[CPEO-MEF] REUSE, NATURAL RESOURCES: Skaggs Island, CA

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Skaggs Island wetlands closer, but not a deal

Rancher owns 1,174 acres

By Bill Lynch
SONOMA INDEX-TRIBUNE (CA)
October 9, 2008

Lifelong Sonoma Valley rancher Jim Haire and the United States Navy have 
shared Skaggs Island and a common boundary for decades in the tidelands 
at the southern entrance to the Valley.

If a bill authored by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and passed by 
Congress, is signed into law by President Bush, they both may be forced 
to do business with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which seeks to 
make the island the crown jewel of its efforts to return North Bay 
wetlands to their natural state.

Although the Navy decommissioned its communications base on Skaggs 
Island in 1993 and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been willing 
to take it over and restore its 3,200 acres to wetlands, the actual 
transfer has been held up for many years over which agency would be 
responsible for any contamination found during the restoration process. 
Woolsey's bill would force the Navy and the wildlife agency to move the 
process forward and reach an agreement.


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.sonomanews.com/articles/2008/10/09/news/doc48e56e760d1f1069309684.txt

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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