Imagining Community

"We still have a lot to go in this process. The LAFCO approval stage is a new beginning." -- Debra Lucero, Butte County Supervisor for District 2

Highlights from the Tuscan Water District public hearing held on September 28th during the Board of Supervisors meeting. Includes all of the comments Supervisor Lucero made after the public input portion concluded. With Commentary by Guillermo Mash.

"Supervisor Lucero represents the district I live in. I applaud and appreciate the hundreds of hours she has dedicated towards reseaching this issue and educating the public on the nuts and bolts. Her efforts greatly enhanced public awareness and input on the TWD which is precisely what a supervisor should be doing for the benefits of their constituents, particularly when District 2 comprises the bulk of the proposed TWD map." -- Guillermo Mash

With musical guest the North State Symphony, including a show ending interview with Music Director Scott Seaton.

An Imagining Community spotlight on the project management actions of the Vina Groundwater Sustainability Plan. Our segment features Jim Brobeck, water policy analyst and Vina GSA Stakeholder Advisory Committee member as he summarizes all 15 of the proposed Tuscan Aquifer, Vina Sub-basin PMAs.

Thank you Jim Brobeck for your detailed insights on the first set of proposed projects to bring the Vina Sub Basin groundwater into compliance . We end our show with Dry Dry Dry, a Jim Brobeck original recorded on the south bank of Big Chico Creek by Imagining Community. Plz share this podcast with your friends and check out our social media on youtube, facebook and instagram.

Imagining Community reporting for KZFR 90.1FM for Thursday, September 9, 2021 with a short report on the recent vigilante murder Guy Steven Vanzant, a destitute man living Without a Roof at Teichert Ponds. Followed by continuing coverage of the Tuscan Water District featuring the joint Vina Groundwater Sustainability Agency and Rock Creek Reclamation District board meeting where a review of the Sustainable Groundwater Management plans was voted on. Thus closing the books on changes to the Project Management Actions that were submitted to the state on Friday, September 10, 2021

As aired on KZFR 90.1FM on September 2, 2021 -- Audio excerpts from the 4.5 hour Butte County Water Commission TWD agenda item discussion, concluding with a 6 to 3 vote to recommend. With commentary and opinion by Guillermo Mash, host of Imagining Community.

"As I apply some water to my six peach trees and small vegetable garden I recognize the human impulse to grow food. When I see the impressive family farms in Butte County I'm humbled by the skills, and intentions, of the farmers and their workers. As I watch the Pyrocumulus clouds form over the Feather River Dixie Fire and contemplate the recurring Paleo droughts of the past and the climate destabilization of this century -- I shudder with consternation. I believe a balanced aquifer is the most reliable buffer we can have to endure what is unfolding. I'm resisting the intention of the water market to intentionally overdraft the Tuscan Aquifer system to create storage space for experimental groundwater recharge projects, for groundwater banks." - Closing comments by Jim Brobeck, Water Policy Analyst with Aqualliance.net

Our episode springboard is an August 4, 2021 opposition public comment addressed to the Butte County Water Commission on the proposed Tuscan Water District, written by John Scott, a Butte Valley Coalition Advocate and former Butte County Water Commission member.

Jim Brobeck, Water Policy Analyst with aqualliance.net, provides context along with his public comment on the grave threat the proposed TWD poses for the North State. Jim ends his commentary with a personal plea for the present and future of our precious watershed and how concerned community members can get involved with lobbying for the demise of this blatant water heist.

Thank you for listening to Imagining Community a grassroots media and civic engagement endeavor, sharing stories that make our collective imaginations sparkle and engage. Please like and follow our podcast and invite a few of your friends to as well. Take a look and listen to our youtube channel and social media pages at linktr.ee/imaginingcommunity.

Until the next time, if you have a roof be grateful.

"There's so much animosity and controversy going on right now. I think people should see this film because they need to know what is really happening. What the cops are doing and what their paid officials are doing." -- Smiley, houseless  in Chico, California on why you should see[1] Lost and Found in the Park. 

A special Without a Roof "Lost and Found in the Park" segment with Respectful Revolution filmmakers Stacey Wear and Gerard Ungerman, joined by the words and wisdom of the nine houseless neighbors featured in the gritty, 50-minute film featuring nine people living outdoors in Chico's two main encampments - Tiechert Pond and Comanche Creek.  As aired on KZFR 90.1FM on July 28, 2021. 

[1] Online viewing options coming SOON.

Guillermo Mash welcoming you to a special Imaging Community ground water segment as aired on the June 18, 2021 KZFR 90.1FM Peace and Social Justice Show. The segment features Chris Nelson, a longtime show host and local activist extraordinaire, as she interviews Jim Brobeck, water policy analyst with aqualliance.net The crux of the conversation radiates around concerns residents of Glenn County, California have with dozens of shallow AG wells going dry in the county, and the circumstances that have led to this calamity of water shortage. Circumstances that can't simply be passed off as a lack of rainfall and high country snow melt, without accounting for the increase in AG water demand year, over year, over year. While municipalities substantially reduce their water consumption to conserve water, speculative AG development is far out pacing desperatly needed reductions in demand. Glenn county, California is looking towards placing a moritorium on large diameter wells which, while welcomed and necesary, is simply a sorely needed bandaid to deal with long standing and systemic over pumping of ground water to irrigate vast swaths of nut farm expansion in Glenn county, and counties throughout the Sacramento Valley and into the San. Joaquin Valley, requiring more and more water to irrigate land that is ill suited for agriculture. All to quench Big AG's thirst for ever expanding economic return on investment for speculated unirrigated land, far removed from generations of mom and pop small farmers that comprise what is commonly referred to as the breadbasket.

As aired on KZFR 90.1FM on 6/3/2021 -- "I am really grateful for water. Water is definitely a teacher. It's about learning and being humble, a humble student of water, and understanding that water is relationship. That we are part of a watershed, that we have waters inside of us and waters around us, and that is not a coincidence." -- Sheridan Noelani Enomoto

Sheridan Noelani Enomoto's wisdom and passion for water, and Run4Salmon. Guillermo Mash reflects on the passion love and wisdom of the Indigenous community, as covered by Imagining Community since November, 2019.

Allen Harthorn, Executive Director of Friends of Butte Creek, details the three main solution points that FoBC are working on. A true deep dive into all things Salmon and how FoBC is making a difference in the Butte Creek Watershed.

Music by Jesi Naomi and Jim Brobeck

Ideal conditions for a prescribed burn were present on Monday, May 17th as approximately 100-acres of grassland in Upper Bidwell Park off Wildwood Avenue in Chico, California was burned as part of the City of Chico's recently adopted Vegetation Fuels Management Plan. Guillermo Mash covered the #goodfire burn for Imagining Community, snapping the first image of smoke in the air at 9:10 a.m. concluding our coverage at 2:30 p.m. as it was declared, "all tied in." Our segment starts with Mike Watner, Fire Captain with the Chico Fire Department.

Zeke Lunder has 25-years of experience putting out fires and managing wildland landscapes. In this Imagining Community Episode Lunder will be discussing red flag warnings and fire safety contrasted with the 550-acre Gunnison grassfire just north of Chico, California on Saturday, May 8, 2021. This segment aired on Chico News and Review on the Radio for Thursday, May 13, 2021.

We end the episode with a bonus feature, as aired on the May 6, 2021 edition of Imagining Community on KZFR 90.1FM. In this segment Lunder covers the gamut of his experience with fire from the salmon observation deck at the home of Allen Harthorn with Friends of Butte Creek, in Helltown, California.

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