On Thursday, June 23, the Pajaro Compass group will host an event commemorating the launch of the Pajaro Compass Network, a framework plan that identifies conservation tools, resources, and communication and outreach mechanisms for broader local involvement in sustaining the Pajaro River watershed and neighboring communities.
The Pajaro Compass Network is aimed at bringing together community members of the watershed and to collaboratively generate ideas for new conservation efforts. Recently, BenitoLink spoke with Abigail Ramsden about the upcoming event and the goals of the PCN. Ramsden is a founding member of the Pajaro Compass group and a project manager for The Nature Conservancy.
“The Pajaro Compass is really a document that we’ve put together that details some of the needs of the watershed as far as conservation goes," she said. "We’ve had a lot of meetings in this past year about what we need to do to better the state of open space land, recreation, water, community, and agriculture in the area. The goal of the first Pajaro Compass Network meeting will be to get people from the area together, show them the Pajaro Compass document, and ask people to come up with new project ideas that would benefit the watershed and surrounding areas. Anyone who cares is invited to be a part of this."
The initial meeting is aimed at connecting people with ideas on how to help conservation efforts of the watershed, and how to match people with ideas for projects with other people with the skills needed to make those projects a reality. So, say someone comes in and they have an idea for a project, but in order to make their project idea a reality they need help with grant writing and field studies. Hopefully at that meeting, there will be other people there who have experience with grant writing and conducting field studies, who hear their idea and want to join in to make it happen. That’s what we’re hoping the Pajaro Compass Network does for the community–serves as a networking space for people with projects, and helps create better projects by connecting people with different skills.”
The Pajaro Compass has already created a series of interactive map tools that will be showcased at the meeting this Thursday, tools that highlight different areas of value in the biodiversity of the watershed. The group will also showcase past successful collaborations as a model for future work that comes out of the network.
To date, 32 people have already RSVP’d for the event, and there will be many different groups represented at the meeting. Folks from resource conservation groups, water resource-related companies, natural resource entities and land trusts on the local, state, and national levels will be present, as well as academics, advocates for working farms and ranches, ranchers, and transit agency employees.
The networking event will take place in the Veterans Memorial Building in downtown Hollister from 8:30 a.m. to noon and will be catered by the local Sun Coast Organic Bakery. Compass members will be meeting and have encouraged all people of the community to attend this free workshopping event.
