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| Matilija Coalition Earth Day Award L to R: Matt Stoecker, Diane Underhill, Kathy Bremer, Paul Jenkin, Supervisor Steve Bennett, Hans Cole, and Candice Meneghin |
The Matilija Coalition is an alliance of community groups, businesses, and individuals committed to the environmental restoration of the Ventura River watershed. Since 2000, the Matilija Coalition has worked to achieve the following vision: a free-flowing Ventura River from the mountains to the sea; a thriving population of steelhead trout in its waters; a healthy, native ecosystem; a wide, sandy beach along the coast; and opportunities for public enjoyment, education, and recreation for current and future generations.
The Matilija Coalition and its members have played an integral role in the multiagency Matilija Dam Ecosystem Restoration Project, and the Matilija Coalition steadfastly advocates for an ecologically sensitive, cost effective, and timely removal of Matilija Dam. The Coalition has maintained an active role in the various technical working groups and, through many years of this work, helped achieve the 2016 consensus decision reached by stakeholder agencies around a preferred dam removal alternative. Since spring 2016, members of the Coalition have helped lead the effort to identify sources of funding for the Matilija project, and have been instrumental in seeing state and private funders commit to supporting the next phase of the project through California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Prop 1 Watershed Restoration Grants program and the new “Open Rivers Fund”, a project of the Hewlett Foundation and Resources Legacy Fund.
On a watershed level, the Coalition has helped lead and maintain the Friends of the Ventura River group, which was responsible for development of a Ventura River Parkway vision and trail guide. The trail guide has become a popular resource locally, and is available in both English and Spanish. In 2014 Ventura River Parkway Trail was dedicated as a National Recreation Trail. The Friends of the Ventura River website includes an archive of relevant technical and historical documents.
