The CPOA has set up a fire relief fund to help those who have been impacted by the Big Sur Basin Complex Fire. More than half of Big Sur has burned and it's still burning... you can help.

Additional Donation Methods

You may also mail a check payable to CPOA Fire Relief Fund to:
CPOA Fire Relief Fund
PO Box 59
Big Sur, CA 93920

For international transfers the SWIFT code is: WFBIUS6S
Wells Fargo Bank
26600 Carmel Center Plaza
Carmel, CA 93923

Wiring instructions available by emailing info@cpoabigsur.org

Our initial relief program has served over 500 impacted community members in the form of emergency grants. Because CPOA's board members live in Big Sur, and have been personally impacted by this wildfire, we were able to begin targeted relief efforts for those displaced and most in need within days of the fire.

The Big Sur community and it's bioregion have been challenged and are in need of a sensitive, intelligent and costly restoration and repair initiative. CPOA believes it is important that the community have a strong voice in this process. Your donations will enable that voice. We are coordinating with many of the local businesses, local, state and federal aid organizations, and the Big Sur Land Trust David Whitney Legacy Fund.

Big Sur's CPOA is a non-profit 501c3 organization. Federal Tax EIN # 77-0091132

Thank you for your support!

A recent ruling by the California Coastal Commission effectively broadened the definition of the “central maritime chaparral” plant community (CMC) and declared CMC to be environmentally sensitive habitat area (ESHA). This decision has the potential to dramatically affect a wide range of activities in the Big Sur coastal planning area.

Everything from the issuing of building permits for otherwise appropriate uses, construction of the California Coastal Trail, brush clearing for fire suppression and creating safety turn outs on Highway 1 stand to be made far more difficult to implement.

The California Coastal Act defines environmentally sensitive areas (ESHA) as:

[A]ny area in which plant or animal life or their habitats are either rare or especially valuable because of their special nature or role in an ecosystem and which could be easily disturbed or degraded by human activities and developments.

Court decisions have interpreted Coastal Act ESHA provisions as requiring that ESHA be protected from development, limiting ESHA to uses such as restoration and nature study. Land use attorneys consider land designated as ESHA as being generally unusable.

In January of this year, during an appeal by the Coastal Commission of a coastal development permit that the County approved in the Palo Colorado area, Coastal Commission staff proposed that the CMC plant community be declared ESHA...

Continue reading this article and more in the most recent CPOA newsletter