Article taken from the
Santa Barbara News Press
Published with permission
Federal
protection for Gaviota rejected
National Park Service cites opposition from landowners
By MELINDA
BURNS
NEWS-PRESS SENIOR WRITER
4/9/03
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A conservationist campaign to gain federal protection for the scenic Gaviota coast collapsed Tuesday as the National Park Service backed away from the idea, saying the landowners were not willing to sell any property and the government can't afford it anyway.
The 76-mile-long coast from Coal Oil Point to Point Sal is the longest stretch of rural coastline remaining in Southern California, and one of only a handful of places in the world where warm and cold ocean currents collide, giving rise to an abundance of wildlife. An estimated 1,400 plant and animal species have been counted on land there alone.
In a draft study released Tuesday after three years of research and public comment, the Park Service concludes that the Gaviota coast is "nationally significant" and "suitable for inclusion" in the national park system, based on the rarity of its natural resources.
At the same time, however, the Park Service finds that the coast is "not a feasible addition" to the park system because of strong opposition from landowners, and says it cannot take on the cost and magnitude of establishing a park on the Gaviota coast, "given current national financial priorities."
The conclusions caught local preservationists by surprise. The study, ordered by Congress during the Clinton administration, had originally begun with a review of several Park Service options for the coast, including a national seashore, a national reserve and a national recreation area, with varying degrees of private and public ownership. Doing nothing was not a serious option on the table.
"It's blindsided everyone," Phil McKenna, a board member of the Gaviota Coast Conservancy, a nonprofit group, said Tuesday. "It took the wind out of me. To be completely defeated by the big lie of the landowners -- that ิthe Park Service is going to steal your property' -- is very disappointing."
Harriett Phillips, president of the Goleta Valley Land Trust, a nonprofit group that helped pay for the $350,000 study, said, "What a waste of time and effort! It's another example of how this administration views the environment. They don't care."
The Park Service recommends leaving protection of the Gaviota coast up to the county, the state and nonprofit land trusts -- and the ranchers themselves. For extra funding, the agency suggests, local residents could tax themselves to purchase open space on the coast; and some federal funding might be available for the startup of nonprofit groups.
The Park Service will make a final recommendation after four public hearings in May and the close of public comment in July.
Gaviota coast landowners claimed a victory for local control.
"I am very gratified that the study appears to be supportive of local efforts and not supportive of a federal takeover," said Kim Kimbell, a member of the Hollister Ranch Owners Association, which assessed its members early on to fight a park proposal.
LeRoy Scolari, a third-generation Lompoc rancher with two properties in the study area, said federal regulations would have created onerous delays in his everyday ranch operations.
"I feel much better," Mr. Scolari said Tuesday. "I don't think I could have co-existed with the National Park Service."
But Mr. Scolari also said he was wary about even the mention of future federal funds for the Gaviota coast.
"Federal aid to me is a way in the back door," he said. "When you accept that aid, you accept certain conditions."
In recent years, many ranchers wrote letters to the Park Service, saying they would never sell their land or their development rights. Last summer, they stepped up their protest, inviting Lynn Scarlett, an assistant U.S. Secretary of the Interior, to Buellton, where they bombarded her with demands that she halt the study outright.
Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, followed up with a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, signed by 25 members of Congress, asking her not to support a national park designation for the Gaviota coast.
"It just became clearer and clearer that land ownership and willing seller issues loomed large," said Holly Bundock, a Park Service spokeswoman at regional headquarters in Oakland. "Also, we had a reality check in the fall regarding our fiscal priorities. Our operating budgets for parks were not growing."
According to the Park Service, it would cost $150 million to buy 30,000 acres on the Gaviota coast for a national seashore; and $15 million to buy 2,500 acres for a national reserve. With most national parks receiving less than $3 million a year, the study says, "considerable public and political support is necessary for significant funding to be appropriated."
Mr. Gallegly, whose district changed this year to incorporate the interior of Santa Barbara County, said that protecting Vandenberg Air Force Base was one of his primary concerns. If a national park had been established, it would have likely expanded public access to the base.
"The development of a park, without question, could seriously jeopardize the mission of one of only two bases in the nation that is launching satellites for our space program," Mr. Gallegly said. "This was a no-starter from the beginning."
County Supervisor Gail Marshall, whose district represents the Gaviota coast, said Tuesday that now the future of the coast was in the hands of the community.
Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, who garnered the support of Congress in 1999 for the study, said she was pleased that the Park Service had confirmed that the Gaviota coast has national significance.
"I have always stated my preference for a locally based Gaviota preservation strategy," Mrs. Capps said.
The study notes that the Gaviota coast provides a refuge for the steelhead trout, California red-legged frog, Western snowy plover, bald eagle and monarch butterfly, and many other species that have been severely reduced in their former range throughout Southern California.
The Park Service also counted more than 1,000 archaeological and historic sites in the study area, including some of the oldest and best-preserved American Indian archaeological sites in California, going back 10,000 years. It said Vandenberg's missile and space launch sites was one of the most comprehensive Cold War collections in the country.
But without federal funding, conservationists say it will be much harder to prevent the urbanization of the Gaviota coast. For examples of how local control has failed, they say, residents have no further to look than the 400-room Bacara resort at Haskells Beach, a popular surfing spot west of Goleta. West of the Bacara, the county Board of Supervisors approved a golf course on land zoned for agriculture -- a project that was recently scrapped by the state Coastal Commission.
Now, environmentalists say, the fight will shift to Naples, where the board has allowed a developer to apply for up to 50 homes on land zoned for agriculture. After the deal was struck, the bluffs at Naples was listed for sale for as much as $580,000 per acre.
"For permanent protection, you need money," said Mike Lunsford, president of the Gaviota Coast Conservancy. "By scaring off the National Park Service, we've now turned away a partner that could potentially bring exponentially more money to the table than what local resources have. We're going to begin to see what the real motives of the opponents have been. These are people that would prefer to have the freedom to develop in the future."
The public is being offered four opportunities next month to weigh in on the draft study that looked at making the Gaviota Coast part of the national park system.
Public meetings will be held:
*7-9 p.m., Monday May 12, Grossman Gallery, Lompoc Public Library, 501 E. North Ave.
*12:30-2 p.m., Tuesday, May 13, Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara Public Library, 40 E. Anapamu St.
*7-9 pm., Tuesday, May 13; Goleta Valley Community Center, 5679 Hollister Ave.
*7-9 p.m. Thursday, May 15; Vets Wing, Solvang Veteans Memorial Building, 1745 Mission Drive.
Public comment is open to July 18. Comments can be mailed to to the National Park Service, Office of Planning and Partnership, 1111 Jackson St., Suite 700, Oakland CA 94607; e-mailed to PGSO_Gaviota@nps.gov; or handed in at the public meetings.
The study is available online at http://www.nps.gov/pwro/gaviota