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Volunteer group credits river cleanups for return of steelhead to San Benito-area streams
Summary
At the Oct. 27 Pacheco Stormwater District meeting, Herman Garcia of Coastal Habitat Education and Environmental Restoration (CHEER) described volunteer-led habitat reclamation that he said helped steelhead return to the San Benito River and other creek systems. Garcia outlined CHEER’s methods, partnerships and volunteer needs.
Herman Garcia, a volunteer with Coastal Habitat Education and Environmental Restoration (CHEER), told the Pacheco Stormwater District on Oct. 27 that sustained volunteer cleanup work on the San Benito and Pajaro river systems has improved habitat and helped migrating steelhead return to waterways where they had been absent for decades.
“We were taking out 3 to 5,000 pounds of garbage a day every day,” Garcia said, describing an 18-month effort on the lower reach of the San Benito River. CHEER, he said, is a 501(c)(3) that is “all volunteers, no paid staff” most of the time and works in coordination with federal biologists.
The nonprofit, Garcia said, covers an area he described as roughly 2,000 square miles of watershed and thousands…
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