Letters to the Editor 3-14-13

Daylighting the forest
Editor: Sunday a friend took me to the Railroad Forest cleanup site. What a revelation. The areas that have been cleared open up new and wondrous vistas. Calder Creek — with its exposed vegetation, water spiders skimming its surface and a wee waterfall gently singing — all said, “Welcome to our world. See what you’ve been missing?”
Thank you, Lynn Deedler, for organizing the cleanup, thanks to all the volunteers who have showed up the last two weekends to undertake such a daunting task, and thanks to the City Council for its support. What a wonderful contribution to our community. It demonstrates what folks with vision and dedication can do. It also demonstrates what a difference daylighting creeks can make to the beauty and serenity of a setting.
Deanne Thompson
Sebastopol
Changing Sonoma County
Editor: I resonate to the wistful ruminations of Publisher Rollie Atkinson on the changes we have seen in the Redwood Empire over the last two generations (“Wine Roads,” Feb. 28). My perspective is Healdsburg, but the pattern of change repeats throughout Sonoma County where we have seen cows and hops yield to prunes, pears, apples and walnuts, now all of them succumbing to the dominance of grapes and wine. Rollie and we (Preston Dairy circa 1952 on Eastside Road) and I am sure many of you feel the limitations of the new grape monoculture: fewer diversions for our families and visitors, fewer options for our children as they contemplate careers. Our industry mavens talk “Food and Wine”; so where’s the food?
Happily, there is a groundswell of change. If you visit a local farmers market you will see new farmers — your neighbor’s kids — peddling lettuce and eggs and kale grown in the backyard or a corner of the family vineyard. When we can’t get the grapes to move over we’ll put the sheep in the vineyard. A renaissance of interest in local, healthy food is defining our school programs, while gleaning teams are erasing food waste from idle yards.
We can redefine Sonoma County once again. To corrupt an old schoolyard saying: “Wine is fine but food is good”. We can have both. We must have both.
Lou Preston
Preston Farm and Winery
Dry Creek Valley
Downward spiral
Editor: In the wake of the downward spiraling Sebastopol SmartMeter ordinance debacle (in which PG&E shows that it clearly has the legal and practical upper hand), one doubts whether the City has the financial strength to wage this losing battle plus the City’s losing battle over whether the City Council’s drive-thru ordinance somehow trumps the prior City-approved CVS/Chase project. You folks are getting laughable legal advice from — apparently — your City Manager, who is supposed to have a legal background, but to whom what is legal is never the point. The citizens are watching as these wildly illegal strategies by the City are played out with money that cannot be used for other badly needed services.
Lawyer costs and the costs of monetary and other damages (e.g. electrical problems for the Barlow Project), not to speak of the time and distraction from other needed business spent by the City fathers, are and will be extraordinary.
George D. Tuttle
Sebastopol
No connection
Editor: I am writing in regard to the article “Occupy Sebastopol tent to come down” in the March 7 edition of The Sonoma West Times & News.
This article contains statements that might lead the reader to infer that there is a connection between the unilateral decision of Occupy Sebastopol to remove their tent from our downtown plaza and the recently-abandoned request by Sebastopolcitizens.org to erect a tent of their own nearby.
Any attempt to establish a causal relationship between these two independent events would be misleading and inaccurate. At no time was additional pressure brought to bear by the City of Sebastopol for the removal of the Occupy tent based upon requests from other parties. All considerations regarding the manner and timing of the tent’s removal originated solely within Occupy Sebastopol.
In light of these developments, I have suspended all planning activities for the OccupySebastopolcitizens.org S’mores Party that I had intended to host this summer.
John Eder
Sebastopol City Councilmember
End mountaintop removal
Editor: As a concerned citizen, I would like to bring to your attention the dangers of mountaintop removal mining and the urgent steps we need to take to protect our nation’s Appalachian Mountains and people, before it is too late. Mountaintop removal not only destroys and pollutes waterways and eliminates wildlife, but it also affects families’ and communities’ access to clean water and uncontaminated air, and seriously threatens their health. There are two things our nation’s leaders must do right now.
First, the President and the Environmental Protection Agency need to follow the robust science and set a strong, binding clean water rule that will prevent the pollution and destruction of waterways by mountaintop removal mining waste.
Second, Congress must pass the Appalachian Community Health Emergency (ACHE) Act, which will thoroughly analyze the impacts of mountaintop removal on the health of people who live near it, including the higher rates of birth defects, cancer, and early death that have occurred in communities near these mines.
I believe we have an obligation to preserve our national heritage for future generations, including our mountains and vital waterways, and to ensure that Appalachian communities are not bearing the brunt of our nation’s unsustainable energy decisions.
David Comfort
Santa Rosa