Comments on: Conflict on the half-shell in mellow Marin http://madronoranch.com/?p=3188 Sun, 25 Sep 2016 11:55:28 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.41 By: Sabrina Simpson http://madronoranch.com/?p=3188#comment-941 Fri, 13 Sep 2013 15:37:14 +0000 http://madronoranch.com/?p=3188#comment-941 Your story is well written, Martin, and I agree it is very sad to hear the two sides have come to this level of intransigence. I wrote my university honours thesis on the amazing story of how Point Reyes came to be a national park and then part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. What made this story so unique was the collaboration, and indeed communication, that was necessary between ranchers and conservationists, and, back then, the development interests of the Park Service. It was also one of the first times extensive public consultation was used to design a park, and once the hours and hours of surveys and meetings were conducted, the consensus was that what people most loved about visiting Point Reyes was seeing the rural lifestyle with cattle ranches and the rugged farmsteads mixed alongside the wild landscape with amazing forests and coastline. Most people did not want to see holiday homes and hotels, which is what the Park Service and other development interests of the day had in mind.

Fortunately at that time we had the amazing foresight and leadership of several congresspeople and numerous local heroes who fought hard for a consensus that preserved the Point Reyes that we have all had the benefit of enjoying for the last few decades. (See Harold Gilliam’s Island in Time for one account of the Point Reyes story.) I certainly hope the vision of the original park founders and the work they did to create such a unique living landscape is not forgotten in the rancorous debate currently underway.

]]>