Draft of “Access to Nature” Section for Review. 
The “Access to Nature” section of Part 3: Watershed Characterization is now posted on the Council’s website and here for review.

Children enjoying the Ventura River as part of the City of Ventura’s Interpretive Outreach Program

This section catalogs and describes the watershed’s nature-based recreation facilities and activities in two sections:

• “3.6.5.1 Inventory of Nature-Based Recreation Facilities and Activities,” organizes and describes facilities and activities by type; key data are summarized in tables.
• “3.6.5.2 Nature Access by Area,” organizes and describes facilities and activities by location; the watershed is divided into seven different detail maps for a closer look at opportunities by area.

This is a pre-layout draft, so ignore odd spacing and such. Please provide me with comments on this draft as soon as possible, and no later than Tuesday, January 27. My apologies for the short review time. We’re getting down to the wire on the schedule. This section is mostly a catalog of facilities with lots of maps and photos.

Charter Revisions
As the Council transitions from grant funding for staff support to local funding, a few changes to the governance charter were warranted. This issue was discussed at the December 11, 2014 meeting of the Council, and the following changes were made to the Council’s charter:

• The Leadership Executive Committee (LEC) was changed from five to six members: one from each of the five Leadership Committee categories, plus the Ventura County Watershed Protection District as a general member.
• All members of the LEC must now be funding supporters of the Council.
• Ron Merckling became the LEC representative for the Water and Sanitary member category.

The updated charter on our website now reflects these changes, along with changes to Leadership Committee membership because of personnel changes. The description of staff funding has also been updated.

March 5  Next Watershed Council Meeting 
The next meeting of the Ventura River Watershed Council will be on Thursday, March 5, 2014, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, in the Topping Room of the Foster Library, 651 E. Main Street. Please block out some time on your calendars prior to that date to review the final draft watershed management plan, which will be released February 12, 2015.