Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : All-Day Forum Planned About Santa Clara River : Environment: Federal and county officials and activists will participate Saturday in what organizers describe as a public education event.

As private companies and public agencies make plans for the Santa Clara River, an environmental group hopes that an informed public will help keep the 100-mile-long waterway from harm.

To that end, the Friends of the Santa Clara River have planned an all-day forum about the river and its future beginning at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Ranch House Inn, 27413 Tourney Road.

Federal and county officials familiar with river issues and activists concerned about the river are scheduled to participate.

“This is a public education event, mainly,” said Ron Bottorff, chairman of the group.

The forum is co-sponsored by the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment and the Ventura Audubon Society. About 70 people are expected to attend.

Scheduled speakers include Cat Brown of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Dave Smith, federal Environmental Protection Agency; Jim Danza, Friends of the Los Angeles River; Larry Rose, Ventura County Agricultural Land Trust; Lynne Plambeck, Newhall County Water District; and Don Davis, Ventura Audubon Society.

The Santa Clara River flows from Acton to the Pacific Ocean near Oxnard, crossing through the Santa Clarita Valley, where the forum is being held. This program comes at a time when increasing attention is being paid to the river by dozens of public agencies and a developer that owns land along several miles of its banks.

The California Coastal Conservancy, with support from 25 other agencies ranging from cities along the waterway to state and federal wildlife groups, is now working on an enhancement and management plan for the river.

Phase 1 of the plan, defining the path of the river and listing its historical changes, has been completed. Phase 2, which will address the plan’s management, will get under way this year, Bottorff said.

“It’s off the ground, but the really nitty-gritty work is still ahead,” Bottorff said.

Meanwhile, the Newhall Land and Farming Co. recently released its management ideas for 15 miles of the river. Newhall’s plan outlines 49 changes to the waterway--bridges, levees, bank controls--over the next 15 to 20 years and is up for approval by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“I think the interest stirred by the Newhall Land permit process is probably going to raise some more things to talk about,” Bottorff said.

The plan calls for preserving the river’s natural soft bottom and adding materials to riverbank sections where erosion occurs.

About 10% of the 1,300 acres of river land addressed by the document would be somehow modified, with a net addition of five acres of riverbed. The work regulates the river’s path without narrowing the banks and covering them with concrete.

More news of the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys appears on B18.