Pescadero Conservation Alliance Restoration of Mountain Camp

Over the past few years, local conservationists have devoted a fair amount of energy to purchasing land along the spectacular San Mateo coast to save it from development. Now a major effort has begun to study and restore the land already saved from development. In 2000, the Pescadero Conservation Alliance (PCA) took over Mountain Camp, the site of a former logging mill and children’s camp along Gazos Creek a few miles south of Pescadero. The group’s goal is to promote research, environmental education, and hands-on restoration projects along the San Mateo coast. It is rehabilitating the old camp structures to create a field research station, which will serve as a base for projects related to the local environment, such as the volunteer restoration projects now underway at Año Nuevo State Reserve and Pescadero Marsh. PCA is also restoring the land around Gazos Creek, one of only three watersheds south of San Francisco with a surviving coho salmon population. The watershed also boasts small populations of several other listed species, including marbled murrelet, red-legged frog, and steelhead trout. In addition, PCA is sponsoring a series of public lectures and guided hikes (such as “Stream Ecology” on April 20 and “Flora of the Central Coast” on May 18). For details or to volunteer for the restoration projects, contact John Wade at (650) 879-1441 or visit www.gazos.org.