By Nathaniel Dolton-Thornton, Bay Nature
The hiking group was supposed to meet 20 minutes ago, but I’m sitting here on the roadside staring at a locked gate and a handful of discouraging signs. “Hazardous Fire Area,” “Bioregional Habitat Restoration Project,” “No Parking Any Time” (twice). Past the gate, a road winds up through thick green hills half hidden in fog.
I’ve been waiting for weeks to get behind this gate, but that barely makes me a newcomer to the scene: Pressure on the landowner to open the area to public recreation has been mounting for decades. So far that pressure has been relieved only by docent-led hikes like the one I’m meant to be on today, but now it may have reached a breaking point.
Read the complete story at Bay Nature.
