Photographer Laura Alice Watt - lost farms

Hauntingly beautiful story of lost farms in Point Reyes on NPS's watch.     http://www.lauraalicewatt.com/#an-evolving-landscape/11

Harper's Author Takes Oyster-Foe Spokesperson to Task

Anonymous writer,  Amy Trainer? Gordon Bennett? wrote error-ridden comment below the Harper's DBOC article. Accomplished author, Michael Ames shows what professional journalism is. Good to see established press challenging for a return to civility and honesty. See his rebuttal here.

DBOC Files Motion Correcting Coastal Commission's False Statements

Drakes Bay Oyster Files Motion Correcting False Statements by Coastal Commission

California Coastal Commissioner said EAC had been "begging and pleading with them to take action against DBOC for a year and a half." If they relied on the false and misleading statements, Trainer's pat mantra, it's no wonder the agency got it wrong.
{follow link(s) for expanded story} (CCC Items 11.1 and 11.2)

Harper's magazine article The West Coast Oyster War, lists several 'established' publishers which repeat false 'facts,'  claims, and outright distortions with vetting them first. False information has been traced back to the office of Amy Trainer. It's important to keep track of what Trainer, as a public figure, is doing and what she has done. up in Washington. One wonders if EAC checked references or deliberately hired her as a henchman.

After contacting several different organizations in California and Washington, D.C., for comment, I learned that many of the country’s oldest and largest environmental groups have agreed that only two people — Neal Desai of the National Parks Conservation Association and Amy Trainer of the West Marin Environmental Action Committee — will speak on the record about Drakes Bay. 
The environmental lobby insists, for example, that Drakes Estero will now become “the first marine wilderness area on the West Coast” outside of Alaska, a claim that has been repeated as fact by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, ABC and NBC affiliates in San Francisco, the local West Marin Environmental Action Committee, most national environmental organizations, and the Park Service itself.

July 15th Farm & Foodshed Report Transcript - Last Half Hour

West Marin Farms are in clear danger! The rest of the Farm and Foodshed Report with Sam Dolcini, Phyllis Faber, Peter Prows is now ready here. The discussion reminds us of the importance of a proactive movement to protect West Marin's farms.

Sam: "The environmental action committee is supporting a coastal zone amendment that would say, “Even if you are on an organic dairy in West Marin, making your living that way, and there are already three homes built, sorry but you’ll have to commute from town or from another location. You will not even have the opportunity to easily build a home,” ... So there is a huge disconnect between the positives that we provide and the image that’s being put out. And, the challenge that we run into is that there is a very vocal minority that is getting a lot of attention. I think there is bigger support than we realize. And I think one of the challenges needs to be to come up with a way to maybe reproduce what Mr. Friedman once built that has been hijacked and see if we can’t follow that blue print and get a majority of us back on track protecting something that is so important and so valuable. 

The Truth and Trainer May Be Complete Strangers

Marin Superior Court rules in favor of Drakes Bay Oyster Farm and EAC's Amy Trainer sends out press release claiming the opposite. San Francisco Sentinel calls out Trainer for fear-mongering and ineffective tactics.

July 15, 2013 Farm & Foodshed Report - Transcript of first half

The first half of the July 15, 2013 interview audio  Farm & Foodshed Report, transcript here, is available.

Host Robin Carpenter with Samuel Dolcini, president of the Marin County Farm Bureau and most eligible bachelor in West Marin with Peter Prows, an attorney for Drake’s Bay Oyster Company, and  Phyllis Faber, a founder of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust and part of a lawsuit regarding the Coastal Commission and Drake’s Bay Oyster Company.

During interview, Carpenter read a correction sent from Public Relations representative to DBOC, Sam Singer objecting to the characterization of himself by Trainer during a previous, 6-17-13 interview audio with Trainer on Farm & Foodshed Report. Transcript here.  "

" Neither I nor my company have anything to do with either the Koch Brothers or the Tea Party. Period.
I am personally and professionally appalled by the false statements Amy Trainer made about me, my agency and about the Drakes Bay Oyster Co.   She has made a number of knowingly false statements about Drakes Bay.  It is a sad commentary on the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin that they would allow her behavior and rumor mongering."