By Donna Westfall – February 16, 2018 –
During our Town Hall Meetings this week, Sup. Roger Gitlin brought up that Congressman Jared Huffman is coming to Del Norte County next week on February 23rd, Friday.
On his agenda is discussing his proposed new national park in Northern California.
I went to Huffman’s website to see if I could find more information on the topic, but instead found oodles of anti-Trump postings on his website as well as on his Facebook site.
Vigorous discussion was held around the table this morning including insight from Paul Senyszyn who worked for Forest Services who said it will attract more tourists and is in favor of the National Park, to Jaime Yarbrough who is not in favor.
No more State or National Parks in Del Norte County. Allow more uses in our existing State and National Parks. The existing land management systems for our State and National Parks are too restrictive leading to inaccessible public lands. For instance, for personal use you cannot pick mushrooms in a State Park in Del Norte County but if you are in Salt Point State Park in Sonoma County you can.
Additionally, there are very few public lands along the coast that are open for personal use mushroom picking. We have a season but no way to legally forage for our natural resource. The coastal mushroom season and types are not identical to the mushroom season in our hills.
SCENARIO:
Del Norte County:
less people = less political voice = less environmental concerns for collecting mushrooms = crime to harvest mushrooms in State Park
Sonoma County:
more people = greater political voice = greater potential for environmental concerns for collecting mushrooms = permitted to harvest mushrooms in State Park