture above. Some areas at the site had been identified in the EIR as potential wetlands, and the disc golf courses were re-designed to accommodate them. Two of those areas were man made, including the puddle above. The other man made puddle exists at the entrance to the short course, near the kiosk. A utility truck working on a pole created deep ruts years ago, that have since filled with water. Those ruts are a virtual vernal wonderland in the making. I did a quick review of the modified course layout. The puddle above seems to be the only area the EIR suggested might be a wetland that is still associated with disc golf. So, wetland or not, moving the tee pad forward and left of the puddle takes the puddle out of play. That's an easy thing to do. It doesn't impact disc golf play, it keeps people's feet from getting wet, and leaves the puddle there for future generations to jump in. In a world where people weren't still trying to scuttle the project, the solution above would have been the first suggested. It's not that hard to work together to improve the disc golf courses. Alternatively, we could do what they do in Bidwell Ranch to keep the vernal pools healthy. We can move a herd of cattle in and let them wander through it. Of course the puddle above is pretty small. We might need to locate some miniature cattle. Goats maybe, or feral cats with tiny hooves tied to their feet? Maybe Cupcake is available. Wait a minute. Cattle are good for vernal pools, but disc golfers will destroy them? Now there's something I'd like to see a study on. |
A Pool's Errand
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Lon
About Me: Fasten your seatbelts for an exhilarating trip through Chico's public policy; I guarantee it's marginally better than public access TV.
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The Short Course dates back long before the City owned the property. This stretch of the Old Humbildt Road in the photo was also an access point for four wheelers and hunters that came in off Hwy. 32 through a rocky cutout right next to the hole on 17.
There is a good sized area of deep soil on lava cap with large oaks just uphill that gets saturated with a lot of water after several winter rains. It eventually drains out where it meets the old roadbed that has almost no soil. Then it runs down the old road on top of the lava cap and out to the storm drain on the driveway at the highway.
I remember thirsty dogs in the late Spring digging into gopher holes to get at some of this water. People helped them out by pulling rocks out by hand and created this little puddle. These rocks are still scattered all around it and the big ones were used to mark the tee.
As a joke I even marked it as a vernal pool on the goofy course maps I used to draw.
I've seen "mini cows", Jack In the Box has them.
Here's my new favorite CEQA section
21082.2.C "Argument, speculation, unsubstantiated opinion or narrative, evidence which is clearly inaccurate or erroneous, or evidenceof social or economic impacts which do not contribute to, or are not cause by, physical impacts on the environment, is not substantial evidence. Substantial evidence shall include facts, reasonable assumptions predicated upon facts, and expert opinion supported by facts."
Sounds like the case is closed if the Experts (Corps) has already weighed in and the EIR has been certified.
Damn you Gregg. It's obvious to me now that the entire EIR is based on your map.
http://www.chico-outsiders.com/Outsiders/images/bidwell_course_map.pdf
I always wondered why the EIR had that section on giant wind spirits and defined the cliff as the "litter-bug sacrifice point".
Lon
D,
Sounds like the case is closed if the Experts (Corps) has already weighed in and the EIR has been certified.
Never! There's got to be at least one more study! There's always got to be at least ONE MORE STUDY! Aaaarrrggghhhh....(throwing my self off cliff).
Lon
This reminds me of the Great Checker Bloom Caper, complete with photographic proof showing a hole in the ground. The Friends ran crying to the press and the City. Evil disc golfers were accused of digging up a rare plant species. The City wouldn't disclose where the dastardly deed had occurred, but they posted a $500.00 reward for information leading to the identity and prosecution of the guilty. The course was vandalized in retaliation.
When the location was finally revealed, it was pointed out that the dirt was packed up on some logs right next to the hole to make a bike jump over a downed tree.
Gregg's post reminds me of Arlo Guthrie again, with the color glossy photos, and, you know, it was a case of blind justice, yadda, yadda. I'll write a song about it - The Great Checkerbloom Caper, can't resist that.
Thanks for snipping my snipped remarks regarding that snip this morning - geez, I get a real mood on after sitting at city council for hours, listening to those people. It's like in Hitchhikers Guide when the Vogons torture Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect with their poetry.
My husband took our bed a few minutes ago, moved it to our new abode. The stove is gone, fridge, all of it. I can't believe how much tomato sauce got on the wall behind the stove - mental note to self, clean behind the stove more often. Damn, my former house looks so dirty without any furniture, just dust puppies and odds and ends that didn't make it into a box. And a giant pile for the Salvation Army. I feel like the Bidwell/Bartleson party on the edge of the Humboldt Sink - suddenly, given the prospect of shoving all your stuff into a little tiny apartment at the top of a narrow flight of stairs, you find you really don't need, you know, THAT much stuff. It's amazing how you lose all your affection for some dumb nicnac you been dragging around for-ev-er.
Okay, whose up for Gramma's piano? Hello?