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CSU Channel Islands and Wishtoyo's Ventura Coastkeeper Program Form Collaborative Environmental Stewardship, Research, and Education Partnership

Partnership will provide students with enhanced hands-on professional and educational experiences, research opportunities, and internship positions, while providing VCK’s Watershed Monitoring Program with an on-campus laboratory and an increased capacity to monitor and protect Ventura County’s waterbodies. - July 6, 2010

Click Here for Ventura County Star Article

Click Here for CSUCI Press Release

Wishtoyo Holds Summer Solstice Sunset Ceremony and Open House on June 26th - Malibu Chumash Village 


Wishtoyo Board Member and Šmuwič language teacher, Deborah Sanchez, gets into the spirit of the dance at the Summer Solstice Ceremony, as she's moved to get out of her chair and dance around the sil’i’yik, joining Matt Ward, and growls like a mama bear.


David Paul Dominguez entertains onlookers as he tells the story of how the owl, Muhu, came to look like an owl. 

Click on Picture for Larger View:

Wishtoyo Hosts 1,100+ at Chumash Village WORLD OCEAN DAY Event for Schools   
Star ECO Station, Wishtoyo Foundation and others hosted a World Ocean Day event for students from 42 classrooms from the Los Angeles Unified School District at Wishtoyo's Chumash Village. Students learned about marine ecosystems and conservcation, and our interdependent relationship with the ocean and its species.   - June 17, 2010

Click Here for Malibu Surfside News Article  (see p. 13)


Above:  Mati Waiya leads group in World Ocean 
Day Comme
moration


Jason Weiner, Wishtoyo's Ventura Coastkeeper Program Associate Director and Staff Attorney, teaches about water quality at World Ocean Day Event

Wishtoyo Announces Opening of Smuwich Language School - Spring 2010   - June 3, 2010

Click for Language School infomation


Language Teachers Deborah Sanchez 
and Johnny Moreno

Group protests proposal to lift 1986 commercial whaling moratorium
On Sunday, May 23rd, Mati Waiya, Wishtoyo Foundation's Executive Director and Chumash cermonial elder, performed the opening ceremony and prayed for the whales during a demonstration attended by 120 people on the Santa Monica Pier.

Click to view L.A. Times article
- May 24, 2010

Fishable, Swimmable, Drinkable? 
California Coastkeeper Alliance and Ventura Coastkeeper Train Local Community Members and Activists to Take the Clean Water Act into Their Own Hands at Patagonia's Headquarters 
Click here for article - May 11, 2010

Wishtoyo and its Ventura Coastkeeper Program Welcome Three Public Interest Summer Legal Clerks to Protect the ecological integrity and water quality of Ventura County’s Inland and Coastal Waterbodies and Chumash Cultural Resources.  Click here for bios   - May 5, 2010  

Wishtoyo's Chumash Discovery Village Featured in the Spring 2010 Edition of News from Native California - 
Please Click Here to see photos and coverage of the Malibu Chumash Village! - April 1, 2010

Wishtoyo's Ventura Coastkeeper Program issues a 60 day notice of intent to sue scrap metal giant Standard Industries to halt its toxic stormwater discharge into the Santa Clara River  - March 25, 2010 

Move marks the Launch of its Industrial Stormwater Campaign and Aims to Protect the Ecological Integrity, Water Quality, Endangered Steelhead Populations, and Cultural Resources of One of America’s Most Endangered Rivers by Demanding Compliance with the Clean Water Act.   Click Here for VCK's Press Release

The Wishtoyo Foundation’s Ventura Coastkeeper Program Files A Notice of Intent to Sue the City of Ventura To Abate its Illegal Discharges of Toxic Sewage Into the Santa Clara River Estuary and Ventura’s Coastal Waters  –  January 5, 2010  
Move Aims to Protect Public Health; the Southern California Steelhead; and the Ecological Integrity, Water Quality, and Cultural Resources of the Santa Clara River Estuary, Santa Clara River Ecosystem, and Ventura’s Coastal Marine Waters

Click Here for VCK's Press Release

Click Here for VCK's Notice of Intent to Sue & Exhibits Detailing Ventura's CWA Violations

                                    

 

With an Eye on Developments at the Vern Freeman Diversion Dam, Wishtoyo provides input to improve the Southern California Steelhead Recovery Plan to Save and Restore the “Isha’ kowoch” (Southern California Steelhead). – November 25, 2009 

Following its notice of intent to sue United Water Conservation District that helped result in United’s then rapid settlement with Cal Trout promising to provide fish passage around the Vern Freeman Diversion Dam, Wishtoyo and its Ventura Coastkeeper Program submit comments to improve the Southern California Steelhead Recovery Plan. Along with policy, implementation, and science based recommendations, Wishtoyo’s Recovery Plan comments call for the involvement of and assistance from Chumash Native Americans to enhance the Plan's likelihood of success and to recognize the steelhead as a cultural resource. 

Click to view Wishtoyo’s Steelhead Recovery Plan Comments 

Click to view Ventura County Reporter’s “Isha’kowoch” article

Click to view Wishtoyo’s Notice of Intent to Sue Press Release

 

 

68 Oxnard Community Members Volunteer with the Wishtoyo Foundation's Ventura Coastkeeper Program to Remove 3,989 Pieces of Trash from the J-Street Drain.  - November 22, 2009

 

Efforts enhance the environmental health and well being of surrounding neighborhoods, and prevent the degradation and contamination of the Ormond Beach Wetlands and Ventura County's Beaches from the trash deposition which would occur following the next rain event which would sweep the trash down the drain. The 53 bags of trash weighing roughly 400 pounds contained approximately 2,255 pieces of plastic. 

 

 

Click to view Trash Pickup Data Card 
Click to view Ventura County Star Article 

 

Wishtoyo and Public Interest Groups File Tejon Mountain Village Suit   - November 12, 2009

The Wishtoyo Foundation files a lawsuit to overturn Kern County’s approval of the Tejon Mountain Village resort development to prevent it from jeopardizing the California Condor; displacing and destroying Native American sacred grounds, Native American burial sites, and Chumash cultural resources; and from harming our environment. 

Click here for Joint Press Release 
Click here for TMV DEIR Comment Letter 
Click here for DHCP & DEIS Comment Letter 
Click here for Wishtoyo's Comment Letter Press Release 

 

 

Wishtoyo's Ventura Coastkeeper Announces the Launch of its New Ventura County Watershed Monitoring Program - with Six Stream Team routes and 35 sampling sites!  - October 18, 2009
                                                                       
Through monthly monitoring at 35 sites in the Calleguas Creek, Santa Clara River, Ventura River, and Ormond Beach Watershed, and in storm drains that discharge into Ventura County’s Coastal Waters, Ventura Coastkeeper is gathering water quality data that will enable VCK and the pubic to: identify impaired waterbodies and pollution sources; enforce the Ventura County Stormwater (MS4) Permit; inform and enable policy that abates pollution; find the most effective solutions to improve water quality; prosecute polluters; and enforce water laws that our government is unable to enforce. 

Click here for VCK Article with a Map of Monitoring Locations
Click here for Ventura County Star Article 
Click here to inquire about volunteering with a VCK Stream Team near you 

 

 

Wishtoyo's Ventura Coastkeeper’s Stormwater Campaign leads by example with its J-Street Drain Trash Clean Up Event   - October 10, 2009      
              

Efforts are not enough though, as at least 1,375 pounds of trash are swept into Ormond Beach and Oxnard’s Coastal Waters following the first storm event of the rainy season!  23 Ventura Coastkeeper volunteers worked hard to clean up 35 bags of trash from J-Street Drain and to prevent it from impairing the Ormond Beach Wetlands and Oxnard’s coastal waters.
Please
Click Here for Press Release

Click here for Hueneme Pilot article

Click here for J-Street Trash Clean Up Data Card

 

Wishtoyo's Ventura Coastkeeper Program advocates to protect the water quality and ecological integrity of the Santa Clara River and Ventura County’s coastal waters from the proposed Newhall Development.  - August 25, 2009
                                                               
Click Here
to read VCK's press release
Click Here for VCK's joint Press Release with Friends of the Santa Clara River and SCOPE

Wishtoyo and its Ventura Coastkeeper Program file a notice of intent to sue the California government to make Ventura County’s air safe to breathe. -  August 18, 2009

Wishtoyo's and its Ventura Coastkeeper program's move to reduce Volatile Organic Compounds (“VOC”) emissions from pesticide emissions to help eliminate smog and PM2.5 pollution, aims to improve the health of Ventura County residents and pesticide applicators.     

Click here for Press Release
Click here
for Ventura County Star article 

Wishtoyo & VCK advocate for Protection of Critical Marine Ecosystems and California’s first Native American Co-Managed Marine Protected Area  - August 13, 2009

Click Here for Malibu Surfside News article about Wishtoyo Foundation's efforts in support of Marine Protected Areas. (Please scroll down news page to view article.)

The efforts of Wishtoyo's Ventura Coastkeeper Stream Team land six river reaches of Calleguas Creek on California's 303(d) impaired waterbody list for trash pollution. - July 22, 2009

Click Here to see Ventura County Star article
Click Here to see Press Release

Wishtoyo / Ventura Coastkeeper Issue Notice of Intent to Sue to Restore and Protect Steelhead on the Santa Clara River   -  May 12, 2009       

Wishtoyo Foundation and its Ventura Coastkeeper Program have issued a notice of intent to sue United Water Conservation District and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, whose operation of the Vern Freeman Dam and its dysfunctional fish ladder on the Santa Clara River is jeopardizing the continued existence of the endangered “Isha’kowoch” (Chumash name for Southern California Steelhead). 

Wishtoyo’s move to save and restore the “Isha’kowoch” and the ecological integrity of the Santa Clara River, aims to protect Chumash Native American cultural resources and the health and natural resources of our communities. 


Click to view Ventura County Reporter article
Click to view
Press Release

New!  Online DONATION  option

Wishtoyo Foundation / Ventura Coastkeeper has a new online donation option!  Please go to our Get Involved - Donation page to access the online donation system. You will receive a receipt online instantly, and, you may select to set up a donation schedule online as well. We look forward to hearing from you; Thank you for your visit and youir interest!     - from the Wishtoyo / VCK Team 

"AGRITOXINS: Ventura County's Toxic Time Bomb"  
                              -  Wishtoyo
Pesticides Study
                                     

Wishtoyo Foundation's Agritoxins study quantifies the hazardous effects of agricultural pesticide use on the habitants and environment of Ventura County. 
To view a pdf version of the paper, please click here:
Agritoxins: Ventura County's Toxic Time Bomb (Please note, it may take a moment for it to appear on your screen.)

 

For Project Updates, please click on the following links:

Chumash Village Update

Nicholas Canyon Creek Restoration

Ormond Beach Wetlands