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Following an hourlong meeting with David Kennedy, chief executive of the state Water Resources Deparment, and State Forester Richard Wilson, Baker said the two officials agreed to halt construction preparations on the pipeline in Stenner Creek Canyon - a remote area of Cal Poly's campus containing about three dozen oaks.
Baker said that water officials, working with California Department of Forestrv oak tree experts and pipeline engineers will immediately begin new, detailed surveys of the canyon to determine a way to avoid uprooting any of the oaks, some of which are be tween 200 and 300 years old.
"They have agreed to explore using construction techniques that are much more discrete and which are far less damaging to the environment," Baker said. "My impression upon leaving the meeting was that there's a pretty good chance that none of the oaks wi ll have to be damaged."
Baker said the survey results will not be ready until Friday or possibly Monday. Kennedy could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Specifically Baker said that by using less invasive construction techniques the contractor would be able to snake the pipeline around the oak stands.
Wednesday's agreement to stop work and to conduct new surveys represents an about-face on the part of state water officials who until their meetings with Baker have generally resisted making any adjustments to the pipeline's path.
Even earlier Wednesday, slate water officials said they were frustrated with Cal Poly's actions and its refusal to sign off on a right-of-way agreement that would allow the agency legal right to work on the university's land.
"If we re-align the pipeline so that it doesn't impact the oaks it wilt most likely be at the expense of some other plant or animal species" said Don Kurosaka, construction manager of the pipeline's 100-mile-long Central Coast section. "This is extremely complex work and there are not a lot of easy answers."
Wednesday's meeting in Sacramento marked Baker's second set of direct talks with state water officials in less than a week. His involvement in the effort to save the oaks has crowned a univetsity wide drive to save the old trees.
Baker has also argued that the pipeline should be re-routed because Stenner Creek Canyon serves as a natural laboratory for the biological sciences and natural resources management departments - the latter of which ofters the only hardwood management cou rse in the western United States.
The section of the pipeline proposed to run through the canyon is an offshoot of the California Aqueduct running from Kettleman City in Kings County to Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County.
While the pipeline will delive water to several Central Coast area cities, neither Cal Poly nor the city of San Luis Obispo subscribe to the system.
The project is being built by the state and the Central Coast Water Authority, a consortium of local city and county water districts.
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