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Save Fairfax
Fairfax mulls strain on wildlife from $4.7M bridge rebuild
As reported in the Marin Independent Journal, “A $4.7 million proposal to rebuild an aging bridge in Fairfax is drawing concern from a handful of residents who say the project could disturb owls, frogs, fish and other wildlife."
Accordingly, "Save Fairfax" has sent our the following email in their April 2020 Newsletter:
Dear Friends of Fairfax
Please ask the Fairfax Town Council to reject the one size fits all Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) prepared for the Meadow Way Bridge Replacement and Creek Channelization Project and require a real Environmental Impact Report (EIR) before project approval.
They are voting at the next Town Council meeting, May 6th. An EIR would allow the Town Council to look at alternatives like a less expensive drop-in bridge, no concrete channelization of the creek, prevent back filling of the natural floodplain and keep public access to the creek on public property.
Eliminating the creek's flood plain will add to downstream flooding in San Anselmo and Ross. Fairfax's Sacramento bridge consultant selected the WRA environmental firm to prepare the MND report that also redefines San Anselmo Creek from a perennial stream to an intermittent stream. Work done last summer on the bridge keeps it safe for fire engines to cross while an EIR is prepared.
A number of local residents, the Sierra Club Marin Group, the Marin Watershed Alliance and Save Fairfax & San Anselmo Creeks have asked for a real EIR.
Please join them, email the Town Council and Town Clerk today at:
SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear Fairfax Town Council,
Please continue Fairfax's admired environmental legacy. The Cascade Canyon is one of the richest environmental treasures in all of Marin. The Canyon is host to Northern Spotted Owls, Yellow-Legged Frogs, California Gray Foxes, Mountain Lions and California Black-tail Deer. However, the National Marine Fishery Service says Coho salmon are now extinct in Corte Madera Creek and her tributaries; and Steelhead are on the brink of extinction in this watershed.
San Anselmo Creek is a perennial stream. Reject the proposed Mitigated Negative Declaration that redefines San Anselmo Creek as an intermittent stream; and require a real Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the proposed Meadow Way Bridge replacement project.
President Trump's EPA & Corps of Engineers are now dropping Federal Clean Water Act protections from intermittent streams, which means our creeks will lose Clean Water Act protections. An EIR could offer an alternative that costs less money, keeps public access to the creek on public property, uses no pesticides to remove all the blackberries, keeps the perennial creek designation, does not clear-cut all trees south of the bridge and protects native species.
Signed, _______________________