Caspar Community Meeting: March 2000

Caspar News and Press Releases

Caspar Meeting to Plan Headlands Use

Caspar residents and friends are invited to join their neighbors in designing the management plan for the Caspar headlands and riparian. The meeting, on Sunday, March 12th, at 3pm at the Mendocino Coast Jewish Community Center in Caspar, is the latest in a series of community gatherings intended to help guide Caspar's future.

"The land is all but secured, and we look forward to an announcement in the very near future" according to Judy Tarbell, a director of village's non-profit organization Caspar Community. Tarbell notes that an important part of Caspar's success in funding the acquisition and preservation of the headlands is the community's recognition that the coast belongs to all of us. "All the agencies that might end up owning the land have expressed an encouraging willingness to hear what we have to say ... so let's be sure to tell them!"

To direct the planning process, the Caspar Community has asked one-time Caspar resident Shamli Tarbell, now an active landscape architect working in San Francisco, to facilitate the meeting. "This is a good follow-up on earlier work done for the Community by Randy Hester and his team of UC graduates students," stated Community board president Mike Dell'Ara. "We already have experience working with planners, and so our process is efficient and remarkably free from dissent. I'm looking forward to this next round. It is especially exciting that we will be led by one of our own children." Shamli is the daughter of Jim and Judy Tarbell.

Shamli Tarbell indicates that she wants to approach the design of public use of the headlands by exploring the village's human history of lumber and dog-hole schooners alongside the land's natural history with special attention to the coho salmon, osprey, and grey fox. The headlands offer a perfect stage for interpreting this history. I expect this study to lead us to a better understanding of where trails need to go and how the land can best be used." She cites Ted Wurm's wonderful book, Mallets on the Mendocino Coast, and collections at the Kelley House, Mendocino County Museum, and UC Berkeley as invaluable resources. " There are several exciting remnants of the Caspar Lumber Company's uses," Shamli enthuses, "and the way natural habitat is regenerating itself, especially in the riparian zone, is encouraging. We must find a way for people from near and far to see this without damaging it."

Community input will be gathered on a number of issues, including restoration of native habitat, protection of wildlife and plants, parking for visitors, access and safety concerns, highway signage, and public health. As always, anyone interested in helping plan Caspar's next hundred years will be welcome. More information about Caspar's planning process can be found at the village website, generously provided by MCN, at CasparCommons.org .

« previous   : :   index   : :   next »