The presentation will provide an overview of EDC and its role as a nonprofit public interest law firm serving Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo Counties. EDC has played an important role in preserving some of our region’s treasured open spaces.
The presentation will cover several of EDC’s successful efforts and ongoing campaigns to preserve areas threatened with development, including Ellwood Mesa, Douglas Family Preserve, Carpinteria Bluffs, Naples, More Mesa, Sedgwick Ranch, San Marcos Foothills, and Hearst Ranch.
EDC will also describe its Watershed Protection and Education Program, including its creek cleanups, creek surveys, evaluation of creek restoration projects, and convening of the Watershed Alliance of South Coast Organizations.
Douglas Family Preserve
Elwood Bluffs
with Chief Counsel Linda Krop, Senior Analyst & Watershed Program Director, Brian Trautwein
Brian Trautwein grew up in Goleta and graduated from UCSB’s Environmental Studies Department in 1990 earning the Department’s first Outstanding Alumni Award in 1995. He cofounded the Santa Barbara Urban Creeks Council (“UCC”) in 1987 after discovering a steelhead spawning pool in his neighborhood creek had been bulldozed.
Brian grew UCC to over 3,000 paid supporters and led efforts to revamp the County Flood Control District’s creek maintenance program and defeat the Army Corps of Engineers’ proposed concrete channelization of Mission Creek. Brian was hired by EDC in 1997.
He provides critical support to EDC’s lawyers and helped EDC defeat the Puente Power Plant in Oxnard, the Santa Maria Refinery Oil Trains Project, the three Cat Canyon Oil Projects in northern Santa Barbara County, Exxon’s proposed Oil Trucking Project, and the proposed development of hotels and golf courses on Hearst Ranch.
Brian directs EDC’s Watershed Protection and Education Program which has removed over 20,000 pounds of trash from local creeks and oversees the Watershed Alliance of South Coast Organizations.
Linda Krop is the Chief Counsel of the Environmental Defense Center. She has practiced environmental law at EDC since 1989 and specializes in cases addressing the protection of coastal, open space, and natural resources, as well as offshore energy issues such as oil and gas development.
She has worked on several successful open space preservation efforts throughout California’s south central coast, including the Hearst Ranch, Carpinteria Bluffs, Ellwood Shores, Douglas Family Preserve, Fiscalini Ranch, Oxnard Shores, Ormond Beach, and Sedgwick Ranch.
Linda represented the conservation community on the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council from 1998 – 2013 and teaches Environmental Law at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
About Channel Islands Restoration
We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit contractor that works to restore habitat on the Channel Islands and adjacent mainland through invasive plant management, native plant propagation and native plant installation.
Our Environmental Experts Webinar Series helps to educate our community on conservation and restoration for native animals and the habitats that support them on the Channel Islands and mainland Central Coast. You can watch our complete series at https://cirweb.org/webinars
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