The Santa Barbara County Action Network-Creek Lands Conservation Water Team is ready for action again! We got stymied by lack of access to Santa Maria River Estuary by the floods early this year, but we've found another site where we can do water testing.
We hope you will join us on Friday, Sept. 22, when we'll have another online Water Team training and on Saturday, Sept. 23 when we'll do water quality testing in the Santa Maria River.
Online Training on Friday, Sept. 22 from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.:
In-Field Training on Saturday, Sept. 23 from 10 a.m. to noon.:
We'll meet at Preisker Park in Santa Maria. Email me at
[email protected] to let me know if you'll be coming so we can get a head count and send you more details on Friday. It will help if you can attend our Friday training since we'll go over what we will be doing and how to meet up with us.
Here's how the river looks just upstream of Highway 101. It's flowing nicely with water being released from Twitchell Dam. We'll go to a spot near here, which is on public property owned by the City of Santa Maria.
The City invites residents to explore this area with signage on the path:
It's an easy hike on the Santa Maria River levee path to a dirt path ...
followed by walking on a dry, sandy part of the riverbed until we reach the water.
It's about one mile each way. We hope you'll join us!
This is part of the Santa Maria River Healthy Watershed Initiative, a partnership among Santa Barbara County Action Network, Creek Lands Conservation and CAUSE, as well as other organizations. Our goal is to develop a community-based group that will address challenges to water issues throughout the water system that flows into the Santa Maria River. Click here for more information.
For more information on the Santa Maria River Watershed, check out the Natural History Museum of Santa Maria nature talk: "The Cuyama, Sisquoc & Santa Maria River Watershed, Then & Now, History & Folklore." It will be Saturday, Sept. 30 at 1 p.m. at the Santa Maria Public Library, 421 S McClelland, Santa Maria. SBCAN is a sponsor.
For more information, contact:
Jeanne Sparks
SBCAN Associate Director
[email protected]
