Hello Everyone,

     Thank you all for yor ongoing support for this cause. But the fight continues! Earlier today, the Stanislaus Co. Board of Supervisors heard Del Puerto Water District's updated plans for realigning Del Puerto Canyon Road (Alternative #9) and voted to approve it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekbGeq0rPOA. This doesn't mean the reservoir is a done deal, but we need to all reach out to members of the county board to request that they reconsider their decision! Hardly anyone at the meeting adequately brought up the loss of long-used educational sights that can only be accessed via the current roadway and which would be destroyed when the ag reservoir is built. Del Puerto WD management claims they have nowhere else to put the water, but SAGBI maps of the area show potentially suitable pockets for groundwater banking around Patterson and Modesto https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/sagbi/. Also, anyone who really studies nature knows that sites used for decades can't be fully replaced by surrogates determined more by what district managers consider to be out of the way of their operations rather than the specific flora, fauna, geological, and cultural features that subject level experts and other members of the community value. 

    And regardless of technical loopholes regarding county officials and special districts, don't you think decisions about major and permanent changes to public infrastructure like roadways should be ultimately up to votes by the general public to approve or deny through the initiative process?

     Given Del Puerto WD managment's repeated claims that simply stopping along the current roadsides is trespassing, it's understandable if some are confused and hesitant to speak out. However, Del Puerto Canyon Road is associated with a public right-of-way that includes the main roadway and roadsides https://www.stancounty.com/planning/pl/gp/gp-chapter2.pdf, and CA is a posting state where uncultivated properties need to be clearly marked or have fencing to not be publicly accessible.

   For all who've stopped along the current roadsides legitimately for activities like botanizing, birding, looking for insects, viewing Allan Bennison's historic dinosaur discovery site, or connecting with other aspects of the natural and cultural history that can be found along the open parts of the roadside, let them know through personal messages about what would be lost if the roadway was redirected and those areas were destroyed!

Stanislaus Co. Board of Supervisors website: https://www.stancounty.com/board/

Buck Condit: conditb@stancounty.com
Vito Chiesa: chiesav@stancounty.com
Terry Withrow: WithrowT@Stancounty.com
Mani Grewal: grewalm@StanCounty.com
Channce Condit: conditc@stancounty.com

Together we can Save Del Puerto Canyon!