UPDATE
The final public meeting in the update process will be held on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Morro Bay Community Center. Additional information will be posted as it becomes available. If you have any questions, please call our office at (805) 772-3834.
The Estuary Program, in conjunction with our many partners, has worked hard to restore, protect and conserve the estuary and its watershed since our beginning in 1995. Each successful restoration project, monitoring effort and educational campaign is rooted in the management plan, known as the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan or CCMP. That plan, a watershed-based, grassroots effort, was approved through the state of CA and the EPA more than 10 years ago. The community's forward-thinking efforts in the plan's development has assured its relevance for over a decade. However, as tasks are completed and emerging issues identified, an update to the plan has become necessary.
Why is the management plan meaningful to community members in the watershed? The CCMP prioritizes the work to be done in the watershed. The management plan outlines the ecological resources of the estuary and watershed and explains the priority problems facing the estuary. The central portion of the plan describes specific actions to address the priority problems. These actions are the core of the Estuary Program's efforts – every project completed and every grant funded must support at least one of these actions.
How will the management plan be updated? The update is designed as a revision of the current plan, preserving the plan's strengths. Efforts will focus on identifying any new issues facing the estuary and watershed that were not adequately captured ten years ago, updating actions that are out-of-date or do not reflect the best solutions now available, and making the plan easier to read and easier to use. The initial public meeting on April 14th provided public opportunity to comment on issues facing the estuary and watershed. The results from the meeting show continued public support for many actions identified in the management plan, including land acquisition, maintaining adequate freshwater flow for a healthy estuary, and continued work on Los Osos drainage improvements. Participants also expressed interest in a number of additional issues facing the estuary, such as understanding climate change impacts and how to adapt to them, the role of domestic and wild animal bacteria input into the bay, and renewed support of a boat haul-out facility in Morro Bay.
What to consider when providing public comment? After consulting with technical experts through a series of working groups open to the public, a second general public meeting was held on September 29th, 2011 to gather further public input on draft revised action plans. The Estuary Program requests that individuals submitting comments on the draft revised action plans take into consideration the new structure of the CCMP and the reasons for updating the action plans. The new CCMP structure is designed to be easier to read and easier to reference. Action plans will be grouped by categories of similar actions. In addition, all action plans will now be able to address multiple priority issues, something that the original CCMP did not recognize in its format. This change is extremely important in allowing the Estuary Program to be more effective and strategic in implementing action plans. Finally, the action plans were edited so as to increase flexibility and bring all the action plans to a similar scale. In the original CCMP, some action plans were so specific as to be limiting. The Estuary Program often found it difficult to implement new and innovative approaches or to address changing conditions with regard to these very specific action plans. In the draft CCMP that will be released in early 2012, the full text for each action plan will be included. This text will include background, detailed descriptions of activities and approaches, potential partners, timelines, cost estimates, and implementation tracking.
The Estuary Program strongly encourages you to share your thoughts through our Facebook page (or follow the link on our homepage), and by email (lbell@mbnep.org). You can also call our office and speak to Lexie Bell at (805) 772-3834, extension 16. We are looking for your opinions on the priority issues facing the estuary and watershed, with an emphasis on new or emerging issues not considered when the plan was written a decade ago. Once the draft of the revised plan is complete in early 2012, there will be another public meeting and a public comment period prior to its approval by the Estuary Program’s Executive Committee.
Only with your input and ideas can we succeed in addressing the challenges and opportunities facing the Morro Bay watershed. Please join us at our next public meeting this summer and email or call with your input.
CCMP Update Downloads
2012 Draft CCMP
Executive Summary of 2001 CCMP. The full document is available on our Library page.
Table showing status of 2001 CCMP Action Items.
April 16 public meeting presentation (as a pdf with presentation notes)
CCMP Update Fact Sheet (PDF)
For more information: Call the Estuary Program office at 772-3834 or email staff@mbnep.org.