Conservation Update, 2011 May | LEAPS Transmission Line, Water Insanity, Local Galls

LEAPS IS BAAACK: A Notice of Preparation has been issued for the long-proposed 32-mile 500-kV transmission line along the eastern slope of the Santa Ana Mts. An EIR/EIS will be issued in due course.

According to maps in the NOP (see cpuc.ca.gov/environment/info/aspen/nevadahydro/nop.pdf, figure 1C), the transmission line will run pretty much along the top of the ridge,
most notably along several miles of North and South Main Divide Roads in the vicinity of El Cariso. About 1.5 miles of it will be undergrounded, along the hang-gliding jump-off area.
The transmission line, now a separate project, was originally part of the proposed Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage Project (LEAPS). The environmental community has solidly opposed LEAPS and the transmission line since they were first proposed. The Center for Biological Diversity is now spearheading a coalition of environmental groups (including OCCNPS) in a campaign to continue strong opposition to both projects.

The Sierra Club Santa Ana Mountains Task Force is seeking contributions to a war chest to support attorney and legal costs through the projects’ agency and jurisdiction processes.
ACTION NOW: Send contributions, payable to the Santa Ana Mountains Task Force (subject line: CPUC), to:
P. Sappingfield
26352 Via Juanita
Mission Viejo CA 92691-1952
The Sierra Club San Gorgonio Chapter (Riverside Co.) will match funds up to $5000  total.

Or donate directly to the Center for Biological Diversity at:
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5929/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3878; you might put “LEAPS TE/VS campaign” in the Notes field.

TERRIFIC NEW VIDEO! Surfrider Foundation has developed a 19-minute animated film titled “The Cycle of Insanity – The Real Story of Water”; it can be viewed directly from http://www.knowyourh2o.org/. The film is a centerpiece of Surfrider’s “Know Your H2O program”, which is described more fully at http://www.beachapedia.org/Know_Your_H2O.
PLANT GALLS: Dr. Peter Bryant is inviting us to collaborate on a fun project to find out more about local plant galls. In his words:
“If you are out and about in Southern California, you could help in several ways (in order of increasing amount of work for you):
1. Point me to places where you have seen interesting galls (I am especially interested in galls on wild rose, since I have found them so far only at Idyllwild).
2. Come on gall hunting hikes. Any good locations for scrub oak? (So far, mostly from Little Sycamore in Laguna Coast.)
3. Collect galls and send them to me so I can rear out the insects. Please give each gall a unique number and record host plant, gall position (leaf, stem, bud, root) and type (Round, Hairy, Disc, etc), date and place collected.
4. Collect the galls, rear out the insects, photograph them, preserve them in ethanol, and send them to me. Record collection data as in #1 but also give each insect a unique specimen ID. (I started this project without using unique specimen IDs–result: time-consuming chaos!)
“Looking forward to hearing from you!”
If you are interested, contact pjbryant@uci.edu.
—Celia Kutcher, Conservation Chair