San Mateo Watershed begins to stir.

Due to natures cycles and the re appearance of an El Nino condition, the San Mater watershed behind San Clemente began to stir through the power of water on on the land.

With a few more like that weather event, the San Mateo area will begin to show its real value.

Its complex landforms are simply in a class by themselves in diversity and beauty.

This also makes San Mateo a place of the highest priority for preservation.

The county of Orange has begun a slow but sure process of planning, if it can be called that, for development of this area located south of Ortega Highway. One region recently presented to San Clemente officials is called Planning Area 8.

This area will become a test for our society; will we leave large spaces that are clearly powerful and unique displays of nature’s works, or will we continue doing what is now being proven across this country and the world to be unsustainable - the ignorance of nature’s primacy for isolated and temporary economic gain?

Any development in the San Mateo watershed or on Talega ridge will affect its pristine condition. It must be left whole, it must become part of the larger Cleveland National Forest or a new state park of immense value. It cannot be developed and still be what it is today.

For more info or to join us in preserving the San Mateo as a wilderness, visit:

Save San Mateo Watershed by Nature Commission.