The Rancho San Carlos Partnership and the Protocol concerning the operations of Moore's Lake
The Sierra Club, Ventana Chapter & Carmel River Steelhead Association have concerns with the Protocol covering operations of Moore's Lake, an in-stream lake located on the Las Garzas Creek on Rancho San Carlos Partnership land. The Protocol was agreed upon between US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries, California Department of Fish & Game and Rancho San Carlos Partnership in December 2000. Public Records refer to a Memorandum of Understanding between the parties and the State Water Resources Control Board, but this document has not been made available to the Public. Therefore we have no knowledge of how it affects the Protocol but it is our contention that in accepting the Protocol the SWRCB may have overlooked their responsibilities for the continuing supervision of the Public Trust that lies in the lower parts of Las Garzas Creek.
On Thursday January 31st. 2001 representatives of the Sierra Club Ventana Chapter and the Carmel River Steelhead Association made short presentations backed by documentary support requesting the Board of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District (MPWMD) to direct staff to call a meeting of local, State and Federal Agencies to look into the concerns raised at the board meeting.
On March 12th, representatives from the undernoted organizations met to discuss the concerns that had been raised:
National Marine Fisheries Service, US Fish & Wild Life Service, California Department of Fish & Game, Monterey County Planning Commission, Monterey County Water Resources Agency, Monterey County Health & Environmental Division, Monterey county Planning & Building Inspection Department, Denise Duffy & Associates, Balance Hydrologics Inc. , Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc., Rancho San Carlos Partnership, Sierra Club & Carmel River Steelhead Association.
Subsequently, a meeting between the Federal & State agencies was scheduled for Thursday April 25th. At the present time no communiqué has been released.
The following are links to the written statements supporting the verbal presentations to the Board of MPWMD.
You will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat to open the files.
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If you don't have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader you can obtain it from Adobe by clicking on the linked Acrobat icon to the left |
Statements and letters from:
Gillian Taylor, Sierra Club Ventana Chapter
Gary Tate, Past General Manager, Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District
John G Williams, PHD, University of Davis
Geoff Malloway, Central Coast Fly Fishing & CRSA
National Marine Fisheries Service, Southwest Region
For additional documents in support of the Sierra Club & CRSA contention that the Public Trust in the lower Las Garzas creek is not adequately protected please visit
Moore's Lake and Las Garzas Creek Protocol
If you are interested in locating the lake & Las Garzas creek on the Topo map the link below will take you there. Current versions of Acrobat Reader enable you to increase the magnification of the image. Going to 200% will improve the viewing. The file size is 250K and with a 56K modem it will take a little time to open.
The locations that are flagged are Moore's Lake, Las Garzas Creek and Hitchcock Creek.
Topo map of Moore's Lake & Las Garzas Creek
The Ventana Chapter Sierra Club Carmel River Steelhead Association
Dated April 30th 2002
Additional information on protocol can be found at
Additional information concerning the formal complaint filed by Ventana Chapter Sierra Club and the Carmel River Steelhead Association may be found at http://www.carmelriverwatershed.org/SWRCB_complaint.html
Copyright (C) 2000 -2003 Carmel River Steelhead Association all rights reserved.
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