Saturday, February 28, 2004
Dear editor,
Mark Van Gorder wrote a letter that had lots of "words." The first sentence fairly well, said it all: "Attended numerous community, Watershed Task Force, Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors meetings regarding Napa River Watershed protection."
Mark made a blast at the Napa Valley Land Stewards Alliance (NVLSA) that it was formed just for Measure P.
I present one section out of the NVLSA mission statement/purposes: "To bring sound environmental reasoning to local land use decisions to ensure that protective measures are sensible, cost effective, and fair, so that man and environment can truly benefit without inflicting injustice or disproportionate cost on any segment of society."
As stewards, for many years, here are a few things we handle:
- Fish are rescued from streams that are drying up and moved to more water.
- During bad storms, cleaning culverts so water will not erode roadways.
- Dragging a fire trail for reduced erosion via sheet run off -- not rivulets.
- Maintain a hilltop heliport for firefighter safe haven or rescues.
- Take water samples for stream health, oxygen, pH, conductive, temps.
- Check for fish runs and spawning, young fish and fish predators.
- Monitor rain fall for own use, and county agencies.
- Observe for natural slides, slips and stream sediments, and downed trees.
- Check stream bottom changes.
- Stream bank stabilizations.
- Allowed county and fish and stream survey teams access to creeks.
There are fish, abundant feed, 80 percent-plus oxygen, and good temperatures. NVLSA is not a do-nothing organization, it is a stewardship. I haven't seen much of Mr. Van Gorder, or Mr. Dodd around our streams.
Many years ago there was an Eagle Scout conclave in Vallejo, and the motto was "Words are silenced by deeds."
George R. Henke
Napa
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