May 30th: 2nd Annual Waldo Holt Memorial picnic features food, music and auction: Funds to be used to acquire riparian habitat on the Mokelumne

by Bill Jennings, Executive Director, CSPA

May 8, 2009 -- An afternoon of music, food and a silent auction will raise funds for the Waldo Holt San Joaquin Wildlife Conservancy, which preserves the wild lands of San Joaquin County for future generations to enjoy.  Specifically, the Conservancy is raising funds to acquire riparian habitat along the Mokelumne River.

Dirk Hamilton, Stringin' Along and the Water Brothers will play the afternoon away on Saturday, May 30th at the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) office compound at 3536 Rainier Ave., Stockton on the south bank of the Calaveras River. The event begins at noon and will feature good food and beverages as well as a silent auction with an environmental theme. All proceeds go to the Waldo Holt Conservancy, an organization working to procure land to be kept in a wild state in the name of Stockton conservationist and environmentalist Waldo Holt, who died in 2007.  Waldo was a long time member of the Committee to Save the Mokelumne, Deltakeeper and a Board Member of the CSPA.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased in advance at Empresso Coffeehouse in the Empire Theater on Pacific Avenue in Stockton, or at the Blackwater Café, 912 N. Yosemite St., Stockton. Tickets are also available at the gate for the same price.

Hamilton's band will offer music from his newest CD, "More Songs from My Cool Life," a 12-song chronicle of diverse experiences from childhood through the raising of his own children, as well as colorful imaginings and pointed commentaries about life in America, past and present. It showcases Hamilton's musical and lyrical panache, as well as his comic side.

The Waldo Holt Conservancy is committed to protecting the many places where wild animals and native plants still thrive in San Joaquin County. "Ironically, many of those moving into new subdivisions here do so partly because of the beautiful river-delta, grassland and habitat friendly farmland we hope to preserve," said Marj Fries, the "chief" of the board of directors for the group.

"We are currently working to acquire a lovely 4.65-acre piece of riparian habitat land on the Mokelumne River, which we hope to buy in partnership with the County Parks Department, and donate as an annex of the Woodbridge Wilderness Area, where it will be open for hiking, bird-watching and fishing, undeveloped except for unpaved foot trails. We have earmarked this property to be publicly dedicated to Waldo Holt," she said.

For more information about the Conservancy, go to www.waldoconservancy.org.