Spring 2004

In December, the largest water privatization deal on the West Coast was struck down when San Joaquin County Judge Robert McNatt ruled that the city of Stockton violated state environmental laws in its water contract with OMI-Thames, a joint US-British firm.

The chameleon, according to malagasy folklore, keeps one eye on the past, the other on the future. This would make it an appropriate totem for those who practice ecological restoration.

It’s a sign of how far the environmental movement has come that after talking for decades about conservation and preservation—ideas geared towards stopping environmental abuses—“restoration,” or repairing damage already done, has found a home in the lexicon.

A Public Policy Institute poll last November found that 89 percent of Californians consider the environment a top priority.

While officials cite the successful restoration of the lower Sausal Creek watershed as a model for citizen-agency collaborations, runoff from its upstream neighbor, the recently built Chabot Space and Space Center, threatens to erase the entire project—the painstakingly restored trails, replanted habitat for native plants and animals, the natural flow of the creek.