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safety, Water, Wildlife

City Considering Multi-Mode Bridge Across American River

The City of Sacramento is hosting a survey online to determine need for a multi-mode bridge across the American River.

The city says the survey is entirely unscientific and is only used to see who’s interested.

“Currently there are only two options that allow access across the American River for all modes of transportation year-round; Interstate 5 and State Route 160,” wrote Project Manager Fedolia Harris in a news release. “These limited connections create longer trips impacting air quality and discouraging walking and bicycling between the Central City and South Natomas.”

The survey will be online from Nov. 27 to Dec. 14. Results will be released some time after.

To participate in this survey, click here.

From Fox40.com >>>

Bike Trail, safety, Wildlife

California’s River Parkways Get $34 Million In Funding

More than $34 million in funding is being allocated to 33 proposed river parkway projects statewide by the state Natural Resources Agency. Of the total, nearly a third – over $10.2 million – is going to projects in the Central Valley.

The projects will create recreation opportunities for families, restore fish and wildlife habitat, provide flood management, and enhance California’s river parkways, the state says.

“Our river parkway grants help communities connect children with nature, promote public health by providing families with greater outdoor recreational opportunities, and protect the rivers that provide us with clean water,” says Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird. “The river parkways program is a great example of local agencies working together with the state to create increasingly sustainable communities in California.”

Central Valley projects getting money include:

• American River Conservancy – Cosumnes River Parkway – $1,800,000. The money will be used to buy 2,566 acres of riparian habitat and blue oak woodland to protect native fisheries and wildlife corridors adjacent to the main fork of the Cosumnes River in El Dorado County.

More at CentralValleyBusinessTimes.com >>>

Bike Trail, Events, safety, Water, Wildlife

Weekend cleanup on tap for American River Parkway

A cleanup this weekend will target the lower portions of the American River Parkway where homeless campers have left litter.

The American River Parkway Foundation is staging the cleanup on the stretch of land just east of the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers. The cleanup occurs between Mile 1 and Mile 3 on the parkway.

“It’s been more challenging to control the impact the homeless have had on the parkway, but we want to make sure that the community can come to this area and enjoy its natural resources,” said Dianna Poggetto, executive director of the foundation.

More at SacBee.com >>

 

Bike Trail, safety, Water, Wildlife

Fight looms over Sacramento’s fenced-off levees

Two rivers converge in Sacramento. By at least one important measure, however, they couldn’t be more different.

The American River provides wide-open public paths on both levees that frame it, all the way to Folsom Lake. A cyclist or an ambitious hiker can freely travel more than 30 miles along the river’s edge.

The Sacramento River, however, brings a walker or cyclist up short. From the confluence with the American River, the public path along the Sacramento runs about five miles, to 25th Avenue, where it abruptly ends in a locked gate spanning the levee. It is the first of 12 such impediments that chop up public access to the Sacramento River shore in the Pocket and Little Pocket neighborhoods.

The city of Sacramento is reviving a long-stalled plan to bring down the fences. The goal is an unbroken public path running another 10 miles to Freeport. The idea is stirring old emotions that kept the plan in the shadows for 15 years.

More at SacBee.com >>

Bike Trail, safety, Water, Wildlife

Army Corps of Engineers awards levee contracts

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District has awarded five levee construction contracts totaling $16.2 million to small businesses, the Corps announced Tuesday.

The projects aim to reduce flood risk along the American River in Sacramento.

The work will be done next year as part of a joint effort between the Corps, Central Valley Flood Protection Board and Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency. The projects will strengthen certain levee sites by installing water seepage barriers, widen and raise levee heights and improve erosion protection along the river.

“These levee projects demonstrate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s continued efforts in reducing Sacramento’s overall flood risk,” Col. Bill Leady, commander of the Sacramento District, said in a news release.

More at BizJournals.com >>>

Wildlife

Valley elderberry longhorn beetle may fall from ‘threatened’ list

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - valley elderberry longhorn beetle
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - valley elderberry longhorn beetle

Federal wildlife officials say the valley elderberry longhorn beetle, a native of the Sacramento Valley, no longer needs Endangered Species Act protection.

The inch-long, red-and- black beetle has been listed as a threatened species since 1980, a result of land development and levee construction that eliminated more than 90 percent of the Central Valley’s riparian habitat.

In a Federal Register filing Monday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the beetle has recovered enough that legal protection is no longer necessary.

More at  ModBee.com >>>
Bike Trail, safety

More rangers patrol for homeless along American River

Flashlights shine on a woman sleeping under a picnic table in Discovery Park.

Two Sacramento County Parks Rangers warn the woman twice that she is in violation of a no-camping ordinance.

After she gathers up two trash bags of belongings and moves to another location, the rangers prepare to write her a ticket.

“We’ll issue her a citation and tell her it’s time to go, but after that, we’re not going to forcibly remove anybody from the park,” park ranger William Wetzel said.

Beginning Wednesday evening, the parks department began deploying two additional rangers along the American River Parkway, bringing the total force to four or five rangers depending on the night.

More at KCRA.com >>>

safety

BASE jumper arrested after chute snags on tree

 

A BASE jumper who spent five hours suspended from a tree below the Foresthill Bridge was booked into Placer County Jail on misdemeanor charges.

Cal Fire dispatchers took the emergency call at 8:55 p.m. Monday from a friend of the jumper.

Raymond Alexander Arrieta, 26, was dangling from a pine tree about 100 feet above the American River Canyon.

At 731 feet above the American River North Fork, the Foresthill Bridge is the tallest bridge in California, and the fourth tallest in the United States.

Cal Fire used a bulldozer to widen an access road and brought in a PG&E boom truck to rescue Arrieta around 2:15 Thursday morning.

More at News10.net >>>

Bike Trail, Events, Rafting, Wildlife

14,000 pounds of trash picked up along American River Parkway trail

The American River Parkway bike and recreation trail got some needed sprucing up last weekend as 2,000-plus volunteers hit the trail, collecting more than 14,000 pounds of trash during the American River Parkway Foundation’s annual cleanup event.

“For 2,000 people to spend their Saturday morning helping restore probably the best civic amenity in Sacramento, that says a lot about how important this parkway is to the community,” foundation executive director Dianna Poggetto said.

The cleanup also shows that plenty of people use the parkway as a dumping ground. Materials collected included used diapers, cans and bottles, cigarette butts, rusted bicycles, clothing and fishing lines.

More at ModestoBee.com >>>