The City of Watsonville was awarded a $225,000 grant for restoration work along Struve Slough and trails improvement projects. Watsonville Wetlands Watch worked with the City on project design for these high priority projects through the development of the City’s Urban Greening Plan and is partnering with the City of Watsonville to implement these exciting wetland trails and greenway projects.
The Hazelwood Park project includes three main components:
Improvement of walking and bicycling path within the park,
Creation of a bioswale, a detention pond that collects storm water and filters pollutants out, improving water quality in the slough.
“Both of these projects represent tremendous opportunities to fulfill the greening plan vision for the wetlands and natural places within the City of Watsonville,” said Jonathan Pilch, Restoration Director for Watsonville Wetlands Watch. “Watsonville’s wetlands support a diversity of rare and important wildlife and provide a vibrant place for residents to enjoy the natural beauty of this community. We are excited about this opportunity to turn vision into action.”
The project will support the over 250 different resident and migratory bird species that use the slough system and the 23 native plants and animal species that are listed as threatened, endangered, or species of special concern. The effort to improve water quality is taking place at important time, as Watsonville’s wetlands play a role in supporting Pajaro Valley’s water recharge projects. The wetlands and wetland trails also support a budding eco-tourism industry drawing thousands of visitors each year for a variety of recreational activities such as the Monterey Bay Bird festival, local hiking tours, and walking and bicycling opportunities.
Design of these projects will take place this fall with construction to follow in the spring. To date, the City of Watsonville has raised over $1.5 million dollars towards the urban greening effort, and recently received a $225,500 grant from the California Strategic Growth Council’s Urban Greening for Sustainable Communities Grant Program. The City of Watsonville’s Urban Greening Plan maps out the long-term vision for community greening, infrastructure improvement, and environmental enhancement adopted by the City Council in 2012. The plan calls for a 30-mile trail system, nature pocket parks, new street trees, and wetlands and open space restoration and improvement projects.
“The City is pleased to receive the grant funding from the State,” said Murray Fontes, Principal Engineer with the City’s Public Works and Utilities Department. “For the past ten years, the City and Watsonville Wetlands Watch have partnered to develop a series of trails in and around our community’s unique freshwater sloughs as well as preserving and restoring the sloughs. This grant funding will allow us to move ahead with two more high priority projects.”
Watsonville Wetlands Watch: http://www.watsonvillewetlandswatch.org/