SDG&E's proposed Golden Pacific Powerlink threatens to destroy this fragile community and environment by clearcutting a 250-foot wide industrial corridor with giant transmission towers through the heart of this rural land that is still largely wild and undisturbed. It's an area of homes, ranches, farms, a US Forest Service fire station and campground, and a historical stagecoach station.
Oak Grove is a vital upper watershed at the headwaters of Temecula Creek with first order streams. This is where the wild things still run — mountain lions, deer, bobcats, foxes and many more wild creatures. It is essential to preserve the backbone of our California ecosystem for future generations.
SDG&E wants to run the Powerlink industrial corridor through the protected lands of the Oak Grove Unit of the San Felipe Valley Wildlife Area, managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. This is a rare convergence of habitats: coastal, mountain, and desert systems all meet here. Habitats include California oak woodland, chaparral, coastal sage scrub, native grassland and desert riparian woodland. It's one of the very few places the coastal and desert species overlap. Without this land, migrating wildlife hits a bottleneck — cutting off genetic exchange between coastal and desert populations. Powerlink threatens these wildlife corridors, creating fragmentation. This is a real danger to the survival of our mountain lions.
Oak Grove is in the California Public Utilities Commission's High Fire-Threat District, and within 2 miles of the Extreme Fire-Threat Tier 3 lands of Palomar Mountain's steep north slope. Powerlink will increase that fire risk, despite SDG&E's dubious claims that it will not. Infrastructure in this area is often subject to strict seasonal wildfire mitigation rules and Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) due to severe canyon wind funnels. The already high cost of fire insurance will skyrocket if Powerlink goes through. Even now, land values are already decreasing at the possibility of Powerlink running through Oak Grove.
The 1858 Oak Grove Butterfield Stage Station is a California and national landmark. This one-story adobe still stands among ancient California oaks, one of the few surviving stations of the route across the West. It's a quiet stop on the first overland mail road into California. During its run, the Butterfield coaches came through here, carrying mail and passengers from St. Louis and Memphis to San Francisco and back. Powerlink would destroy the character and beauty of this historic site.
Oak Grove is no place for giant towers. STOP Powerlink. Let's Protect Oak Grove.