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Steelhead in San Mateo Creek! Have you ever discovered an endangered species?A college student, his dog and a fishing pole. That was the start of an amazing discovery in San Mateo Creek, a wild stream that runs along the south end of San Clemente in Orange County, California. The creek runs through San Onofre State Park and empties into the Pacific Ocean at Trestles, a beach world-famous for its great surfing. This spring Toby Shackelford, a San Clemente resident, hiked down along San Mateo Creek through the lush plants crowding the stream banks and threw in his line. Toby had heard stories about steelhead trout once living in the creek, but most people thought the local population had died out decades ago. What Toby discovered turned that assumption upside-down and raised new questions about a proposed toll road that would devastate the park Toby was visiting and dirty the clean stream he was fishing in. His discovery also brought new hope that San Mateo Creek, one of the last undammed and unchannelized coastal streams in Southern California, will be protected for wildlife and for people. Foothill-South Toll Road San Mateo Creek and San Onofre State Park aren't the only places threatened by the proposed Foothill-South Toll Road. Within a stone's throw of urban sprawl's front lines lies 35,000 acres of rare habitat that occurs in only five places in the world. This wildland is a biological reservoir of national importance and a beautiful land of hills, oaks and wildlife. The land, connecting mile-high peaks with the renowned surf at Trestles, is not the stereotypical Southern California of traffic and subdivisions. Seven endangered species think this is a great place to live. So do people. The Sierra Club is fighting to protect wildlife, recreation, livable communities, open space and parks by stopping the Foothill-South Toll Road. We have hundreds of volunteers working to protect their communities and this last wild part of coastal Southern California. Watch our video! Needs RealPlayer
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