Mixed environmental protection results

Drakes Bay Oyster Company in west Marin County does not survive.   Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica does survive.

Pacifica Tribune/John Blanchard, Columnist, 1/1/12. "A left coast view."

  Drakes Bay Oyster Company (DBOC) lease terminated  *

"For this view from the Left Coast we begin with a meander through the bucolic, pastoral green hills of West Marin out to Drakes Estero, a four-fingered inlet of Drakes Bay just north of San Francisco. Passing grazing livestock and waterfowl through the rolling farmland a left turn takes us on a bumpy, gravel road leading down to the tidal flats of Drakes Estero and the Drakes Bay Oyster Company. Oyster farming has existed in Drakes Estero for about a hundred years. The Johnson Oyster Company developed and utilized sustainable farming techniques to grow their oysters for 60 years. In 2004 the Lunny family, who had been farming in those hills for four generations and known for their certified organic, grass fed beef cattle, purchased the oyster company to continue the tradition.

In 1976 Congress established the Point Reyes National Seashore that encompasses this area. Several local farms were designated 'historic' and, along with the oyster operation, were allowed to stay. West Marin has been at the forefront of sustainable farming methods for decades and continues this nature friendly industry today. As stated, DBOC is also an adherent to environmentally sensitive farming methods. However, an overzealous group of environmentalists have used misleading and misrepresented scientific studies to convince the National Park Service to terminate DBOC's lease this past November. This is not only a shame, as a traditional family business with about 30 workers will be shut down, but an environmental faux pas as well. DBOC is the only California oyster farm and produces almost half of what the state consumes. The demand is not going to go away. The replacement proteins will now be shipped in from Asia or the east coast. What kinds of carbon footprint conditions were considered in this move?

Sharp Park Golf Course survives thanks to golfer/legal/city effort

The irony of this truly non-progressive mixed bag of environmental policies we have is in force just a short way down the road from here. As the migrating waterfowl that are attracted to the Estero fly just over the hill to Tomales Bay State Preserve a mile or two to the east they are picked off one by one by hunters hiding in the marsh as this parcel is managed by the California State Department of Fish and Game. This far thinking organization, which we pay for, preserves the natural world so that it may be hunted and fished for sport. Recall the (knuckle)-Head of this Department smiling broadly to the camera as he hoisted the carcass of a wild cougar that his dogs chased up a tree in Idaho and he shot in cold blood. In Idaho, by the way, because California, at least, bans killing mountain lions for sport. 

Many State and Federal agencies and nonprofit groups have been established with the well-intended aspiration of conserving and protecting our natural environment. Emotionally it feeds our soul. Intelligently we have amassed quite a bit of information that teaches us that our wellbeing and, in fact, our continued existence is dependent upon living with our environment rather than in spite of it. But individually, it seems, our views are all over the place as to why and how we do this. 

Bringing it back home, Pacifica has recently escaped the foolery of this jumbled understanding of environmentalism. The Endangered Species Act is an important legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 1973. The ESA has its basis in Ecology which is the study of the relationships between living organisms and their natural environment. Our Biosphere is made up of numerous ecosystems that are all interrelated to each other. An effect on one organism can disrupt the entire ecosystem.

This is why six environmental groups sued to have the Sharp Park Golf Course shut down to preserve these listed species. But finally common sense won out. Last October a biological opinion by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife considered that the facility could be managed in such a way that would not further endanger the garter snake and the red legged frog and could continue its operation. The opinion also provided a list of terms and conditions that must be incorporated into the maintenance of the course. Why couldn't that farming family in West Marin be given a similar list of conditions? 

Sharp Park is a beautiful and historic course. It does not generate an enormous amount of traffic but it is used and, like DBOC, should be able to exist and be used naturally into perpetuity. Luckily for us it looks like, at least, SPGC will."

Related article -  San Francisco Chronicle/Peter Fimrite and Justin Berton, 11/29/12. "US evicting Point Reyes oyster farmer", article  includes 30 photographs. " U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a popular oyster farm at Drakes Bay on Thursday to pack up and leave, effectively ending more than a century of shellfish harvesting on the picturesque inlet where Europeans first set foot in California. Salazar's decision ends a long-running dispute between the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. and the National Park Service over the estuary at Point Reyes National Seashore where Sir Francis Drake landed more than 400 years ago."  

*  Note: photograph by Chris Steward, #29 from the article.  Drakes Bay Oyster Company was formerly Johnson Oyster Company (2005).  Reference - Drakes Bay Oyster Company website.

Posted by Kathy Meeh