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Oyster farm dispute roils Marin County: Kevin Lunny says he’s a ‘little guy’ up against the Park Service, but he has violated state and federal pacts for four years

Posted by: Maven on December 27, 2009 at 7:23 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

“Reporting from Point Reyes National Seashore – Kevin Lunny is an oysterman, the proprietor of Drakes Bay Oyster Co., the largest oyster farm in California. He operates this and other family businesses from the lush coastal enclave of Point Reyes National Seashore, which means he has the National Park Service as a landlord.

His might otherwise be a familiar tale: a tenant engaged in an acrimonious battle to avoid eviction. But that’s where this story veers into a complex web of alleged conspiracies and politicking worthy of a Cold War spy novel.

Lunny, who portrays himself as the local “little guy” in the saga, alleges that Park Service officials have engaged in scientific misconduct to portray his oyster operation as harmful to federally protected harbor seals. He says they are in cahoots with the California Coastal Commission and environmentalists to run him out of business and boot him out of the national seashore.

The flawed-science charge was affirmed by the National Academies of Science. The rest, however, remains in dispute and has stirred up western Marin County, which prides itself on its pastoral history and which fears that the federal government aims to end that tradition on its lands. … “

Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

December 27, 2009 · Filed Under Bay Area

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