This week I posted a letter to the editor of our local newspaper. I don’t know if it will be published, but I sent it anyway. I’ve never written a letter to an editor, so this was good practice. I think I’ll try to do more of it. That is, if I don’t get completely slammed for an opinion that is contrary to the editor’s.
The issue has to do with an expired lease contract that had been awarded to a local cattle rancher to graze his herd on local regional park land. The regional park was originally purchased with local sales-tax money. The editor and three web commenters are all in favor of the local rancher. But the regional park district issued a new least to a cattle outfit from outside our county because their herd is bigger, garnering higher rent. There’s an implied sentiment that the bigger outfit is bad because they’re bumping the local guy. Another point has to do with the amount of carbon fuel being used when transporting the animals. I have no idea about the finer details in this case, but this is the two-cents that I threw in:
In considering Tuesdays Editorial, “Park lands for local cattle,” I was torn, but only for a moment. I have no doubt Glen Mohring is unhappy about losing his cattle grazing pastureland, and I’m sorry for his troubles, but I wasn’t thinking about Rancher Mohring when I voted in favor of the quarter-cent sales tax increase. I was thinking about increasing my property value as a result of preserved green space. Healthy parks contribute to healthy real estate, and healthy parks cost money. There are ranger patrols, trail maintenance, parking lots, picnic tables, garbage cans, and clean toilets to pay for. These expenses can make or break a quality park. A good park is good for the whole community and worth paying for.
For once, I’m hearing about a fiscal decision that has nothing to do with raising taxes or cutting spending. Here, Sonoma County Regional Parks actually gets to make a revenue generating choice. Carbon footprint considered, I say give the lease to the highest bidder. We can’t afford to play favorites and turn away the added income; not in this case.
The argument that local taxes should support one local rancher sounds good on the surface, but what about local taxes supporting the health and value of the whole community?
If you are interested in this, you can find it all at http://www.sonomanews.com/ then search for “Park lands for local cattle.”
Besides all of that, the week has been gorgeous here in Sonoma Valley. I spent an entire day gardening and can now see the flowers instead of knee-high weeds.
Have a good week, and I’ll post again next Friday.
I knew there would be finer details to this story, and thank you Laurel for sharing your point of view.
The other rancher in this conflict posted his point of view on the newspaper’s web article.
If you are interested in this, you can find it all at http://www.sonomanews.com/ then search for “Park lands for local cattle.”
Terry Sue,
Thank you very much for your interest and comments regarding my family. I appreciate your opinion. With that said, the other company that outbid us only came in a few thousand dollars over us, yet proposed huge amounts of money to be spent by the county for improvements in the first 4 months of their lease, and tens of thousands more to be spent on projects to be compl;eted by Nov. 2011. In the nearly 4 years my husband has leased this property, he has been able to complete some fencing projects for the park, but he is quite aware of the fiscal situation and does not demand anything from them,in fact he has used his own materials to patch and mend fences without any cost to the county.These are two men not only from out of county but with no history as an established business. who were unable to supply required letters of reference. They have never run a cattle operation and don’t at this time personally own enough cattle to even stock the property. They have managed the cattle of other very wealthy corporations and casino owners, and have only done that for a few years. They are already posturing to get the adjoining property which our family has leased for 35 years, this is not how farmers and ranchers treat eachother, this is how the new breed of greed comes and takes over. We cannot allow local families to be run out of business and run out of town, for a few guys who have only been out of college (and can write a fancy proposal) the length of time we have been leasing Tolay Lake. This is just the tip of the iceberg of this situation, but trust me this deal is not good financially for this county. “
All comments are welcomed.