Protected flower has town at odds with developer

[question everything]

Protected flower has town at odds with developer

Was it planted to derail project?

By Terence Chea
ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 9, 2006

SEBASTOPOL – Did residents of this idyllic wine-country town in Northern California illegally plant an endangered flower to sabotage a proposed housing development? That's the question at the heart of a dispute locals have dubbed “Foamgate.”

Bob Evans, a 72-year-old retired elementary school principal, says he was walking his dog last year when he came upon the tiny white flowers of Sebastopol meadowfoam poking from shallow pools of water in a grassy field. The former bean farm happens to be the proposed site of the 20-acre Laguna Vista housing development in Sonoma County... Sebastopol, an upscale community of about 8,000 people 50 miles north of San Francisco, is known for its environmentally conscious residents and restrictive growth policies.

(snip)

Known as Limnanthes vinculans, the multistemmed herbs grow up to a foot tall and have small, bowl-shaped white flowers. They are only found in seasonal wetlands and vernal pools created by spring rains in this part of Sonoma County. Threatened by agriculture and urban development, the meadowfoam was listed as an endangered species by the state and federal governments, making it illegal to harm or remove the plants without permission. Wetland and vernal pool habitat has been set aside to protect them.

(snip)

Fish and Game launched an investigation into who planted the flowers, but it never identified suspects. The department's refusal to offer evidence for its conclusion has prompted Laguna Vista opponents to cry foul.

(snip)

After a series of public hearings, the Sebastopol City Council tabled final approval of Laguna Vista. A mediator is overseeing negotiations between Schellinger Bros. and residents in hopes of reaching a compromise that could include a scaled-down version of the project.


Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060709/news_1n9flowers.html

[flowomo]

1. nice flower:

[Cleita]

2. Good for them. It's about time that developers, lumber companies

and others who think the land is there for their plundering to realize that they don't own first rights on anything. It's time people stood up to them and let them know that building, extracting minerals and lumber and other commercial enterprises will be allowed to operate as a privilege from the inhabitants not a right.

I love the area Sebastopol is in and it certainly doesn't need a lot of concrete and pavement replacing the natural beauty of the place.

[Redstone]

3. Who cares if they planted it on purpose? The ends justify the means.

At least in this case.

Redstone

[Richard Steele]

4. I am very suspicious of the "transplant" theory, and here's why:

Follow my logic:
This is a very FINICKY plant. If it "grew like a weed",
it probably wouldn't be ENDANGERED in the first place, right?

QUOTE: "They are only found in seasonal wetlands and vernal pools
created by spring rains in this part of Sonoma County.

Plants so ridiculously PICKY about their growing conditions
are generally even more PICKY about being TRANSPLANTED.
Even under ideal conditions, alot of them would die after being dug up.

So the notion that people could move an entire field
full of them seems a little unlikely, especially when this new field
is at a higher altitude than their normal range.

Dropping seeds in a place it didn't already grow naturally
is equally unlikely to produce a full crop of plants in a single year.

Also, re: The second generation of plants, which the developer claims
were seeded by plants from "the original crime".
That seems unlikely as well.

When a plant is transplanted, it is a SHOCK to its system.
And one common result is: the plant's 'internal clock'
goes back to day one, and starts the countdown to flowering all over again
as though it were a new seedling.

So it's much less likely that a VERY FINICKY plant like this
would manage to flower (and drop seeds that would grow)
if it is weeks or months off of its normal annual cycle.

Nope, I'm not buying it.
If a plant this PICKY fills an entire field, and then drops
enough seeds to fill it again the following year,
it's a pretty safe bet that it's been there for quite awhile,
getting used to the place and making itself at home.

Its much more likely, IMHO, that a developer would "accidentally overlook"
a deal-breaking plant like this when filling in the
'Endangered Flora' section of the required Site Reports.

Probably couldn't see that tiny flower because of
all the DOLLAR SIGNS in his eyes, knowhutImean?

[ninkasi]

5. As one who was an avid gardener

before I became physically unable to care for my plants, I agree. The secret to having beautiful gardens is to grow plants native to the area. Some plants resist being transplanted, or uprooted, and declare their resistance by dying. Who knows how many species of plants have been eradicated by ravishing the Amazonian rain forests? Who knows how much beauty, or how many cures for diseases have been lost due to human greed? Leave this plant where it is. There are more humans than there are of these plants.

[Richard Steele]

6. Thank you for your agreement. I appreciate your 'second' to my motion.

In gardening, as in most things, I am almost entirely self-taught.

I have experience and good instincts, I am a very intelligent human...
but I lack the little letters at the end of my signature that make
people take notice and pay respect to my experienced opinions.

I graduated HS at 16, and have never pursued a 'career'or a 'degree'.
This choice has left me free to spend my life LEARNING things.

And "learn" I have!
The places I have been, the things I have learned...
it's been a trip, I tellyawhut!

And one of the EASIEST things I have learned about is PLANTS.
You don't need to INVESTIGATE plants...
you just need to pay attention to detail, have some patience...
and they will SHOW you all that you could ever want to know
about who they are, what they do, and WHY and HOW they do it.

PLANTS are EASY to understand compared to People.

[question everything]

7. Thank you, this makes a lot of sense

even for me, with a "yellow" thumb..