News Subscribe  to Our Newsletter Sign  up for Email Updates CGF  In the News Press  Inquiries Past  Articles Calendar			The Committee is  Watching... Committee for Green Foothills' Legislative  Advocates and volunteers juggle multiple projects to protect the environment  in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. In addition to those projects described in this issue's articles, the Committee is  watching: ... ... the Santa Clara County League of Conservation  Voters, who this fall recognized Hon.  Anna Eshoo, as Legislator of the Year, Santa  Clara Valley Audubon Executive Director Craig Breon, as Environmentalist  of the Year, and CGF co-founder Lois  Crozier-Hogle, with Lifetime Achievement Awards. ... ...local marsh expert and champion Emily Renzel,  who led some 30 CGF members and friends on a hot August  hike around the Palo Alto Baylands, giving us great perspective on  the history of land use in the area and discussing proposals for the future  of this wetlands area. ... ... the proposed McKean Road sports complex in San Jose's rural Almaden Valley, which would tear up existing farmland and replace it with sports fields that start to bring sprawl and eliminate working farms. ... ...California Senator  Byron Sher, Assemblymember  Gene Mullin, and Speaker pro Tempore Leland  Yee , who coauthored SB 792 that secured the final approvals necessary  to permit construction of the Devil's Slide Tunnel. ... ... the California  tiger salamander, whose Central California population has just  been listed as "threatened," making it illegal to harm the salamander  and restricting development in its habitat, found in a few places locally. ... ...for a Donor Services Volunteer to help in  the CGF office 4-8 hours a week; details are available from Andi  at (650) 968-7243. ... ...CGF board member Dorothy Bender, who was honored in October by the President's Office and the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford, in recognition of her volunteer work and commitment to public service as a board member of Committee for Green Foothills. ... ...the City of Morgan Hill, which certified  the post-facto Environmental Impact Report for the American Institute  of Math golf course and rezoned the property on which the 18-hole golf  course was illegally built without  permits. ... ...the Midcoast Local  Coastal Program update, which should reach the San Mateo County  Board of Supervisors sometime in the next few months following a year  of hearings before the Planning Commission. ... ... Santa Clara County's consideration of various ways to fund the regular updating and amending of the County's General Plan. ... ...almost all local and county governments (with the notable exception of Palo Alto) that share draft versions of environmental documents with applicants, giving them a chance to influence the documents while refusing to let the public, environmentalists and the press examine the documents or learn how the applicants influenced them. ... ...the San Mateo County Planning Department, to see how they will manage their already untenable workload with fewer planners than ever due to budget cuts. ... ...the threatened California  red-legged frog, which was discovered in June at the site of Half  Moon Bay's proposed Wavecrest  Village project, and whose presence has triggered - at long last -  an independent examination of the project's impacts on environmentally  sensitive habitat areas . Published November 2004 in Green  Footnotes. Page last updated November 8, 2004 .

	Burrowing owl photo by Peter LaTourrette / www.birdphotography.com.