Holly Sletteland
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Sweet Springs East Project Moves Forward
by Holly Sletteland
New Addition
As many of you know, we had our formal kickoff party to begin the restoration of the new addition to Sweet Springs on Saturday, September 24th. I owe a huge thanks to everyone who helped to make it a success, from the community leaders who inspired us with their thoughts, to the many local businesses who contributed food and drinks and to all of the volunteers who helped us take the first steps to reclaim the ground from invasive weeds. It was a very important beginning.
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But the beginning of the restoration wasn't the only milestone we had to celebrate. We also were thrilled to finally able to submit our application to the county for permits to install new post and rail fencing, boardwalks, interpretive signage, and a viewing platform. None of us at Audubon ever imagined that this would turn out to be such a lengthy and involved process. We were fortunate that the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo gave us a helping hand, having been through this process many times before. It involves gathering a lot of information about the property before trying to make the best decisions about how to work with its features to produce the best design. It's hard to say exactly how long it will take from here for the application to work its way through the normal review process. The county has until early October to request additional information from us and then they will prepare a staff report which is circulated to interested parties for comment. Providing we have strong support from the community and public agencies, it hopefully won't take too long!
Of course, there is another big hurdle that we need to overcome, and that is funding. We estimate that the access improvements are going to cost approximately $200,000. We expect that we can obtain grants to cover some of those costs, but we are also counting on the community to help. Donations of any amount – whether its $10 or $1000 - are urgently needed and can be sent to Morro Coast Audubon, PO Box 1507, Morro Bay, CA 93443. Just think of all of the special places that we enjoy today that are only there for us because farsighted people made the effort to save them and provide access to the public. This is our chance to leave something very special to those who will come after us.
Of course, if you really feel you aren't in a position to contribute financially at this time, we also really welcome donations of time. We were extremely fortunate that a very talented local architect, Clint Iwanicha, developed all of the plans for the site at no cost to Audubon. This service would have cost us thousands of dollars. Perhaps you have a service that you can provide that would help move the project forward. If you can't think of anything, there's still another option. Volunteer for one of our restoration parties on the preserve. Usually they are held on the 2nd Saturday of every month, but the next one will be a little bit special. Saturday, October 22nd is Make A Difference Day, a nationally recognized day of service. We will be hosting an event to remove invasive weeds on the new eastern section of the preserve on the corner of 4th and Ramona from 10am to 2pm. Bring gloves, trowels, and shovels, if you can, or we'll loan you some of ours. Wear layers, sturdy shoes, and a hat. We'll provide the tools, tips and munchies. If you need more information, please contact 239-3928 or send email.
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