Of mice and men (men's and women's trash, that is)

Two news items of note:

A significant piece of disinformation from the DrudgeReport, Washington Times, and various anti-environment website claim that $30 million from the stimulus package will be spent on the salt marsh harvest mouse in Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco Congressional District. It's not true, as laid out by Paul Rogers in the Mercury News. A portion of the $30 million that the California Coastal Commission has in "shovel-ready" projects involve wetland restoration, and some of that includes the South Bay Salt Ponds restoration. That land has already been purchased by the government and just needs funding to begin the restoration process for the benefits of hunters, fishermen, wildlife viewers, game species, and endangered species including, yes, the harvest mouse. It's unfortunate that anti-environmental groups would misuse false statements.

Second, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board has listed many streams in the South Bay as "impaired" due to trash (news article here, more information at the Water Board website here). This means we need to do a lot more to get trash out of streams, and supports the carry-out bag fee now being considered by Morgan Hill and other local cities.

-Brian