<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!-- generator="WordPress/2.9.2" -->
<rss version="0.92">
<channel>
	<title>Coastal Alliance for Species Enhancement</title>
	<link>http://caseforourenvironment.org</link>
	<description>Pescadero Marsh, Coastal Alliance for Species Enhancement (CASE) is a community-based, non-profit organization working to conserve, restore, and enhance wetlands habitat to protect the long-term viability of native animal species in the coastal areas of Northern California.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:17:34 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
	<language>en</language>
	
	<item>
		<title>What is killing fish in the Pescadero Marsh?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Geological Society of America (GSA) 2007 Report says
"First observed in 1995, fish kills occur every year in association with the breaching of the sandbar. Water samples were collected at  multiple times during the 2007 water year. Preliminary results indicate that isolated deep-water zones  within the estuary system are anoxic during the late summer months.  These anoxic waters are likely mixed into the estuary during breaching  events and contribute to deterioration in environmental conditions  required by coho salmon, steel head trout, and tidewater goby."]]></description>
		<link>http://caseforourenvironment.org/what-is-killing-fish-in-the-pescadero-marsh/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Hundreds of dead steelhead again</title>
		<description><![CDATA[According to professional biologists and several fish and game experts, the State Parks project failed to alleviate the harmful conditions in the marsh, and in fact, due to poor operational practices, may actually be contributing significantly to the continued decline in species population. For the past 12 years, concerned citizens and other wildlife agencies have repeatedly asked State Parks to take immediate corrective action. Sadly, the Parks department’s repeated response has been “we need further studies.” Meanwhile, native species populations in the marsh have reached critically low levels.]]></description>
		<link>http://caseforourenvironment.org/hundreds-of-dead-steelhead-again/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Help The Pescadero Marsh</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve is  the largest coastal  watershed between the Golden Gate and San Lorenzo  River and is in dire need of some major conservation efforts, it shelters a  diversity of wildlife in a complex of several  habitats—a tidal estuary,  freshwater marsh, brackish water marsh, dense  riparian woods, and  northern coastal scrub. Located at the confluence of  two major streams,  Pescadero Creek and Butano Creek,<strong> </strong>the marsh creates an important   wintering ground for waterfowl on the Pacific flyway,  as well as....]]></description>
		<link>http://caseforourenvironment.org/pescadero-marsh-restoration/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Last Years Sandbar Breach Results&#8230;.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[November 25, 2010 Dozens of dead Steelhead, trout, sculpin, flounder, eel, and dungeness crabs line the shorelines of the Pescadero/Butano Marsh. Scenes like the one you are about to witness have been occurring since 1995, many on a much larger scale. Search was conducted at 6:30am on the low tide the morning after breaching. At 10:30am the tide began pushing up into the lagoon, dead fish that had been on the shorelines began to float away with the tide.]]></description>
		<link>http://caseforourenvironment.org/sandbar-breach-more-dead/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Jerry Smith Studies 1995-1996</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“North Marsh was to have been kept no more than mildly brackish, to ensure habitat for
red-legged frogs. However, saline water spilled over the low levee and filled the marsh within
months of the completion of the levee in 1993. In March 1994 the salinity of the Marsh (F2),
the ditch along the south side (El) and the sag ponds (Sl) exceeded 6.6 PPT (Table 1) and
remained saline all year.” (Smith and Reis).]]></description>
		<link>http://caseforourenvironment.org/jerry-smith-studies-1995-1996/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>HMB Review Feb, 2010</title>
		<description><![CDATA["Each year of the past decade, as fall becomes winter, the Pescadero fisherman watches the silver bodies of steelhead trout wash up on the banks at Pescadero Marsh, hoping the government will heed his call for intervention and respond with action. It’s not happening fast enough."

“My view on it is State Parks should be given a letter of intent which clearly describes the problems everyone has with the way State Parks is doing things, and (the department) should be given a chance to respond,” Steel said. “Once that’s on the table, it’s up to Parks. But if they continue to block everyone’s concerns without explaining the rationale for doing so, I have a feeling (the Native Sons) will file suit.”

]]></description>
		<link>http://caseforourenvironment.org/hmb-review-feb-2010/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>San Mateo Times Nov 7, 2010</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“We’re now 15 years in and the problem is still unsolved. When the system is in utter collapse, you don’t study that. You take action,” said Ronda Azevado Lucas, an attorney representing a group of Pescadero anglers and concerned citizens who are about to file a lawsuit accusing state resources agencies of abdicating their responsibility to protect sensitive fish and amphibians under the California Endangered Species Act."

"Everyone acknowledges something went wrong in the 1990s, when State Parks, which owns the marsh, re-engineered the water flow with levees, culverts and water gates. Many of these fixes quickly became defective but were left in place."
]]></description>
		<link>http://caseforourenvironment.org/san-mateo-times-2010/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>HMB Review Dec 09, 2009</title>
		<description><![CDATA["Around this time each year, the sandbar separating Pescadero Marsh from the Pacific Ocean breaks, ushering in another season for fishing steelhead trout and, to varying degrees, another episode of what Coastsiders call the “fish kill.” It’s a yearly phenomenon in which fish turn up dead at a critical point in their lifecycle."

"When the sandbar broke, a passerby mistook the out pour of brackish marsh water in the ocean for an oil spill, and reported the ominous black cloud to Fish and Game."]]></description>
		<link>http://caseforourenvironment.org/hmb-review-2009/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>HMB Review Nov 17, 2010</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“If you or I owned this property, we’d definitely be in jail. There are endangered species here that are in peril,” said Ronda Azevado Lucas, an attorney representing the plaintiffs. “We were ignored, and that’s why we’re in court. We had no other options.”

"In the fall months, decomposing vegetation and the water column’s salty, sulfuric underlayers use up all the oxygen in the water, which essentially suffocates the aquatic ecosystem. The salty, sulfurous layers typically remain on the bottom of the marsh ponds, and aquatic species are able to veer away from low-oxygen areas. But in late fall, when the ocean waves burst through the sandbars, the currents stir up toxic layers in the lagoons and quickly make the water lethal."
]]></description>
		<link>http://caseforourenvironment.org/hmb-review-2010/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Coastal Alliance for Species Enhancement asks Superior Court Judge for Help</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“This is a case where State Parks altered the marsh in the 1990’s and created an environmental calamity. Perhaps more alarming is the fact Fish and Game, the agency charged with enforcing the laws for state listed species has know about these violations for years and, for political reasons, has failed to enforce the laws against State Parks who is a sister Agency under the Resources Department,” said Ronda Azevedo Lucas, CASE’s attorney. “If a private citizen owned this marsh, they would likely be in jail.”]]></description>
		<link>http://caseforourenvironment.org/coastal-alliance-for-species-enhancement-sues-governor-and-top-state-officials/</link>
			</item>
</channel>
</rss>

