To judge from their résumés, Nicasio
landowners David Mease and Catherine Salah aren’t your average
farmers. Mease was trained as an architect, and now runs a successful
contracting business; Salah is an attorney. The Kentfield couple might
seem out of place if seen in the ranks of hardscrabble midwestern families
that have farmed the same plot of land for generations.
But in Marin County, where a patchwork of organic
farms, vineyards, and ranches in all shapes and sizes are worked by
an equally diverse array of operators – many with unexpected professional
past lives – they might just fit in. The couple certainly has reason
to hope so: West Marin’s agricultural community is now rallying
to support Mease and Salah in their fight to retain control of a fire
road, heavily used by the public, that runs across their land.
"There’s no question that public access
through private properties is a real concern of ours – I think
that’s the heart of the concern from the ranching community,"
said Chileno Valley rancher Mike Gale, who with his wife Sally runs
a beef cattle operation on his property, along with an organic apple
orchard.
The Gales were among several representatives of West
Marin’s agricultural community who attended a public hearing on
Mease’s and Salah’s building permits this week at the Marin
County planning commission.
The controversy over the Mease/Salah property springs
from the public’s decades-old use of a fire road that runs for
a less than half a mile the couple’s land. The road connects to
the Dixon Ridge Trail, which in turn links into 40 miles of trails running
through Samuel P. Taylor Park and the Point Reyes National Seashore
– one of the most popular trail networks in West Marin.
Public outcry over fire road
In November, hikers, equestrians, and mountain bikers
began demanding that the couple hand the fire road over to the county
Department of Parks and Open Space in the form of a public-access easement.
Mease and Salah have steadfastly refused to do so, saying that they
would like to reserve the right to limit access in the future –
"we don’t want this to be a thoroughfare," Mease says
– but that they have no plans to close off the fire road altogether.
But many who use the fire road want more than Mease’s
guarantees. Jean Berensmeir, a a 40-year resident of the San Geronimo
Valley who wants an easement on the road, notes that the small stretch
of the Dixon Ridge Trail that runs across the Mease/Salah property is
the last piece of the trail that has not already been dedicated to public
access through an easement.
"This is unconscionable," Berensmeier said.
"Every other ridge property owner has cooperated or is in the process
of cooperating with establishing a multi-use trail."
Complicating the debate over public access to the
property is the existence of a small vineyard – about 1,500 vines
at this point, which Mease says will eventually expand to 5,000 vines
– on the property’s south-facing slope. The couple says they
plan to develop a small-scale winery producing Pinot Noir, similar to
the vineyard run by Mark Pasternak at nearby Devils Gulch Ranch.
Hobby farm?
Those who favor an easement on the fire road say that
the extent of the couple’s involvement in agriculture doesn’t
merit special consideration in the planning process.
"In essence we have an expensive subdivision
with an agricultural component that might be characterized as hobby
farming," said Frank Binney, a member of the San Geronimo Valley
Planning Group. "We don’t want to see the breaks that might
be given a dairy ranch or cattle ranch be used by people who are doing
this kind of development."
In response, Mease notes that he and his wife have
already invested $100,000 in their vineyard, and plan to spend at least
another $100,000 over the next few years as they increase their plantings.
He hopes to one day have a production that could yield an annual income
of more than $100,000.
"Most people would consider this a serious investment,"
he said. "We certainly do."
So do others, it appears. Also attending the planning
commision’s hearing on the Mease/Salah property were Dennis and
Nancy Gates, who own a sheep ranch north of Dillon Beach; and Sally
Pozzi, who spoke on behalf of the county farm bureau. At the conclusion
of the hearing, commissioners decided to postpone a decision on Mease’s
and Salah’s application until late March.
Gates questioned the derogatory resonance of "hobby
farming," quoting farm bureau statistics which show that more than
half of farmers nationwide rely on sources of income outside of farming.
In Marin County, she noted, where many pursue small-scale, organic agriculture,
the number of farmers who need other jobs to get by is considerably
higher.
Trails on ranches
Trail access on ranchland has been a signal issue
in West Marin since 2003, when the new edition of the Marin Countywide
Plan was published. The plan showed trails running across ranches where
none existed, and included several "proposed" trail alignments
that had been drawn in without the consent of property owners.
Gates and others successfully lobbied to have the
"existing" trails removed from the map, but the "proposed"
trails remained in place, worrying ranchers that the county could one
day try to establish public access to their land.
"I would like to ask every person in this room
today, especially those wearing the "Save Our Trails" signs,
to pause for a moment and think about how they would personally feel
if people were walking through their own properties," Nancy Gates
said. "And imagine that we’re going to come back tomorrow,
and we’re going to keep coming back, because we think it is our
right. Use of another’s property does not automatically make it
your property."
Former West Marin supervisor Gary Giacomini said that
the issue of trail access on ranches is distinct from the controversy
surrounding the fire road. For one thing, he said, some of the issues
involving public access to ranchlands don’t exist on the Dixon
Ridge Trail; "the grapes won’t be attacking people as they
go through," he said, as cows sometimes do.
More important, he said, is the public’s longstanding
use of the fire road.
"This is not a circumstance of trying to put
a trail across someone’s ranch," he said. "This is a
trail that’s been there for many, many years. This is an accommodation
that should be made."