Save Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore Needs Your Help
September 30th, 2009Coalition Calls for Sen. Feinstein’s Rider Extending Life of Oyster Farm at Point Reyes National Seashore To Be Stripped
Posted September 29th, 2009 by Kurt Repanshek
Sen. Feinstein’s efforts to see an oyster company continue operations at Point Reyes National Seashore for another decade are being opposed. Photo of Drakes Estero by Susan Van Der Wal via NPS.
Some push-back has surfaced against U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein’s efforts to see oyster farming continue in an area of Point Reyes National Seashore that has been destined for official wilderness designation.
A group calling itself the Save Drakes Bay Coalition is urging U.S. Representative Norm Dicks, D-Washington, to strip a rider Sen. Feinstein placed on an Interior appropriations bil that would allow the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. to continue operations in the national seashore’s Drakes Estero. Commercial oyster farming was well under way in Drakes Estero in 1976 when Congress designated the estuary as potential wilderness. Interior Department officials, noting that the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. operation would run counter to official wilderness designation, directed the National Park Service to push for that designation in 2012 when the oyster farm’s lease expires. Read the rest of this entry »
