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Preserve Our CreeksThe LORD God took the man and put him in
the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15 NIV.) The Earth is a living throbbing organism. It needs CPR—Conservation-Preservation-Restoration—on a regular basis: We would conserve by using our natural capital rationally. We haven’t been all that reasonable lately. We would preserve what we cannot replace—the planet’s biodiversity. If you can’t replace something, then you’d better preserve it. Save all the parts. And we would restore by rebuilding, enlisting science and technology in generating rather than ripping apart the Earth’s resources. (Brower, David. Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run. 1995; pgs. 4 & 116) Creek Preservation Projects supported by Marin Equestrian Community:The past century of development in the Ross Valley has had detrimental impacts on our waterways, often as the result of poor public planning: Creek setbacks are generally acknowledged to be essential if creeks are to retain any of their natural functions in a developed area. These include: serving as a wildlife corridor; providing habitat for fish, including the threatened steelhead; allowing for lateral movement; filtering out pollutants by means of riparian vegetation on a sloping creek bank; and conveying flood waters. A natural creek also has an esthetic value and cooling effect readily recognized by any homeowner living by a creek. Regardless of their value, our creeks and their environs continue to be degraded by structures and paving that are constructed too close to the channel, and by the armoring of creek banks to protect these structures. Armored banks lead to narrower channels, faster flowing flood-waters, additional erosion of creek banks both upstream and downstream, and further armoring. Destruction of native vegetation and water diversions also degrade the riparian corridor. All this destroys the very things we value about our creeks - and may result in bringing about what San Anselmo and Fairfax prevented the Army Corps from achieving in the 1970s: the substantial channelization of San Anselmo, Fairfax, and Sleepy Hollow creeks. (Friends of Corte Madera Creek) The worst polluter of Corte Madera Creek has been the Ross Valley Sanitary District - the public agency responsible for collection of our sewage - which in less than six months has had about a half dozen sewage spills totaling more than 3 million gallons of sewage! Donate now to clean up this mess. Creek Preservation Projects supported by Buena Vista Equestrian Community:Los Ahogados Watershed Preservation Project In collaboration with the Institute for Central American Studies and other Costa Rican agencies, the Buena Vista Equestrian Community is promoting a project to preserve the waterways in the Los Ahogados Watershed - an area larger than 100,000 acres - which flows into the Tempisque River in the Province of Guanacaste. Donate! |
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Send mail to rickholland@igc.org with
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