The current order requires Cal Am to cut pumping from the river by about two-thirds

Monterey Peninsula water officials expect to publicly release a final proposal for extending the deadline for pumping cutbacks on the Carmel River by four years.
The proposal calls for Cal Am to secure a desal project permit from the state Public Utilities Commission by September 2017, start construction on the desal plant or the groundwater replenishment project by September 2018, and begin providing a new water source by the end of 2020.
The current order requires Cal Am to cut pumping from the river by about two-thirds by the end of next year

From: Monterey Herald 
Photo from: Yelp

The statue of Saint Serra at Lower Presidio Park in Monterey has been decapitated

Just more than two weeks after the Junipero Serra statue at the Carmel Mission was toppled and defaced, the Serra statue at Lower Presidio Park in Monterey has been decapitated. 
Picture by @davidmschmalz

From MC Weekly

Rancho Cañada

Rancho Cañada Golf Club is comprised of two 18-hole courses that weaves back and forth across the Carmel River.
This estate was once a prized portion of the 4,366 acre California Rancho named, "Cañada de la Segunda."
The proposed Carmel Valley Rancho Cañada development  is heavily scaled back from the original vision: Instead of 281 housing units there will only be 130.

From: MPGolf
From: MCWeekly

Western Houndstongue: Cynoglossum Grande

Houndstongue is a perennial herb that is native to California.

Picture from: Mama Quail

Mass graves dot the California missionary system

Today, mass graves filled with Native peoples dot the California missionary system. Tens of thousands died while the missions were in operation. Within 100 years of Serra's arrival, the indigenous population had been decimated from over 300,000 to 16,000. And the man at the helm was made a Saint. 
From: Huffington Post

Carmel Valley Hills Restoration Project

In 1984, restoration of eight miles of river was scheduled to be completed by MPWMD within ten years. In 1992 and 1993, the restoration of the Valley Hills reach was completed and has since been irrigated.
After re-contouring of the site and the planting of cottonwoods, willows, alders, and dogwoods, a total of 4.10 acres of riparian vegetation exist, showing a 185% increase in riparian vegetation in this reach.

From: http://www.mpwmd.dst.ca.us/MapGallery/Valley%20Hills%20copy.jpg 
Picture from: robin purcell

The Pope conducted the canonisation in front of 25,000 people

Pope Francis has made a controversial Spanish missionary a saint in an elaborate ceremony that inspired mass devotion as well as protests branding the new saint a persecutor of Native Americans.

The Pope conducted the canonisation in front of 25,000 people in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

“Junípero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it,” he said.“Having given mature deliberation and having begged the help of divine grace, and the opinion of many of our brothers, blessed Junípero Serra, we discern and define to be a saint, and we inscribe him in the catalogue of saints, establishing him in the universal church among the saints who should be appealed to with devotion.”

Serra oversaw the whipping, beating, flogging and extermination of Native Americans in what is now California.

From: The Guardian

Ambystoma Californiense: California Tiger Salamander

The California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) is a large, stocky, terrestrial salamander with a broad, rounded snout and gorgeous black-and-yellow body.
These amphibians are restricted to vernal pools and seasonal ponds in grassland and oak savannah communities in central California. The primary cause of their decline is the loss and fragmentation of habitat through human activities and encroachment of nonnative predators. 

From: Center for Biological Diversity
Picture from: Kueda

"Saint of Genocide"

The Carmel Mission was vandalized days after Junipero Serra's canonization by Pope Francis.  The vandals splashed paint throughout the cemetery and basilica and scrawled "Saint of Genocide" on a headstone.
The Spanish missionary arrived in what would become California in 1769 and established nine missions between San Diego and San Francisco. He viewed the indigenous tribes as heathens who desperately needed the Gospel, and baptized thousands of Native Americans.

From: LA Times
Picture from KSBW

Malacothamnus palmeri: Carmel Valley Bush Mallow

Malacothamnus palmeri: Carmel Valley Bush Mallow is a native shrub that is included in the CNPS Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants.

From: CalFlora
 

Relic of Saint Junipero Serra

First Class Relic that contains a piece of bone from Saint Junipero Serra at Carmel Mission

Photo by Vern Fisher

Anniella pulchra nigra: Black Legless Lizard

This form of Anniella from the coast of Monterey Bay in Monterey County was formerly recognized as the subspecies Anniella pulchra nigra - Black Legless Lizard, but it is actually just a melanistic form of Anniella pulchra.

From: CA Herps

An astoundingly diverse array of indigenous cultures

 When Spanish soldiers and missionaries arrived in the land they called Alta California in the 1700s, they were entering an astoundingly diverse array of indigenous cultures' homelands. Then deadly waves of epidemic diseases swept over the terrified indigenous populations — an outcome the Spanish had anticipated.

Military and religious officials subsequently used a combination of bribes and physical force to incarcerate the survivors in filthy, disease-ridden, and crowded labor camps. By 1836, at least 100,000 aboriginal people had died as a result of the Spanish mission system.
From: East Bay Express

Tassajara Fire off Cachagua Road

"North section of the Tassajara Fire off Cachagua Road. The fire was holding at 1086 acres."
By Vern Fisher - Monterey Herald

The Highest Honor in the Catholic Church — Sainthood

"The Carmel Mission will be the site of celebration and silent protest tomorrow as the revered and reviled Father Junipero Serra, the man who built the California Mission system, will be bestowed the highest honor in the Catholic Church — sainthood — by Pope Francis. He will be the first Hispanic-American saint."
From Monterey Herald

Artemisia douglasiana: California Mugwort

  Artemisia douglasiana was named after a Scottish botanist.  The Scottish botanist was named David Douglas (1798-1834) who made many trips to the Americas.  He identified many California species of plants.
From: SFSU

Laureles Fire Contained

"The Laureles Fire was reported about 3:30pm on Saturday and within hours about 160 firefighters were battling 100 acres. The garages of two homes in the Corral de Tierra neighborhood were nearly destroyed, but the houses were not burned. By Sunday evening the blaze was 100 percent contained and the fire was no longer active."

From Monterey County Weekly

Father Serra thought he was ministering to people of equal dignity

“Father Serra advocated continuously, closely, and at great risk for himself, for the Indians against the Spanish military,” says Gregory Orfalea, an instructor at Santa Barbara’s Westmont College "Unlike the Pilgrims in New England," who considered Native Americans subhuman, Serra “thought he was ministering to people of equal dignity"
From Washington Post

Laureles & Tassajara Fires 2015

Picture from: Melendez Salinas

Mountain Lion attacks on humans are rare

According to California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) website, “Mountain Lion attacks on humans are rare. There have been only 16 verified attacks in California since 1890, six of them fatal."

Picture from: San Clemente Rancho

Read more here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/06/10/3673568/mountain-lions-can-pose-a-danger.html#storylink=cpy

Lupinus Nanus: Sky Lupine in the hills above the Carmel Valley

Sky Lupine is an annual, growing as a fire-retardant ground cover in grasslands, from about January to June. The plant dies after seeding. Seeds germinate the following spring to once again cover the area in flowering plants.

From: http://www.moremesa.org/wordpress/sky-lupine/
Photo From: Rod M. Yeager, MD

Carmel Valley Ranch

Billionaire John Pritzker of San Francisco acquired 500-acre Carmel Valley Ranch in 2009, a former pear orchard that had opened as a private golf club in 1981. Drawing on fond memories of summer camp that punctuated his childhood in Chicago as son of the founder of Hyatt Hotels, Pritzker quickly began sowing the seeds for a multimillion-dollar, largely nature-based transformation.
From: SFGate

The Renowned Jester of the Lord - Brother Juniper

Junípero Serra was born Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer in Petra, Majorca an island in the kingdom of Spain in 1713. As a sixteen year old young man he entered the service of the Catholic Church and shortly thereafter the Order of St. Francis de Assisi where he acquired the name Junipero in honor of St. Juniper, beloved original companion friar of St. Francis.

The Servant of God, best known as Brother Juniper (Italian: Fra Ginepro) (died 1258), called "the renowned jester of the Lord," was one of the original followers of St. Francis of Assisi. Not much is known about Juniper before he joined the friars. In 1210, he was received into the Order of Friars Minor by St. Francis himself.

Picture From: https://twitter.com/catholic_coast

From: http://www.serraclubelp.com/fr.serra/

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniper_%28friar%29

Finished With The San Clemente Dam

"Within California, 42 percent of the state's dams are privately owned, and more than half of the dams in the total registry (685 dams out of the 1,248 listed) are considered "high-hazard potential," meaning their failure could cause loss of human life."

From: CNBC
Picture from San Clemente Rancho

Many historians regard the Spanish era as less calamitous for Indians than the openly genocidal American era

"Junípero Serra’s pious hope to convert pagan Indians into Catholic Spaniards resulted not only in the physical punishment of countless Indians, but in the death of tens of thousands of them—and, ultimately, in the eradication of their culture."

"But California Indians were doomed anyway. “If it were not the Spaniards who did this in conjunction with the church, it would have been the Russians or the British, and the same thing or worse would have happened,” he says. While this might be true—many historians regard the Spanish era as less calamitous for Indians than the Mexican era or, certainly, the openly genocidal American era—being the least awful of an awful lot is hardly a ringing endorsement for anything, let alone Sainthood."
From: San Francisco 
Picture from: http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/67july/serraimages.htm 

California Indians were doomed anyway. “If it were not the Spaniards who did this in conjunction with the church, it would have been the Russians or the British, and the same thing or worse would have happened,” he says. While this might be true—many historians regard the Spanish era as less calamitous for Indians than the Mexican era or, certainly, the openly genocidal American era—being the least awful of an awful lot is hardly a ringing endorsement for anything, let alone sainthood. - See more at: http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/junipero-serras-missions-destroyed-entire-native-cultures-and-now-hes-going-be-s#sthash.6A5sl3WE.dpuf

California Indians were doomed anyway. “If it were not the Spaniards who did this in conjunction with the church, it would have been the Russians or the British, and the same thing or worse would have happened,” he says. While this might be true—many historians regard the Spanish era as less calamitous for Indians than the Mexican era or, certainly, the openly genocidal American era—being the least awful of an awful lot is hardly a ringing endorsement for anything, let alone sainthood. - See more at: http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/junipero-serras-missions-destroyed-entire-native-cultures-and-now-hes-going-be-s#sthash.6A5sl3WE.dpuf

California Indians were doomed anyway. “If it were not the Spaniards who did this in conjunction with the church, it would have been the Russians or the British, and the same thing or worse would have happened,” he says. While this might be true—many historians regard the Spanish era as less calamitous for Indians than the Mexican era or, certainly, the openly genocidal American era—being the least awful of an awful lot is hardly a ringing endorsement for anything, let alone sainthood. - See more at: http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/junipero-serras-missions-destroyed-entire-native-cultures-and-now-hes-going-be-s#sthash.6A5sl3WE.dpuf"

The 10-story-high concrete San Clemente Dam

For nine decades, the 10-story-high concrete San Clemente Dam with its rusted pipes, railings and valves has stood in the wooded canyons between the Big Sur hills and the picturesque town of Carmel, blocking the natural flows of the Carmel River.
State inspectors declared in 1991 that the 106-foot-tall dam was at risk of failure in an earthquake -- which could wipe out hundreds of homes downstream.
Destroying the dam will open up 25 miles of upstream tributaries and creeks so endangered Steelhead trout can return to their historical spawning grounds. 
From: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23508105/californias-biggest-dam-removal-project-history-begins-carmel 
Picture From: San Clemente Rancho 

Pope Francis will make Junipero Serra a saint on Sept. 23

"Although credited with bringing Christianity to the western United States, Father Junipero Serra has been vilified by Native Americans who say the mission system was tantamount to genocide. Pope Francis will make him a saint on Sept. 23 in Washington, D.C., which means Serra is in heaven and able to intercede with God on the faithful’s behalf."

From Monterey Herald
Picture by Vern Fisher 

August 6 Lightning Storm Above Carmel Valley

August 6 Lightning Storm Above Carmel Valley.
From San Clemente Rancho

The demolition of the San Clemente Dam in Carmel Valley, California

“This is very satisfying,” said project manager Aman Gonzalez, who is overseeing the destruction of the San Clemente Dam as several excavators grabbed pieces of it in their giant steel teeth. “You don’t get to do something like this every day.”
From SF Chronicle

Steelhead run in the Carmel River used to be between 12,000 and 20,000 a year

“Experts estimate that the run of adult Steelhead in the Carmel River used to be between 12,000 and 20,000 a year. In 2009, the adult Steelhead count was 94.

When my dad was a young man in the late ‘30’s, early ‘40’s he figured he could hook and land 150 fish a year out of the Carmel River. My son has never caught a fish out of the Carmel River.

ORDER 95-10, a cease-and-desist mandate from the State Water Resources Control Board, ordered Cal-Am to make significant reductions in the amount of water taken from the river by the end of 2016. "

ORDER 95-10, a cease-and-desist mandate from the State Water Resources Control Board, to make significant reductions in the amount of water taken from the river by the end of 2016. - See more at: http://blogs.kusp.org/features/2013/07/25/one-river-with-not-enough-water-for-people-and-fish/#sthash.CTZaYQRj.dpuf

http://blogs.kusp.org/features/2013/07/25/one-river-with-not-enough-water-for-people-and-fish/ 

picture from: CRSA

“Experts estimate that the run of adult steelhead in the Carmel River used to be between 12,000 and 20,000 a year. In 2009, the adult steelhead county was 94.”
Not Even a Bite
“When my dad was a young man in the late ‘30’s, early ‘40’s he figured he could hook and land 150 fish a year out of the Carmel River. My son never caught a fish out of the Carmel River.”
- See more at: http://blogs.kusp.org/features/2013/07/25/one-river-with-not-enough-water-for-people-and-fish/#sthash.CTZaYQRj.dpuf