San Mateo Resource Conservation District

We hope that you had a happy pride month! Our local flora and fauna reminds us to be bold and be ourselves. #pride2021 #beyou

Our Forest Health and Fire Resiliency team is growing! Learn more at sanmateoRCD.org/job #jobopportunity #conservationjobs #RCD

On Thursday, July 8, 2021 there will be a public hearing and action on Public Works Plan submitted by San Mateo County Resource Conservation District comprising a 10-year vegetation treatment program to enhance ecosystems and improve wildfire resilience, undertaken pursuant to the Board of Forestry's certified California Vegetation Treatment Program Programmatic Environmental Impact Report, throughout the San Mateo County coastal zone. More information at the link below.

Have you struggled to navigate the complex web of government programs available for small and urban farms? Do you struggle to negotiate the best deal or most secure land tenure arrangement for your farm? Just want to meet some peers in agriculture in your area? This Learning Circle can help! WHAT: Negotiation Skills for Womxn-led Farms: Exploring the intersections of land tenure, conservation, and farm viability WHEN: 2 Sessions - July 6th and 8th, 2-4 pm Pacific WHERE: Register on Zoom (link to be sent, upon registration): https://default.salsalabs.org//e0d1418d-f953-49e5-8640-ce5

Learn how sea level rise will affect the South Coast community and find out what you can do about it. You are invited to a community meeting to learn about a recent study by the San Mateo County Office of Sustainability of sea level rise impacts from the southern edge of Half Moon Bay to the county line south of Pescadero. The San Mateo Resource Conservation District is working with the County to share the study, engage community members about what these impacts mean for our... roadways, beaches, agricultural land, businesses and homes along the South Coast and explore ways to adapt and protect our important resources. We want to hear from you! Come learn, ask questions and share ideas. Join us on July 14th from 6:30pm to 8:00pm for a community meeting to learn more. You can register here and find out more at the County’s SeaChange webpage: https://seachangesmc.org/current-efforts/south-coast/ See more

Thanks Half Moon Bay Review for featuring our work on fuel reduction this week! More information is available on our website.

San Mateo RCD celebrates the historic moment as Juneteenth becomes a Federal Holiday. We also recognize that it calls us all to do better. The current social movements incited by the heart-wrenching events in the last few years brings to the forefront how deeply systemic racism continues to exist in our society. This is a call for change. RCD is committed to making the change we can in our space. We encourage you to do the same and to use this event as a continued opportunity for deep reflection, volunteerism, and making a commitment to bettering our community. #juneteenth

Migrating fish got a little help to make it out to sea this past Friday! A sand bar had been blocking Pescadero Lagoon from the ocean and water conditions in the lagoon weren’t ideal for fish, so we moved built-up sand out of the way to allow the lagoon breach or connect to the ocean and set the steelhead trout and coho salmon free. Thanks to partners California State Parks, NOAA Fisheries Service California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Trout Unlimited, and California Trout for helping us take action!

We're co-hosting a webinar on with County Parks on June 10th at 7pm to talk about our Forest Health and Fuel Reduction Projects at Wunderlich and Huddart County Parks! The work will be starting in July 2021 and cover 400 acres. Benefits of the project include improved forest health, reducing fuel loads, increasing fire resiliency, habitat improvement, and carbon sequestration. Register at the link below.

Spring news & happenings from your RCD - https://mailchi.mp//spring-news-happenings-from-your-rcd-1

Stuck in a traffic jam of unfriendly cows... Just another day #conservationplanning at the RCD.

Did you know San Pedro Creek is home to threatened steelhead trout? The RCD received grant funding from the California Wildlife Conservation Board to restore historical fish migration to 5 miles of spawning and rearing habitat while also protecting property by stabilizing banks, reducing erosion, and reducing flood impacts. This creek improvement effort is in the beginning stages of planning and we want to share what we know so far and what we have planned. The San Pedro Cree...k Watershed Coalition is hosting us for a virtual community meeting - join us on Zoom Thursday, May 27 from 6:30 7:30 PM to learn about the San Pedro Creek watershed and steelhead, how we can restore the creek to improve conditions for people and fish, and how creekside residents can get involved. Information on how to access the meeting at www.sanmateorcd.org/san-pedro-creek-restoration-community-/. See more

Want to do work that has a real impact on our local environment? Applications for the Environmental Outreach Coordinator/Water Quality Program Coordinator position are due May 28th! More information at sanmateoRCD.org/job.

Click the video below to see the moment coho salmon swim free in Pescadero Creek! We partnered with NOAA Fisheries Service, the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to release ten thousand juveniles of critically endangered Central Coast Coho salmon throughout the watershed, rewarding many years of habitat restoration to help ensure their survival. The fish were reared in a conservation hatchery that carefully manages genetic diversity for the purpose of species survival. We look forward to seeing robust runs of salmon returning to spawn in the years to come. Check out photos of the experience here: https://bit.ly/cohorelease More info on critically endangered Central Coast Coho salmon here: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/speci/coho-salmon-protected

Hope, Resilience . . . and Ten Thousand Salmon - https://mailchi.mp//holding-the-line-and-preparing-for-rec

The Latino Farmer Conference is back! The webinar series is free to attend, and as always, sessions will be held in Spanish. Please share with all of your Spani...sh-speaking farmer friends. The first webinar in the series will take place on Dec. 10th Learn more and register here: https://latinofarmerconference.ncat.org/ingles.php

Let's celebrate Healthy Soils Week with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Check out their video below! #HealthySoilsWeek2020 #HSW2020

This chipper program helps property owners create defensible space and reduce the likelihood of catastrophic fire. These photos are from recent visits to El Granada, Moss Beach, and Montara. Also underway: Loma Mar, Dearborn Park and La Honda. This is a partnership effort with the San Mateo County FireSafe Council with funding from San Mateo County.

RCD staff Kasey and Adria giving a quick hello while conducting a site assessment for a new carbon farm plan. Keep up the great work, you two! #sustainability #carbonsequestration #inthefield

RCD staff has been in the trenches helping people and the land recover from the #CZUfire. How can the RCD help you? #resilience #postfirerecovery

Spoiler... they're talking about RCDs! https://calmatters.org//agencies-that-help-us-recover-fro/

An unprecedented fire season has everyone hoping for rain. But what happens to water quality when those rains finally come? The First Rain project seeks volunteers to help answer this important question. The First Rain project is part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary’s annual First Flush program, California’s longest-running community science project! Come help collect water samples in coastal creeks and waterways during the first big rain of the year. No prior e...xperience necessary. Training provided. Training will be held on via Zoom on Thursday October 23, 2020 at 5:30PM Email Noah at [email protected] for questions and a link to the Zoom training.

Project Coordinator Maaya observes an old flashboard dam site on Arroyo Leon that was historically used to control water flow on the creek. Maaya works to monitor and improve habitat for threatened and endangered species, stop the spread of invasive plants, and help residents reduce fuel loads.

Beautiful morning on Arroyo Leon where we’re working to make the riparian habitat along the creek better for California red-legged frog and other creatures that live in this area.

Interested in building a rain garden in your yard but don’t know where to start? Join the City of Burlingame, Bay Area Water Supply & Conservation Agency, and @FlowstoBay on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 10am for a rain garden webinar. This free online workshop will cover the basics of rain gardens and take attendees through considerations, helpful tips, and how to’s for the design, construction, and maintenance of a new rain garden. Learn more and register today at flowstobay.org/calendar/rain-garden-workshop-online/

Your input is needed at the Community Climate Action Plan Workshop hosted by the City of Half Moon Bay & SMC Office of Sustainability on October 15. Go to https://www.half-moon-bay.ca.us//Climate-Action-and-Adapta for more information.

Amy loves fish! Here she is conducting water quality monitoring to observe habitat conditions for fish such as water level, temperature, and dissolved oxygen.

Throwback to that pre-pandemic happy hour when we discovered that (a) apparently we have a uniform, and (b) apparently it is gendered..

Agricultural lands can help reverse climate change by pulling carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in soils and plants. In fact, San Mateo County farms and ranches have the potential to sequester more than 40,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases every year, which is equivalent to emissions from a car driving nearly 100 million miles. This is why the county has partnered with the RCD to include a focus on agricultural lands as they revise their Climate Action Plan. Visit sanmateoRCD.org/Climate-action-plan to learn more, to register for our October 2nd event, and to provide input on the agricultural chapter of the Climate Action Plan.

If you missed the webinar series, the recordings are available online. http://www.sanmateorcd.org/free-webinar-series-protecting-/

Take a look at this remarkable, albeit sad, comparison of our Dark Gulch project site (currently under construction) on "Mars Day" versus the very next day. If you need resources or technical assistance recovering from the CZU Lightning Complex fires the RCD can help. http://www.sanmateorcd.org/project/forest-and-fire/