T-Shirts to Show Your Support for San Jacinto Wildlife Area at the Planning Commission Meeting Available

There are T-Shirts available for anyone that will be attending the October 4^th Planning Commission hearing on the future of San Jacinto to show our support for saving the Wildlife Area from developers.   The shirts will be dark brown and gold and will display the below “SAVE SJWA FROM DEVELOPERS” logo, depicted below…

It would be great if everyone that will be attending the Planning Commission hearing on October 4^th would be wearing one of these shirts to show our solidarity against this development.  A sea of brown and gold, along with the red shirts of the “Keep Nuevo Rural” group, would be an impressive display to the Commissioners.

We will have the shirts available for purchase at tomorrow’s volunteer work day at San Jacinto… (details on the work day here:  https://socalhunt.wordpress.com/2017/09/07/3rd-volunteer-work-day-set-for-san-jacinto-wildlife-area-saturday-september-30th-2017/ )…so we can all get one to wear at the hearing.

A big thanks to the T-Shirt Shop and Eva for making up these T-Shirts!

Please try to attend the hearing on Wednesday, October 4^th if there’s any way you can make it.

(Details on the upcoming Planning Commission hearing here… https://socalhunt.wordpress.com/2017/09/07/riverside-planning-commission-hearing-for-san-jacinto-wildlife-areas-future-one-more-chance-coming-up/ )

Petition to Save San Jacinto Wildlife Area – IMPORTANT! – Please Sign!

People who utilize San Jacinto Wildlife Area, which includes we hunters along with birdwatchers, equestrians, dog trainers, nature photographers and just plan nature lovers are teaming with the group Keep Nuevo Rural to petition the Riverside Planning Commission to stop the Lewis Homes development, known as the Villages at Lakeview.

You can download print and sign the petition here…

Petition To Riverside Planning Villages at Lakeview Project

The group Keep Nuevo Rural has a Facebook page you can check out here…

https://www.facebook.com/keepnuevorural/

Once signed you can drop the petition off at San Jacinto, or contact Lizzy Creek of Keep Nuevo Rural at lizzylikes2smile@hotmail.com to arrange to get the petition(s) to her or simply print out the petition, sign it and scan the signed petition and email the scan to Lizzy at her email address above.

We’re seeing if some of the local sporting goods stores will host the petitions so they can be signed there, but that’s still up in the air for now.

There has been an online petition going around that many of you have “signed” (I have too) but this one, with actual printed copies that will be handed to the Planning Commission, with actual signatures on it, will carry much more weight and will only add to the prior online petition.  If you signed the prior online petition it’s okay to sign this one too.

You can read more details about the Villages at Lakeview here on SoCalHunt’s prior post on the project…

https://socalhunt.wordpress.com/2017/09/07/riverside-planning-commission-hearing-for-san-jacinto-wildlife-areas-future-one-more-chance-coming-up/

Please sign this petition and get anyone you can to sign it also.  Make sure you can get it back to Lizzy or the SJ office before the meeting.  If at all possible please attend the Planning Commission meeting on October 4^th at 9:00 am.  Be prepared to spend most of the day there as it will likely be a long one.  This is important as the most impressive thing to the Commissioners will be lots of people in opposition jamming the hearing room.  If you are attending you can bring your petition to the meeting in person and add it to the stack.  Also, don’t feel you have to fill the petition form with signatures, although the more you can get the better, but if you’re the only one that can sign it get it into us anyway.

Here’s a Google maps link to 4080 Lemon Street, Riverside, the location of the hearing.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/4080+Lemon+St,+Riverside,+CA+92501/@33.9777754,-117.3755947,17.08z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x80dcb1e5ff7ca79f:0x566b43c951322556!8m2!3d33.9778578!4d-117.3733832?hl=en

The future of San Jacinto Wildlife Area hangs in the balance on this one Planning Commission hearing.  Please do what you can on this petition to get as many signatures as we can and please attend the hearing if at all possible

Riverside Planning Commission Hearing for San Jacinto Wildlife Area’s Future – One More Chance Coming Up!

The Riverside Planning Commission held a hearing regarding the 11,350 housing unit Lewis Homes project proposed along the southern border of the San Jacinto Wildlife Area.  This project will abut SJ on the south and will have adverse effects on the wildlife or the area and, a good possibility of eventually shutting down hunting at SJ.

Below is a link to the Planning Department’s report on the project with several maps showing how this purposed, in effect, small city will virtually encroach upon San Jacinto.

http://planning.rctlma.org/Portals/0/genplan/general_plan_2014/GPA960/GPAVolume2/9Lakeview%20Nuevo%20Area%20Plan-%20GPA%20No%20960%20Volume%202%202014-02-20.pdf

Once people start living there it won’t be long before the complaints of “dangerous” gunfire start and you can bet hunting at SJ will be short lived after that.  Don’t think it can happen?  Some of you might remember the San Gabriel Valley Gun Club in Duarte.  Some called it the Fish Canyon Range.  It was opened in 1946.  Eventually, homes were built up to within a half-mile of the range and in 2006 it was closed due to noise complaints and the (perceived, but unfounded) danger of the gunfire.

At the Riverside Planning Commission hearing several people gave comments to the Commissioners, a few in favor of the project, but most expressing opposition due to the adverse effects on the SJ wildlife and the hunting program.

No decision was made at this hearing and a second hearing was scheduled for October 4th where the Commission will be making a decision on the project and the fate of the San Jacinto Wildlife Area in the years to come. The hearing is October 4th at 9 AM at 4080 Lemon Street, 1st Floor, Riverside, CA 92502. This is our one more chance to try to make a difference and prevent this from happening.   PLEASE tell everyone you know this is very important!  We need to show up IN NUMBERS for the next hearing!  Tom Trakes advised me he is in the process of making shirts to show our solidarity.  (I’ll provide info on how to get one when Tom gets that info to me.)  Tom told me, “I’m telling you from my heart this is really bad and every hunter, birder, photographer needs to be at this hearing. I want to see standing room only and for the ones that say it’s a done deal they are wrong, believe me, we can make it hard for them to continue, so share the hell out of this with everyone you know, we need all your help!  Thank you.”

So, if there’s any way you can make it to the Riverside Planning Commission meeting on October 4th, BE THERE!  The future of SJ may very well be in the balance.

Google maps link to 4080 Lemon Street, Riverside, the location of the hearing.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/4080+Lemon+St,+Riverside,+CA+92501/@33.9777754,-117.3755947,17.08z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x80dcb1e5ff7ca79f:0x566b43c951322556!8m2!3d33.9778578!4d-117.3733832?hl=en

3rd Volunteer Work Day Set for San Jacinto Wildlife Area- Saturday, September 30th, 2017

Tom Trakes, from San Jacinto Wildlife Area, advised that the next volunteer work day for San Jacinto Wildlife Area will be Saturday, September 30th.  This work day will be the final tune-up for the area’s blinds for the upcoming season.  Tom advised that volunteers should meet at the check station at 6:30 am and anyone coming out to volunteer should bring gloves, shovels and/or hoes, wire pliers and lots of water since it’s expected to be hot.  Some more palm fronds have arrived however if anyone has access to palm fronds the more the merrier and it’s much better to have too many than not enough. After the work is done we will get together at a Marcellos Pizza for a well-deserved lunch (each person responsible for their own bill).

Once again, this is short notice but they got a late start this year due to some equipment problems getting them behind which had the effect of compressing the work day schedule.

Hopefully, we’ll have a great turnout like the last work day the blinds can be finished up for the waterfowl season to come.

Hopefully, we’ll have another great crew of volunteers for this work day and get the blinds looking ship shape for the upcoming hunting season and another great year of duck hunting.

If you have any questions contact Tom Trakes at the San Jacinto headquarters at (951) 236-3040 or the San Jacinto staff at (951) 928-0580.

Another Great Turnout for San Jacinto’s Volunteer Blind Brush Up / Work Day, Saturday, August 26th

On Saturday, August 26^th, another great turnout of about 30 volunteers arrived ready willing and able to get to it for SJ’s second volunteer blind day.

The volunteers built or re-build several blinds and brushed up even more of them, including the Mobility Impaired blinds.  In addition, some general clean up as done around and inside some of the blinds.

There are more ducks utilizing the wildlife area every day and things are looking good for the upcoming season.

After a hard morning’s work, many of the volunteers retired Marcello’s Pizza in Nuevo for a great lunch.

Once again, the crew at San Jacinto would like to give a big thank you to everyone that came out and worked hard to get things in ship shape for the upcoming waterfowl.

Palm fronds for the blinds!

Building another blind.

Tools for the job.

Limited Mobility blind brushed up.

A view from inside.