Dr. Underwood on Enforcement

We spoke with our local Warden Kevin Joe, during a meeting we had with him on 9-7-07, and he told us that he singularly was patrolling the area between the Navarro River and the Gualala River. During our meeting, he expressed gratitude to our HNP LLC for protecting Havens Neck, as we do, and admitted that he could not do as good a job as we are currently doing, given the expanse of territory for which he is responsible.

I think this is one of the major weakness in the proposed manner in which the MLPA is to be implemented: Take away the motivation for the protection of pristine area that is afforded by the respective landowners and replace that with DFG protection; which although would be good intentioned, would in practice provide less protection than there is now. This, as you can imagine, would probably lead to many of our pristine areas being pillaged, as has happened with the Stornetta lands.

There seems to be a large disconnect with reality and sound scientific reasoning in ignoring the fact that our lands are pristine because of responsible owner oversight and that when this is lost, bio-diversity also suffers, as in cases like the Stornetta lands and what seems to be envisioned for properties such as ours. Instead, they seem to be stuck on pre-conceptions and stereotypes at the expense of facts. Hopefully some common sense enters into the process soon.

This reminds me of the old adage: "the way to hell is paved with good intentions." Hopefully by our collective actions, we can insert affected landowners into the process, to keep their protection of their respective properties, by not removing one of the primary reasons that the respective properties were purchased at the outset. I believe that in this manner, we can continue to significantly complement the DFG's ability to protect the many pristine areas that still remain on our coast. If this does not happen, I fear for the fate of the lands, flora, and fauna that appears to flourish with our protection and that of past such owners.