Letters to the editor

The Salinas Californian
Posted on May 3, 2007

'Landwatchers' scarce in south county

I have been keeping an eye out for the Landwatchers.

I watch, tend, nurture and maintain my land in the Salinas Valley every day. I have done so for the past 60 years. My parents before me and I have been good stewards of the land. I've yet to see any Landwatchers help with this 24/7-365-days-a-year task.

My daughter says most of the Landwatchers who finance their organization live on the Monterey Peninsula.

Perhaps a few own investment properties in Salinas or Prunedale. She says the LandWatch donors rarely venture into our beautiful Salinas Valley. So I visited a few of my ranch neighbors and asked if they have seen any Landwatchers help keep an eye on our farmland. They have not come in contact with any Landwatch members, except for hired petition signers at Target or the post office.

So what do these people do? They hire lawyers from out of town to write an initiative that will prevent my daughter from building her family home on our ranch.

This seems like an unfair outco me of my years of back-breaking labor to maintain our farmland. I have spent too many years preserving our beautiful ranches to let the LandNazis ruin our future.

I am voting "no" on Measure A, the LandWatch Initiative.

Enri Passerini
Soledad