Mailbag: Egypt should heed lessons of Iran

And the similar Ridge development at the Bolsa Chica bluffs proposes to eliminate a small coastal viewpoint as well. The Ridge MND stated that people could still walk a little ways to a viewpoint on the other side of that development. Well, what's good enough for the bluffs (and the residents along Los Patos) is certainly good enough for the mesa, isn't it? Just walk-bike-ride a little bit further to get to the view.

Murray goes on to quote the November 2000 Coastal Commission staff report concerning development on the mesa: "no grading will be permitted in conservation areas." Again, Murray's memory is selective.

Without disruption the massive Bolsa Chica wetlands restoration project would not have happened. In that case, Murray and many others were more than happy to endure short-term construction and development to a sensitive area in order to provide a long-term environmental benefit. Was that project disruptive to wildlife? You betcha. And yet wildlife coped for the interim and is now reaping the benefits of that disruption.

Having concerns and questions about a project is one thing. Conveying those concerns to the general public who rely on your expertise is another, if the expert is selectively leaving out information that changes the whole tone of the argument and the very reason for the concern in the first place!

The public has the right to make up its own mind based on all available information. A public talk on the project will be held at 7 p.m. March 10 at the Huntington Beach Central Library. The mesa restoration MND document is at http://www.bolsachicalandtrust.org/mnd.pdf. Comments on the plan are due by March 17 to Carla Navarro at cnavarro@dfg.ca.gov.

Julie Bixby

Huntington Beach

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As Joni Mitchell once put it…

"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot!" It seems that is what the Bolsa Chica Land Trust is intent on doing to the Bolsa Chica mesa. Instead of saving the mesa, they want to improve the mesa. History has shown us that any time human beings "improve" on the environment, the environment suffers. The improvement may look and feel right for humans, but the improvement is usually deleterious to the organisms, both plants and animals, that live in that environment.

The Land Trust cried when birds were being killed when they flew into the transparent wall built by the housing development on the mesa. Now who will cry for the birds that are killed or maimed by the windmill that the Land Trust plans to install on the mesa? Who will cry for the bats that are killed or maimed by the windmill? Who will cry for the rodents and the reptiles that will be killed or maimed by the disking of the soil? Who will cry for the plants? I will!

I beseech the Land Trust and California Department of Fish and Game to continue to save the mesa, not improve it.

Mark Singer

Huntington Beach