Planning for Bolinas Lagoon - does it need a shovel or a life jacket?

It's folly to prepare action plan before setting goals

Before choosing a set of actions to protect Bolinas Lagoon, decision-makers need to think about what goals they are seeking - yet the currently scheduled process does these steps in the opposite order.

Recent research has shown that natural tidal processes control the lagoon and that there is "almost certainly" no danger of it closing up, as some had previously feared. In fact, a greater danger is that sea-level rises caused by global warming may drown the lagoon and threaten adjacent properties

Fortunately, the research consultants propose to create a new set of Lagoon Management Objectives based on the new scientific understanding. This is essential because the Technical Review Group found the old goals from the 1996 Bolinas Lagoon Management Plan to be "unrealistic" - because they were based on outdated assumptions.

Unfortunately, the project schedule lists the "next steps" as discussion by the Bolinas Lagoon Project's Executive Committee of "possible intervention alternatives to be presented to the public", and a public meeting in September "to solicit public comment regarding intervention". This sequencing of "alternatives before objectives" would put the cart before the horse. It increases the likelihood of a wildly inappropriate intervention plan.

WhatYouCanDo

Write to:

Supervisor Steve Kinsey
3501 Civic Center Drive, #329
San Rafael, CA 94903
skinsey -at- co.marin.ca.us

Urge him to make sure that the Bolinas Lagoon Project adopts a scientifically based set of management objectives before considering concrete actions.

Gordon Bennett