Summer Brennan - The Oyster War: The True Story of a Small Farm, Big Politics, and the Future of Wilderness in America

THE OYSTER WAR

Copyright 2015 Summer Brennan

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-61902-527-1

Cover design by Kelly Winton

Interior design by Megan Jones Design

COUNTERPOINT

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

e-book ISBN 978-1-61902-648-3

For my father

Patrick William Brennan

Everything not saved will be lost.

QUIT SCREEN MESSAGE, NINTENDO

CONTENTS

RANCHERS, FARMERS & OTHER WORKERS OF THE LAND & WATER

Kevin Lunny, rancher and owner of the oyster farm since 2005

Nancy Lunny, his wife

Brigid Lunny, their daughter

Ginny Lunny Cummings, Kevins sister, manager of Drakes Bay Oyster Company

Joe Lunny Jr., Kevin and Ginnys father

Oscar, an oyster worker

Ignacio, an oyster worker

Rosa, an oyster workers daughter

J.V. Mendoza, a rancher

Zena Mendoza, his wife

Joseph Mendoza, their son

Little Joey Mendoza, their grandson

Charlie Johnson, owner of the oyster farm 19571992

Makiko Johnson, an oyster farmer, Charlies wife

Tom Johnson, Charlies son, owner of the oyster farm 19922004

John Stillwell Morgan, ships captain, West Coast oystering pioneer

Sophia Morgan, ne Crellin, his wife

John Crellin, oyster magnate

Thomas Crellin, oyster magnate

Larry Jensen, an oyster farmer

Oscar Johansson, an oyster farmer

Boyd Stewart, a rancher and farmer

Pat Quail, biologist, artist, first person to farm oysters in Drakes Estero

Millard Doc Ottinger, a doctor and gentleman rancher

Ambrose Gondola, his employee

ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES

Fred Smith, Executive Director of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, 20072010

Amy Trainer, took over from Fred in 2010

Gordon Bennett, a Sierra Club spokesperson and activist

Beula Edmiston, an advocate for tule elk

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE STAFF & GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior 20092013

Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Interior 2013

Jonathan Jarvis, National Park Service Director, former director of Pacific West Region

John Sansing, Point Reyes National Seashore Superintendent 19701995

Don Neubacher, Point Reyes National Seashore Superintendent 19952010

Cicely Muldoon, Point Reyes National Seashore Superintendent 2010

Sarah Allen, biologist, Point Reyes National Seashore Senior Science Advisor

Ben Becker, Point Reyes biologist

Dave Press, Point Reyes biologist

Melanie Gunn, Point Reyes administrator

John DellOsso, Point Reyes National Seashore spokesperson

Tim Ragen, head of the Marine Mammal Commission

OTHER SCIENTISTS

Corey Goodman, neuroscientist and venture capitalist

Deborah Elliott-Fisk, a biologist, UC Davis

Roberto Anima, a biologist, U.S. Geological Survey

Harriet Huber, a biologist focusing on marine mammals

David Ainley, a biologist focusing on marine mammals

Steven D. Emslie, a biologist focusing on seabirds

McCrea Cobb, a biologist studying tule elk

POLITICIANS

Pete McCloskey, California Congressman 19751983, Republican

Phillip Burton, California Congressman 19641983, Democrat

Dianne Feinstein, California Senator, Democrat

Barbara Boxer, California Senator, Democrat

Lynn Woolsey, California Congresswoman, Democrat

Steve Kinsey, a county supervisor, de facto mayor of West Marin

OTHER PLAYERS

Greg Sarris, Indian chief, novelist, professor and casino owner

Burr Heneman, former director of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory

David Weiman, a lobbyist

Robert Plotkin, owner of the Point Reyes Light newspaper 20052010

Tom Baty, a fisherman, beachcomber and forager

Unnamed sharpshooter, wildlife population control specialist with White Buffalo Inc.

The Sealers Woman, a ghost

names changed

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society where none intrudes,

By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:

I love not Man the less, but Nature more.

LORD BYRON

T HE SUMMER I spent as a reporter covering the war between the oysters and the wilderness, every night was a foggy one. The long days ended with a relief that arrived in two stages. The first came when the outstretched arm of Tomales Bay began to fill again in the late afternoons, submerging the gasping mud flats and exposed estuarine grasses as the little waves came lapping in, reaching high tide just as darkness fell. The second came when the fog made its way over the forested ridge from the sea, rolling wetly down hillsides, across meadows and into valleys. Still, as the clock ticked towards midnight, and then one, and then two, as I sat hunched over my desk night after night in the little newspaper office by the coast, I often wondered how it was that I found myself in the middle of all this.

It was a mess. There was no other word for it. The two camps had split the community, and it seemed that nearly everyone was passionately in favor of one side or the other. Lifelong neighbors stopped speaking. Family members who found themselves on opposite sides of the divide had finally, after much debate, agreed not to raise the topic at all. By the time I arrived, there had been so many scientific studies, and rebuttals and counter-rebuttals that even I, whose job it had become to know what was going on, had a hard time keeping everything straight. Some people would only meet with me about it in secret, too scared to email or talk about it on the phone. They squeezed clues and unsigned notes bearing unsolicited advice through the windows of my beater car if I left them rolled down a crack. Accusations were hurled from every direction, of fraud, scientific misconduct, environmental felony, lies, even Tea Party Republicanism and Koch brothers supportgrave insults to many in that largely liberal neck of the woods. Things were tense enough, and then the hidden cameras were discovered and then everything pretty much went to hell.

This isnt my story, and the part I play in it personally is small. Still, some things I can only tell through my own eyes, and for that I ask your indulgence. As far as sides go, I have tried my best to stay neutral. I was introduced to the conflict when I was hired by the