Ventura Coastkeeper Program

The Ventura Coastkeeper (VCK), the 54th member of the Waterkeeper® Alliance, was launched November 2000, at Ventura Harbor as a program of the Wishtoyo Foundation, a Ventura County community based, 501(c)(3) non profit membership organization. The mission of Ventura Coastkeeper, a program of the Wishtoyo Foundation, is to protect, preserve, and restore the ecological integrity and water quality of Ventura County's inland waterbodies, coastal waters, and watersheds, which are vital natural resources for the citizens and all inhabitants of Ventura County, and are the lifeblood of Chumash Native American culture. The Ventura Coastkeeper believes that land, and its waterbodies, are interconnected communities to which all living entities belong and on which they must sustainably and harmonically coexist together.  As such, the Ventura Coastkeeper strives to maintain clean and ecologically healthy waters for all living beings in our diverse community through advocacy, education, legal enforcement, restoration projects, and citizen action.  VCK thus also strives to protect, preserve, and learn from the culture and history of local resource dependent coastal communities.

Mati Waiya is the first Native American to be named a Keeper in the Waterkeeper Alliance. Jason Weiner is  Ventura Coastkeeper's Associate Director and Staff Attorney. 

VCK, as a member of the Waterkeeper® Alliance, is part of something global: a coalition of 190 member programs on six continents around the world fighting for clean water and strong communities. A keeper is a full-time privately funded, non-governmental ombudsperson whose special responsibility is to be the public advocate for regional waters. The Keeper organizations fill the gap between water pollution laws and the government's ability to enforce them. Keepers fight on a daily basis to protect the health of coasts, rivers, bays, deltas and sounds, and are probably most well known for our willingness to use the courts to enforce environmental laws if necessary. Keeper programs employ a variety of strategies to enforce environmental laws including conducting water quality monitoring, participating in coastal planning, engaging in habitat restoration projects, educating the public, devising solutions to water quality problems, and if necessary pursuing litigation as a final step to enforcement.