MIDDLETOWN – Upper Putah Creek Stewardship is seeking participation in compiling a current watershed assessment. A meeting will be held from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 28 at Calpine Geothermal Visitors Center in Middletown.
The Upper Putah Creek Stewardship, a nonprofit corporation established in 1996, studies the water condition and other areas that affect the condition of the water from the Cobb Mountain area to the area of Robert Louis Stevenson State Park in Napa County.
“We”re looking at the water balance,” said Dwight Holford, watershed coordinator for the Upper Putah Creek Stewardship. “Simply stated, water balance is how much comes down, how much is used, how much is stored and how much is left over.”
The stewardship is currently compiling a watershed assessment as required by a grant it competing for from the Department of Water Resources. The assessment must be complete by June 2010.
“We have a technical advisory committee out of the scientific community to tell us what needs to be added to the assessment,”
Holford said. “Our next step is to go to the public and tell them what the assessment is about and what it includes to see if we missed anything or if there is something else the public would like see in the report.”
According to Holford, the stewardship has enlisted the services of a subcontractor from UC Davis, whose team is currently collecting data for the construction of a hydrological model. To accomplish the task, Holford said the team will use readily-available data from such sources as the US Geological Survey, Natural Resources Conservation Service and data available through the state university system. The data will be added to real-time data collected by the stewardship.
“Put all that in your model and it will tell you how healthy your water is,” Holford concluded.
Data is collected in areas such as water and air temperature, sediment, mercury and nutrient content in the water and the general condition of plants and animals within the watershed. The stewardship also intends to interview a vast diversion of people including the elderly, tribal elders and other Native American representatives.
“If you want assistance from the public or a government agency, you are most often required to have an assessment. We really need to know what shape we”re in,” Holford explained. “The more input we get the better off we are.”
The stewardship is seeking the participation of any and all citizens with a concern for the condition of the local watershed, especially those representing homeowners associations and those with historical knowledge of the area.
“Anyone who has lived here for a little while knows things could be better,” Holford said. “We figure the way to get there is through education. If we”re going to be effective, we really have to have an audience.”
The stewardship”s educational efforts include classroom education in local schools and hands-on field trips for local students. Visit www.upperputahcreek.org for more information or contact Chris Simon at 987-1109 or Dwight Holford at 987-0663.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com.
