September 9, 2004

Coastal Cleanup Day is coming up Saturday, September 18. There will be a creek cleanup of Alameda Creek in lower Niles Canyon east of Old Canyon Road. For information contact Val Blakely at (510) 494-4738 or vblakely@ci.fremont.ca.us

The ACA would like to sponsor a cleanup of Stonybrook Creek along Palomares Road. If you are able to help organize this cleanup, please contact me ASAP.

In past years, Sunol residents have sponsored a volunteer cleanup of Sinbad Creek along Kilkare Road. Sunol residents please notify me if there is a creek cleanup this year ASAP.

2) Volunteers needed for Sunol Country Festival Saturday, September 25

Save Our Sunol is sponsoring a Sunol Country Festival in downtown Sunol on Saturday, September 25, from 10 am to 4 pm. Volunteers are needed to staff the ACA table.

3) Proposed expansion of off-road vehicle park in Corral Hollow

The California Department of Parks and Recreation recently released an Initial Study and notice of preparation of an Environmental Impact Report for a significant expansion of the Carnegie State Vehicle Recreation Area (CSVRA) in Corral Hollow, in the eastern portion of the Alameda Creek watershed south of Altamont Pass.

The CSVRA is an off-road vehicle park that has serious impacts to numerous of federal and state listed species on the site including the California red-legged frog, Alameda whipsnake, California tiger salamander, western pond turtle, western burrowing owl, and foothill yellow-legged frog. Motorcycles at CSVRA kill and crush rare animal and plant species and likely indirectly impact species by causing excessive dust, erosion, sedimentation of aquatic habitats, noise, disruptive nighttime lighting, crushing of burrows and nests, toxic oil and gas spills, and interference with wildlife migration corridors. An expansion of the park is proposed that will increase these impacts and will likely displace and drive from the expansion property a tule elk herd that exists in Corral Hollow Canyon.

The ACA, Center for Biological Diversity, and other community groups are opposing the expansion and advocating protecting the expansion parcel as mitigation for impacts to wildlife at the current site.

What you can do:

To get information about the proposed expansion and to comment, write to:

Jennifer Buckingham

OHMVR

California Department of Parks and Recreation

13300 White Rock Road

Rancho Cordova, CA 95742-6700

Or call the State Parks Planning Division at 916-653-9901