If you get caught by these cameras, you have no reason to smile.
In a stepped-up effort to capture and punish polluters, conservationists are posting hidden cameras and signs to warn and catch people who dump trash in creeks, killing steelhead trout and other wildlife.
The Gilroy-based group Coastal Habitat Education and Environmental Restoration (CHEER) this month began posting warning signs along creeks in the Pajaro River watershed. It’s the first assault in a two-pronged attack designed to stem dumping and prosecute defilers of the waterways and wildlife, including fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals and plants.
Soon, hidden cameras will be mounted in areas prone to dumping and CHEER volunteers equipped with binoculars will monitor others to nab the offenders.
“We are going to start surveillance and doing stings daytime and nighttime,” said CHEER president and founder Herman Garcia of Gilroy.
“I will have people out there 24/7 with binoculars with night vision, so it won’t just be our cameras; we will have physical surveillance. We want to make immediate examples out of people who are dumping their garbage.”
Garcia is furious that the even after posting a dozen NO DUMPING signs in English and Spanish, the illegal practice continues. In one case, someone dumped a small mountain of garbage at the base of one a newly erected sign along Uvas Creek in rural southeast Gilroy.
Garcia and CHEER volunteers Mike Sanchez and Steve Guerriero discovered the pile of trash and other new ones on Jan. 9 while putting up more signs.
Garcia said, “He is telling me he is disrespecting not only the signs and the natural resources but the law, and he doesn’t care and he is just being a jerk; more than being a chronic polluter, he is giving us a message: ‘I don’t care how many signs you put up, I am dumping my garage here.’
“Our volunteers can’t wait to bust that guy, everyone is waiting for that,” Garcia said.
“I will go to court when the people are sentenced and I will ask the judge to give the maximum sentence possible, which is six months in jail and a $25,000 fine.”
Funding for the signs, cameras and other CHEER efforts come from a $50,000 grant from the Rose Foundation in Oakland. The grant was made possible by Recology South Valley, which enables CHEER to dispose of thousands of cubic yards of creek trash and debris for free at its Gilroy dumpsite.
Garcia and his busy CHEER volunteers aren’t alone in wanting to see justice done to deter watershed pollution, which at one point became so serious that indigenous steelhead trout vanished from the watershed’s creeks and streams. They are now making a comeback, according to CHEER.
“I really hope we catch some people and I hope it does some good,” said Michelle Leicester,a fisheries biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. Leicester oversees Santa Clara County and works closely with the conservation group.
Leicester called creek dumping a “huge problem” in the watershed and others and said CHEER has worked closely with state fish and wildlife wardens to improve conditions.
Cameras have been invaluable in a variety of wildlife studies, Leicester said, but she is not aware of them being used to catch people dumping garbage.
She that garbage dumping has a “huge impact on the quality and quantity of the [fisheries’] habitat, so our department takes illegal dumping very seriously.”
Leicester credited Garcia and the CHEER volunteers with playing a critical role in the effort.
“Their help has been absolutely indispensable,” she said. “They serve as liaisons with landowners and do a lot of work in the watershed and outreach and education. As a result, we have seen a lot of really good things happen in terms of cleanup, and people are more aware of the problem and are better land stewards. I think it’s a win-win.”
And at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office in Santa Rosa, fisheries biologist Joel Casagrande wrote in an email to the Dispatch that CHEER’s “dedication and tenacity in the Pajaro River Watershed has been a huge asset to … our mission of steelhead protection and recovery.
“I often rely on them for real-time updates on everything from stream flow conditions, fish presence, pollution, poaching, etc. CHEER leading the charge on the illegal dumping effort is just another example of them taking the initiative to improve the watershed for both steelhead and the community. I can’t thank them enough for all their outstanding work—they are true difference makers,” Casagrande said.
