CD:
If people want to get involved in this issue, what can they do?
Murphy: If they want to go out and see the land, we do hikes once a month. And public education is kind of our main thing. We'll host an information table down at Trestles once or twice a month to let people know. A lot of people still don't know about this issue. One of the things we're fighting more than people actually being pro-toll road is simply people not knowing, or thinking there's nothing they can do about it.
We also have these tables we host. We do them at the farmers market in San Clemente. Then we encourage the people to sign postcards, to write to their supervisors, and to write to the water quality board and to write to the dept of fish and game. A handwritten letter can be hugely effective.
 |
|
Ahmanson
Ranch Land Under Development Threat. |
CD: You know, there are a lot of stories in the paper about development above Malibu at Ahmanson Ranch.
Murphy: Yeah, Ahmanson is, I think more like 2500 homes. Mission Viejo wants 14,000.
CD: But Ahmanson's gotten a lot of spotlight.
Murphy: But they've got all the famous people opposing it.
CD: But we're actually talking about a much bigger piece of habitat down here.
Murphy: Our area is actually far larger and far more biologically important than theirs. It's unfortunate that we don't get the press just because we don't have the famous names. If we were up in Malibu, we'd get the famous people too.
CD: Okay Brittany, we've talked a lot about this. Now I want the Reader's Digest version. Give us a nutshell synopsis of why we as surfers and Orange County residents should give a damn about everything we've discussed.
Murphy: This is the last great piece of remaining open space in Orange County. And we have the potential to do something really great with it. In terms of the Toll Road, it would devastate a state park. In terms of the development, it would really devastate the quality of life for local residents in terms of traffic and pollution to our beaches and our watersheds and sully the last undammed, unmodified creek south of Ventura that's the home of 7 endangered species. It's one of the 25 biological hotspots on earth and it's a world renowned special place worth protecting. Its not just some vacant lot.
 |
|
Orange
County's Threatened And Protected Backcountry Areas |
CD: So surfers should be concerned about this not only because they're selfish and want clean water at Trestles but as citizens of the world at large, we also need to understand what's at stake here. What's at stake here is not only clean water, it's the quality of the experience and being able to pull up to Trestles and look up that valley behind Trestles and not see a freeway coming down it and houses covering the hillsides behind there.
Murphy: And then having who knows how many more surfers down there to contend with than you do already.
CD:
Not only will this make it easier for people who live on Rancho Mission
Viejo land to come to Trestles, it will mean that Trestles becomes a very
easy trip for everyone from Riverside and the Inland Empire.
Murphy: And who knows how much development they'll have down there in the end. Pretty soon Trestles won't be a place you have to hike through the wild to get to, it will become another Huntington Beach. It's kind of scary to consider the potentials.
CD: How did you come to be so involved with this?
Murphy: I graduated from Humboldt state with a degree in natural resource planning and interpretation. And I was looking for exactly this kind of work in college. I found this job, came down and saw the area and was just like, Oh my god, this place is so unbelievable. It's really worth protecting.
THANKS BRITTANY!
Thanks are also seriously in order to Marcus Saunders and our buddies at SURFLINE for linking to this interview.
Discuss this on the Surfermag.com Bulletin Board
To find out how you can help, visit Friends of the Foothills
Other
Links Related to this Issue.
(Thanks Pencak on the Bulletin Board for the below list)
Gov.
Gray Davis
Department of Fish and
Game
Calif. Resource Enviornmental
Evlauation System
California Coastal
Commission
Thomas
Wilson - OC county supervisor 5th district
State Senator
Bill Morrow, 38th district
California
State Assembly, 73rd district, Patricia Bates
U.S. Senator Dianne
Feinstein
U.S. Senator
Barbara Boxer
U.S. Congress,
42nd district, Gary Miller
U.S. Congress,
44th district, Ken Calvert
U.S. Congress, 48th district,
Christopher Cox
City
of San Clemente, (council meetings, planning commissions, etc.)
U.S. Department of Interior
Bureau of Land
Management
California State Parks
(Trestles is a part of San Onofre)
USMC
public affairs office
South County
Airport Watch (Former plans for an AIRPORT at Trestles!)
Letters, emails, faxes are a good plan (phone calls to.) Remember, you
catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. Express a specific
concern (hopefully an argued point) and being respectful will get a better
result than some incoherent tirade.
It's best to end with a request for the person to do something that is
within their power and jurisdiction.
RELATED STORIES
|
READER COMMENTS
No comments have been added to this entry.