HomeMy WebLinkAbout3/16/2021 Item 12, Czech
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Genevieve Czech <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Item # 12: Open Space Winter Evening Hours of Use
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Honorable Members of SLO City Council,
When the Council voted to provide an experimental use of open spaces for winter evening hours, it was conditional
upon a subsequent survey to evaluate the impact on the flora and fauna of the reserve, it hired consultants at
considerable expense whose conclusion is that the extent and severity of that effect is UNKNOWN. You have had ample
time to study other reports of equivalent studies, with Mr. Allan Cooper even giving you a list of resources that are
relevant. He noted that those reports were based on daytime use, and that, surely, nighttime use would have even more
grave effects. You will recall that the Council was warned that even nesting birds, once startled by sudden,unexpected
movement and lighting from mountain bikes, could be sufficiently disturbed to abandon their nests and young. If we use
simple reasoning rather than allow our judgment to be influenced by cycling lobbies and tourism dollars, if we honor our
commitment to preserve a true green environment in a way that goes beyond the banning of plastic drinking straws, if
we allow ourselves to realise the obvious fact that ¨effects UNKNOWN¨means ¨Don't risk it¨, we must hasten to
terminate any further predation on our open space and nature reserve.
Tonight´s meeting will consider the exigencies of the Covid pandemic, many aspects of which remain unknown - a fact
which surely urges great caution. The same caution should be applied to the care for the inhabitants of our precious
open space, its flora and fauna.
I take the opportunity to repeat a quote from Kipling's ¨Jungle Book¨"which I submitted when the PROVISIONAL permit
was granted, with a view to its reconsideration once the ¨extent and severity¨ of its effects were evaluated. Without
data, or tracking, one bobcat´s demise, one abandoned nest, one mule deer mother hurt, suffice to rule out any
extension. Andy Pease, ¨Vote for the animals´ again, and fellow Council members, see the light as well this time!
¨This is the hour of our power, Talon and tooth and claw. Oh hear the call, ´Good Hunting all´, Who keep the Jungle law¨.
Respectfully submitted,
Genevieve Czech, 612 Stanford Drive
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