![According to its Facebook page, The TriCounty Watchdogs is a 501(c)(3) non-profit in the Mountain Communities: “Our mission is to promote protection of our natural and cultural resources, empowerment of all residents, environmental justice, ecotourism, and responsible growth. Some of the Watchdogs gathered April 27 to celebrate the hard work that led to an impressive set of credits over the past five years. (Back, l-r) Lynn Stafford, Otto Gasser, Pamela De Vries, Jack Bricker, Gita Nelson, Harry Nelson, Mar Preston, Katherine King, Edie Stafford; (front) Leslie Bricker, Dee Dominguez, Mary Ann Lockhart and Rose Bryant; not shown: Jan de Leeuw, Anita and Eric Andersen, Linda MacKay, Keats Gefter, Lynne Plambeck and honorary member Doug Peters. [photo by Patric Hedund]](https://mountainenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/TriCoWAtchEDIT-laugh-324x198.jpg)
According to its Facebook page, The TriCounty Watchdogs is a 501(c)(3) non-profit in the Mountain Communities: “Our mission is to promote protection of our natural and cultural resources, empowerment of all residents, environmental justice, ecotourism, and responsible growth. Some of the Watchdogs gathered April 27 to celebrate the hard work that led to an impressive set of credits over the past five years. (Back, l-r) Lynn Stafford, Otto Gasser, Pamela De Vries, Jack Bricker, Gita Nelson, Harry Nelson, Mar Preston, Katherine King, Edie Stafford; (front) Leslie Bricker, Dee Dominguez, Mary Ann Lockhart and Rose Bryant; not shown: Jan de Leeuw, Anita and Eric Andersen, Linda MacKay, Keats Gefter, Lynne Plambeck and honorary member Doug Peters. [photo by Patric Hedund]
A lively group of TriCounty Watchdog members gathered Sunday, April 27 to review a string of accomplishments and to share some social time together. Their list of credits is extensive. As Katherine King reported:
•TCW has adopted a two-mile stretch of Lebec road that the group cleans up three to four times a year;
•They received Rose Foundation Community Grants to provide leadership training classes for community women for two years;
•The Watchdogs conducted a scientific ‘bucket brigade’ in partnership with a supervising scientist and an independent laboratory to monitor the air quality in the Grapevine corridor of Lebec. They compiled a report about probable impacts on the El Tejon School campus and presented it to the ETUSD trustees;
•They went to court to successfully stop a bottled water extraction plant from depleting the springs of the Gorman Hills (together with the Sierra Club);
•They led a Community EIR effort to create an extensive environmental report about impacts of Tejon Mountain Village on air, water and condor critical habitat to achieve added mitigation requirements for the development;
•They stopped Arciero’s Fallingstar Homes Frazier Park Estates project in Lebec—over 800 houses plus commercial buildings on the rugged mountain behind the Flying J in Lebec. TCW researched the water and other environmental issues. Their lawsuit prevailed over the Kern County Board of Supervisors and the developer. It convinced the court that the developer did not prove there is enough water to support the project;
•TCW succeeded in getting Kern County BOS to restore the Cerro Noroeste Road historic name to the road leading from Mil Potrero Highway to the summit of Cerro Noroeste mountain, with a promise from Supervisor Couch to replace the inaccurate “Mt. Abel” sign (honoring a Bakersfield Ku Klux Klan leader) to accurate “Cerro Noroeste” signs.
This is part of the May 2, 2014 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you.
