Sounding Board -- Rodolphe Streichenberger

Who wants to plant kelp (“Kelp reforesting could get boost,” Monday)?

For the purpose of protecting and developing marine life, two groups

of Newport Beach residents want to plant kelp in our coastal waters. Both

nonprofit and public benefit organizations, the Marine Forests Society

and the Orange County CoastKeeper were permitted to plant by the owners

of the designated submerged land, the city of Newport Beach and the State

Lands Commission. However, the permit of the legitimate property owners,

representing the people of Newport Beach and the people of California, is

worth nothing without the other permits of government bureaucrats who

want to rule on this land as if they were the owners.

After two years of bureaucratic hardship, the CoastKeeper will be

given eight permits by eight agencies to allow them to plant a few

hundred plants of kelp. In the other case, after seven years of

bureaucratic wrangling, the Marine Forests Society was ordered by the

California Coastal Commission to cease and desist. Fortunately, the

Marine Forests program was saved by a May 8, 2001, decision of a California Superior Court that declared the coastal commission

unconstitutional, with no power to control development permits. The

coastal commission has appealed the decision of the court.

Who will plant the kelp?

The state bureaucrats say they will do it themselves, although they

have long-demonstrated that they are incapable to do so. For 26 years,

and in spite of a budget of several hundred millions dollars, the

California Coastal Commission failed to plant 150 acres of kelp offshore

from San Onofre. And the Department of Fish and Game was equally

incompetent.

* RODOLPHE STREICHENBERGER is a Newport Beach resident who founded the

Marine Forests Society.