Looking to the Future

With continuing budget cuts throughout all levels of government, the burden of developing, funding and operating programs dealing with environmental protection, education and restoration, have fallen squarely on the shoulders of the general public and non-profit organizations.  CHEER has been organized to deal with all of these issues.  Our educational program incorporates “hands-on: as well as instructional teaching methods and covers grade levels from elementary school through the University level.  We are designed to work hand in hand with other organizations, clubs, volunteers, etc., as well as with governmental agencies.  The key to our success will be to get those who will be impacted by our programs to become advocates and supporters of CHEER.

Our initial project is to restore the streams and surrounding habitat of the Pajaro Watershed so that it will once again support the migration of native steelhead. The list of environmental issues that may be targeted as projects for CHEER is unending.  Our goal is to have CHEER become a model for other organizations and to gradually expand to national or international proportions.  We welcome your interest and participation.  Please visit other areas of our website for further information.

Sustainability

CHEER was created to perform an important service, and we’d like to see that it performs this service for a long time to come.  The entrepreneurial team at CHEER is, therefore, dedicated to building the infrastructure needed to attain sustainability.  Public-private partnerships, grants and collaborations with existent environmental and educational groups will all help to offset costs and keep the program running.

Some experts estimate that doubling California’s steelhead trout population will lead to a 37.5 million-dollar increase in revenues.  This is a testament to the economic contribution that CHEER can make.  Its efforts to increase and sustain salmon populations all over the county will ultimately bring more revenue from fishing licenses to the Fish and Game Department.  This incentive will be used to convince Fish and Game representatives to sign an agreement in principle during the start-up phase of each CHEER project.  The agreement will specify that, if CHEER is successful in its ventures, a portion of the profits from license sales for fishing in the watershed being restored will flow back into CHEER as a way to recoup losses and continue to fund restoration projects in the future.  Fish and Game, CHEER and the community will all profit from such a public-private partnership.

Cleanup is an essential step to project success as repopulating a polluted watershed would be a waste of resources.  Partnerships with organizations that are already performing tasks that help CHEER to reach its goals will help to defray cleanup costs.  In the case of the pilot project, CHEER hopes to partner with Fields to Oceans: Coastal Farmers Conserving Monterey Bay.  This organization is made up of farmers dedicated to the use of the Biologically Integrated Farming System (BIFS), a system that “without harming the economics of their operations...reduces the risks associated with “conventional” farming techniques...[and] offers a means for agriculture to meet society’s environmental goals at affordable prices.  The BIFS farmers “...build and preserve soil health with natural vegetative cover, plant nitrogen-rich cover crops, apply compost and minimize the need for synthetic fertilizer by calculating precise nutrient needs in order to avoid build up of harmful nitrates.  They minimize soil loss due to erosion thereby protecting waterways and dependent aquatic species from sedimentation.  BIFS farmers encourage beneficial predator insect populations to control harmful pests.  When they must spray, they seek to use the least biologically disruptive insecticides...BIFS farmers recognizes that protecting the environment and economic success are one in the same...” especially as consumers increasingly demand food produced under environmentally sound conditions.  The practices promoted by Fields to Oceans will improve the health of the watersheds CHEER hopes to restore.  In teaming with the farmers, CHEER would pay particular attention to removing silt from salmon spawning grounds.  In addition to clean water, spawning sites must be free of silt before salmon are able to lay hatchable eggs.  While non-erosive farming techniques can stop further silt from accumulating, efforts are still needed to reverse the effects of years of silt buildup.  Farmers could also become CHEER aqua culturists.  CHEER will help farmers to diversify production in this way.  Farmers will then provide the fish to repopulate the watersheds.  They will be compensated for their efforts, increasing their profit.

CHEER will also form partnerships with school systems in each watershed region they target so that students may aid experts with data collection and scientific experiments done during the assessment portion of the project.  They’ll test turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, temperature, conductivity, etc. and discuss what test results indicate about the condition of the watershed, the causes of its problems and the possible solutions to these problems.  This will improve the environmental and scientific education of local students, give them a sense of investment in the watershed and encourage them to make environmentally sound choices in the future.  CHEER’s educational component will broaden the range of grant opportunities available to aid CHEER in meeting its objectives.