Twice each year ESF and ESNERR host volunteers for County-Wide Clean-Up Day, a celebration of Earth Day wher friends and families can get together to clean up their favorite places and give back to the planet.

You can join ESF and ESNERR in cleaning up Elkhorn on Saturday, April 21st from 9 am to 12 noon. We'll be picking up litter along Elkhorn Road and Carneros Creek to keep it from entering our waterways. If you are interested in cleaning up Elkhorn, RSVP to Kim Hayes at 831-7238-5939.

County-Wide Clean-Up Day is sponsored by the Illegal Dumping and Litter Abatement Task Force of Monterey County and Monterey County Environmental Health Division. ESF and ESNERR are happy to do our part in keeping the County clean.

Otter 501 tells the story of a rescued otter pup from the perspective of the woman who found him orphaned after a storm.

Some of you may have heard about a film called Otter 501, which tells the story of a young woman who discovers an orphaned sea otter stranded on a beach, and how that young otter got a second chance at life in the wild. Much of the film was shot right here in Elkhorn Slough, which is why we are excited to let you know that you will be able to see it soon!

The film opens in Monterey on May 11th at the Osis theatre, and in Santa Cruz on May 18th at the Nickleodeon. You can find out more about where to see the film on its Facebook events page.

But that's not all! As part of the Elkhorn Slough Foundation's 30th anniversary celebrations you will also have a chance to see Otter 501 in a private screening on November 2nd. The filmmakers will be present at the screening to talk about the film as well. More details to come!

Bryan Largay of ESNERR, Dr. Kunihiko Amano and Maremi Endoh of NILIM discuss restoration work in Elkhorn Slough.

Dr. Kunihiko Amano, Head of the River Environment Division at Japan's National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management (NILIM), and NILIM Researcher Maremi Endoh recently visited the Elkhorn Slough to learn more about the conservation and restoration work being conducted by researchers on the California central coast.

Reserve Manager Dave Feliz and Tidal Wetland Project Director Bryan Largay showed the visiting scientists both Reserve and Foundation properties to illustrate different restoration techniques that have been implemented in the watershed. While the scientists' division at NILIM is charged with flood control and navigation, they hoped their visit would help build an awareness of the valuable services provided by coastal ecosystems among their colleagues in Japan.

"Most river channels in Japan have been channelized," said Reserve Manager Dave Feliz. "Our visitors were hoping to show their colleagues that there are multiple benefits to having a more natural river system including flood protection, pollution control, and fisheries productivity."

Dr. Amano remarked that reading about the restoration work at the slough through the Elkhorn Slough website was impressive, but that "visiting to see the restoration site in person was worth flying over the Pacific Ocean." He was also impressed with the restoration of farmland and use of grassland buffers to minimize agricultural impacts and improve water quality in the slough. "Our research area is limited to rivers, however visiting Elkhorn Slough was very good opportunity for us to learn about advanced examples of estuarine restoration projects, which will help us prepare a technical guideline of riverine estuary environmental conservation."

We are happy to have been able to share our work with our esteemed visitors and look forward to future information sharing opportunities.

ESF Stewardship Director Kim Hayes and neighbor David Vasquez show our granting partners the remains of jubata that ESF has removed from Mr. Vasquez's property. Left to right: David Bakke of USDAFS, Paul Robins of RCDMC, neighbor David Vasquez, Dean Kelch of CDFA, and Kim Hayes of ESF.

Invasive plants don't care about property lines. We know that arundo, pepperweed, and jubata in someone's back yard can quickly spread to the Reserve and to ESF's protected properties, which is why ESF and ESNERR are on the offensive when it comes to eradicating these exotic plants.

Controlling aggressive weeds is a critical component of watershed conservation. These invasive plants threaten biodiversity by crowding out native plants, and they quickly jump from place to place as they reproduce.

We've been teaming up with local neighbors in the watershed to wipe out invasive species before their seeds reach land we manage. Our Land Team is working hard to kill plants on neighboring properties to stem their spread. So far we have worked with three key neighbors to remove acres of these plants, helping safeguard both ESF private lands and the Reserve's land from being overrun by these weeds. On one neighbor's property alone we have treated jubata grass over nearly twenty acres. The patches represent hundreds of plants on this one property alone.

It's a lot of work to do, but in the end it saves a lot of work as well. Since invasive plants spread across property boundaries we partner with our neighbors across those boundaries to stop them.

Every month we invite submissions for our best shot contest. This month, the winning shot of two pelicans fighting over a sardine was taken by Stephan Lins. In 2009 these lucky birds were in Moss Landing Harbor in time to nick some sardines that fell off of a fishing boat, and Stephan was lucky enough to capture the image.

You can see more of our Best Shots in the archive, or submit one of your own!

On Friday April 13th, five teams of volunteer birders will be counting birds within defined areas by boat along the main channel, and on foot at four walk-in estuarine sites.

Sound like fun? If you are interested in helping with the effort we particularly need help from expert birders (i.e. those that can readily identify the various species of waterbirds and shorebirds). Please email slough.support@elkhornslough.org by April 9th to RSVP if you can join us, and list your first and second choice locations:

• Main channel boat survey, 10:30am-2:30pm
• North Harbor (Jetty Road), 10:30am-12:30pm
• Parson's Overlook, 10:30am-12:30pm
• South Marsh, 10:30am-12:30pm
• North Marsh, 4:30-6:30pm

Walk-in sites will take a total of about 2 hours to complete, while the boating excursion for a 3-4 hour outing for the boat trip. Counters on March 5th tallied up nearly 15,000 birds, so the more eyes the better! Please feel free to share this invitation with friends, bird club members, etc. to join in -- there is really no upper limit on sizes of teams.

Do you like us on facebook? We certainly hope so. Facebook is a place we share photos and stories from the watershed, and it's a great place to ask us questions that other people might want to know answers to as well! So tell us what you think, what you're curious about, or just what you like about the Elkhorn Slough.

If you want to know what's happening at and around the slough then ourTwitter feed is for you! We tweet local news, events, and of course the latest and greatest things going on at the Reserve.