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January 31, 2001

Who owns that creek anyway?

Years ago, when my brother got married in Petrolia, in the boondocks of Humboldt County, it was the social event of the season from Ettersburg and Honeydew to Cape Mendocino and points north. While there I met a local native who'd now be roughly 100 years old. Times have changed. In her younger days, she told me, when you went fishing or hunting in that area, you not only left your car by the side of the road unlocked, you were honor-bound to leave the keys.

There were few local thieves. Very few outsiders wandered through. So if your car was gone when you returned with your buck or your trout, you knew there'd been an emergency and your car would be returned with thanks and an explanation. No one denied the car was your personal property. It was just that your car was important to the whole community when emergencies happened.

Which brings us to John Maybury, who claims the Sanchez branch of San Pedro Creek is a public thoroughfare. Stephanie Benoit and Stanley Brown quite rightly object to Mr. Maybury's cavalier appropriation of property rights they thought they'd bought and paid for. Their deeds indeed include portions of San Pedro creek, and their rights should be respected. John Maybury's not alone in his way of thinking. In fact, abusing the rights of property owners is an old California tradition. Francisco Sanchez defended his rights by digging a deep ditch along the edge of his 9000 acre ranch to keep out squatters and trespassers. His vigorous action kept what is now Pacifica in his family until he died.

Between 1862 and the early 1950's, San Pedro Creek and its tributaries were in the hands of farmers and ranchers, or their banker-lawyer landlords. Then came that weekend when Andres Oddstad called his friend Ray Higgins. Ray dropped in to see the owners of seven ranches in San Pedro Valley, bought the ranches in one weekend, and Oddstad built Linda Mar.

While property owners definitely do have rights, I was also proud of my son Mike when he went into the bed of San Pedro Creek several years ago and removed 30 or 40 Safeway shopping carts that were damaging the stream. I agreed with those infuriated with Terra Nova High School when the chlorine-laden water of its swimming pool was dumped into the creek, killing Steelhead as much as three feet long.

The land through which the creek runs is private property. The creek itself is a community asset, which should be managed responsibly as a unit. If we knew then what we know now, we might have done what was done with Frenchman's Creek in Half Moon Bay and made its banks a strip park. Several environmental groups are interested in the creek. They should accept the cost and responsibility of purchasing sufficient insurance to protect the homeowners who live along the creek from liability from accidents to permitted visitors. This would remove at least one cause of contention between those who want to responsibly clean and improve the creek and property owners justifiably concerned a lawsuit by an injured creek volunteer could bankrupt them. A decent respect for the legitimate concerns of each side by the other will work best for all in the long run. Cooperate. Negotiate. Respect private property. Go the extra mile.Be fair to all concerned.

E-mail Paul Azevedo at thereactor@earthlink.net or visit his website, http://home.earthlink.net/~thereactor/

 
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