LETTER: Bodega Hill mining

EDITOR: I am writing to you about something that feels so wrong
and I am so worried about.  There is the most beautiful little road
called Bay Hill Road between the little town of Bodega and Bodega
Bay.  A huge corporation called The Dutra Group has an option to
buy a ranch on this road and they are proposing to remove 8 million
cubic yards of gravel off of the Calvi Ranch at 1001 Bay Hill
Road. 
I don’t know if you have ever driven over this little road but
it is like going to Heaven. 
At the top you can see forever over the ocean and when the sun
goes down and turns the sky abalone colors it is unbelievable!  At
risk is the environment.  Salmon are spawning and growing in Cheney
Gulch and Quinlan Creek. They would be greatly impacted by a gravel
operation. The roads out here are one and two lane.  Bay Hill Rd.
is especially narrow. We all know the trucks would have to
go through Bodega or south to Petaluma. 
I live in Bodega and the big rigs and their ŒJake¹ brakes are
noisy and dusty.  I believe our property values will be impacted
negatively.  In my lifetime the slides in Cheney Gulch have gotten
worse and worse. 
I hope that people who care about this little special road will
speak out about the destruction of a Sonoma County treasure.
– Linda Sauter, Bodega