After being present last week at Malibu Lagoon for “The Confrontation” as our greenshirts faced down California State Parks’ Suzanne Goode and her crony Shelley Luce of Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission-both of whom are rabidly intent on a senseless bulldozing of our fragile wetlands-I have this to say. Not only are state parks and the bay restoration commission insane, misdirected and way out of line with Mother Nature, but it is also clear that Malibu must rise up before it’s too late and these greenwashers destroy our Lagoon again in a drastic way such that it will not recover in our lifetimes.
Suzanne Goode’s utterly specious and flimsy argument that “the mud is dead” and that “you see no birds in the back of the lagoon because there is no food there for them to eat” was the height of absurdity. Her “field trip” with members of our California Coastal Commission that day at the Lagoon lasted all of six minutes at the first bridge, and the commissioners-in a key and critical interlude-were not even allowed to venture to the second bridge (full and flush with water at high tide!) due to “time constraints.” The commissioners were then abruptly hustled off to a lunch at the Streisand compound in Ramirez Canyon [Ramirez Canyon Park].
Goode did not allow even an additional five minutes for these key decision makers to wander out to and past the second bridge to view just how well functioning and utterly full of life and healthy growth the lagoon is in general and certainly was that day. Criminal, negligent and egregiously disrespectful to the reality and severity of this situation, if you ask me, not to mention complete obfuscation.
Concerned Malibu citizens, I ask you this: are we going to sit quietly by and watch as more than $10 million of taxpayers’ bond money is wasted on a destructive “experiment” to better feed the birds? Are we really going to let California State Parks and the Santa Monica Bay Conservancy run roughshod over us-and get away with this eco-crime of make work right under our noses-while migratory birds are woefully disrupted, endangered species (the Goby for one) are killed off en masse and tens of thousands of other uncountable animals suffer?
I ask you, Malibu. We have a voice and can say a resounding no to this impending disaster. The animals have no say in the matter and are depending on us. Please help us stop this slaughter before it’s too late.
Alden Marin