Letters to the Editor

Ammo ban misguided

Governor Schwarsenegger and the California Department of Fish and Game have stopped all the use of lead bullets in condor habitat. This is just another tool that has been taken away for the control of unwanted pests.

Laws have been passed to stop use of steel traps, snares in kit fox areas, poison baits and any night hunting for nocturnal coyote. The only control left to the landowner is to use varmint calls and to shoot the predators. The stopping of lead bullets force landowners and sportsmen to use copper bullets which are hard to get and higher in cost.

When laws were passed to stop 1080 poison for squirrels it was replaced with other poisons that were not as effective and were much more costly. The only other way to control squirrels are to shoot them with a .22 rifle. This new law outlaws lead .22 shells and there are no copper .22 bullets available. The Fish and Game admits that there is no copper .22 shells, but that the industry will come up with something. What would be the extra cost and when would they be available? No one has any ideas…just pass a law and see what happens.

If all traps and poisons were eliminated by law for rats, mice, cockroaches, ants, termites, etc. with the only option given that maybe something, sometime in the future would be developed to control these pests; there would be a roar from the voters statewide.

Similar laws are forced on landowners that do not have a large voice in votes, who feel they have some rights to control predator and varmints (pests) on their lands.

The condor is not extinct. It just does not live in California due to California’s large population of people and an increasing population of wild pigs. Condors are scavengers, i.e. they eat dead animals, and so are wild pigs. These birds raised in labs and released would possibly disappear from California again if not for the feeding and constant monitoring by the crew form the Pinnacle National Monument. There is just not an ecological niche left for the condor. It is like pounding a square peg into a round hole.

Joseph W. Spencer

Paicines

Whose property rights?

In your Dec. 14 editorial you stated, “An effective hillside ordinance protects the views those of us who are already here invested in when we purchased our property.”

Where in your deed is the ownership of that view? How much did you pay for it?

I purchased my home over 30 years ago. It is an older house that was originally built before there was indoor plumbing or electricity. It is on a hillside with a view of the San Juan Valley. As a hillside homeowner I, too, value my ever-changing view that ranges from the browns of newly plowed fields to the spring green of newly sprouted crops and the reds of lettuce and blue-green of broccoli. There used to be apple and pear orchards with their spring blossoms, summer leaves, and fall fruit. I don’t look forward to the day when that dynamic view becomes nothing but rooftops and roads, but I respect the rights of the owners of that property to develop it if that is what they need to do.

The hillsides (and the valleys) are not public park land which we all own! We do not have the right to dictate how they are developed based on how they will affect our view.

If you want to improve the view on your own property, landscape it with colorful trees and shrubs that will look good from within your property as well as from your neighbors’ property. As you said, “… an individual’s property rights end at his fence”.

Rosanne Herzog

San Juan Bautista

Voters need answers

Why did Assemblywoman Anna.Caballero choose to accept the recent pay raise when we again are facing another huge state budget crisis?

And why has she, Sen. Jeff Denham, and all of our legislators failed to champion a repeal of the recent $45 million sales tax break – that legislators have given yacht, plane and RV owners in the current budget?

Most voters are too busy to keep up with the actions of their elected officials.

Why don’t our local newspapers keep us better informed regarding our federal, state and local representatives?

Whenever there is legislation passed or action taken, voters should be advised.

As an example, the Kansas City Star newspaper features a section entitled “How they voted.” It gives a synopsis of House and Senate legislation and the vote of the various members of Congress.

Our local papers should do the same for our elected officials: city councils, the board supervisors, state, and federal representatives.

And finally, why aren’t the board of supervisor meetings in TV format on the county website?  Sacramento County does so on its county website – both live and archived meetings. They even have an up-to-date action summary in written form.

Robert Oen

Soledad

 What if the world was more like SBC?

How gratifying to observe the many acknowledgments of gratitude in your paper to the community for their help in feeding the hungry and homeless, sheltering the battered and providing services for our youth, sick, and elderly.

  Since we do feel compassion towards others, it seems possible to have a governmental policy of peace and cooperation in the world as opposed to one of domination and control. Let’s seriously think about that because that policy would be based on compassion, generosity, and repentance for what we have done. 

  Of course this is exactly what all religions teach. I would go so far as adding that even the non-religious believe in these same values. True values such as these could unite us all towards helping each other and protecting the planet.

Mary Zanger

Hollister