A
Documentary from KRCB Public Television
Produced, Directed and Written by Nancy Kelly
From
the 1950s through the 1970s, plans to develop West Marin,
Sonoma and Mendocino counties included four-lane freeways,
marinas, a racetrack, and suburban housing developments for
hundreds of thousands of people in the Marin Headlands and
Limantour Beach. Instead, as a result of a grassroots-driven
revolution in land ethics, residents of and visitors to the
San Francisco Bay Area enjoy the Golden Gate Recreation Area
and Point Reyes National Seashore, parks that are a model
for America and the world.
Moments
in Time is a documentary whose major theme is about the
need in conservation for constant diligence, emphasizing that
in conservation, victories are temporary but its losses are
permanent. This series will inspire other urban residents
across America and the world in their efforts to improve life
in and around cities. In a time when conservation victories
are constantly under attack, the story of the preservation
of these lands will remind viewers that great things are possible.
In
Moments in Time we'll meet the bold, dauntless, forward-thinking
conservationists who assembled a series of land acquisitions
into an increasingly large block of parkland and, in doing
so, thwarted local, state and federal government plans to
turn the Northern California coastline into a Los Angeles-style
suburb. Between the two most dramatic stories of the creation
of the GGNRA are the defeat of the Marincello subdivision
in the Marin Headlands and William Kent’s effort to
save the redwoods in what we know as the Muir Woods National
Monument. The result of the tireless work of many citizens
is that in the midst of San Francisco, one of the world’s
great cities are beaches, mountains, forests, islands and
wildlife. We will emphasize the importance of citizen action
in the preservation of cultural and natural heritage.
Moments in Time will re-live the creation of the
Point Reyes National Seashore, in which recreation and preservation
of agriculture have been woven together into the preservation
of a unique, 80-mile long stretch of undeveloped coastline.
The original plan for Point Reyes envisioned a "Jones
Beach on the Pacific"- a cliff- top parkway would have
passed within yards of a seal rookery, Limantour Estero would
have been engineered for motor boating. Even dune buggies
were provided for. Before any of these plans could be implemented,
the public made it clear that it wanted Point Reyes treated
as wilderness. Although it was a controversial idea in the
beginning, many farms and ranches were made part of the park,
enabling family-based agriculture to continue in an urban
area. Also we will highlight the history and the role of the
Marin Agricultural Land Trust in keeping land from sprawled
development and the many ways in which agriculture, recreation
and conservation dovetailed into a model of sustainable agriculture.
Photography
©Art Rogers/Point Reyes, California
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