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Skaggs in Limbo
Jim Haire has dark circles under his eyes these days. Among the worries troubling this third generation North Bay farmer is how to pass a viable business on to his 19-year-old son at a time when the glassy-winged sharpshooter threatens to wipe out his, and all of Northern California's, vineyards and when the government wants to make wetlands out of his oatfields.
"For the numbers they're talking about giving me for my land, I'm better off farming," says Haire, of recent government overtures concerning the purchase of his property. "If the sharpshooter moves into my vineyards, and then the enviros fight us so we can't spray, I can still put beans on the dinner table from my oat hay and grain."
But Haire's in a better position to bargain than some. One of his ranches is on Skaggs Island, next to a defunct 3,300-acre Naval spook station that U.S. Fish & Wildlife would like transform into a giant tidal and seasonal wetland. The property lies in a critical position - adjacent to two other major restoration projects, the former Cargill salt ponds and Cullinan Ranch. Put together with these neighbors, it would constitute a superstar wetland complex of the size that begins to feel like real habitat to the flora and fauna of the Bay's endangered tidal marshes.
"It's a linchpin for North Bay restoration," says Marge Kolar of Fish & Wildlife, which has been negotiating with the Navy for several years to do an intra-federal transfer of the property. There are three main bugaboos in the deal right now: 65 acres of abandoned buildings, Jim Haire and base cleanup.
For Fish & Wildlife, the buildings are the main hold up. Kolar's agency wants no part of them. Demolition could cost $3-12 million, a bill Fish & Wildlife thinks the Navy should foot. But the Navy says it's only responsible for sealing up the buildings so they're safe.
Fish & Wildlife's ears pricked up this fall, when local interests suggested taking over the 65 acres and turning them into housing for the region's vineyard and winery workers, many of whom now live in cars and tents. Skaggs's location right at the base of the Sonoma and Napa Valleys, and its 80 duplexes, three-storey dormitory and many amenities, make it a "ready-made opportunity to establish a village for the seasonal workers so vital to our economy," says neighbor Patricia Westerbech.
Developer Ron Swim also has a vision for seasonal worker housing, but neither he nor Westerbech are committed enough yet to make Fish & Wildlife comfortable that it won't be saddled with managing and maintaining the 65 acres.
The other bugaboo could be Jim Haire. His 1,000 acres next to the base are the only other private property on the island. Though there's nothing standing in the way of Fish & Wildlife just taking over the base, it would also inherit commitments between former owners to maintain levees and protect Haire's property that date back to 1941. Those commitments specify that water levels on these subsided lands need to be kept as near to zero on the tide gage as possible, except for irrigation purposes, according to Haire. Fish & Wildlife's rough plans for restoration callfor adding some levees, breaching others, and creating tidal wetlands on about two thirds of the acreage while leaving the rest in seasonal wetlands.
"We have to protect neighboring farms from water seepage," says Kolar. Though Haire has nothing against creating wetlands, he doesn't trust Fish & Wildlife to do a good job, pointing to seepage problems at the nearby Tolay Creek project. "The minute they breach a levee on Skaggs or put one gallon of water behind it, I'll have them in court," he says.
An easier route would be for Haire to sell his Skaggs property to the government at a good price. Kolar says the government would like to buy it, but is limited in what it can offer by a rigid official appraisal process that makes his property values pretty low (an independent appraiser, looking at the Haire property, determined that its "highest and best use" was as an oatfield, and that given market and regulatory forces its value was around $2,000 -$2,500 per acre).
Environmentalist Marc Holmes, of The Bay Institute, thinks Haire's property is worth more than the average oatfield. "This land should command more of a premium because it's so integral to so many restoration projects. Fish & Wildlife should partner with a nonprofit to come up with the difference between asking price and appraised value," he says.
Knowing that Cullinan Ranch sold for $4,300 per acre makes Haire mad. "They want to offer us, small American farming families who have built this country, less for our land than they gave the Japanese offshore owners of Cullinan. All we're asking for is a fair shake."
Kolar says Cullinan got a higher price because it had what the appraiser deemed "development potential." She notes that other people are very concerned that government may be overpaying for properties (referring to a recent suit against the State of California and Cargill over the value of the North Bay salt pond complex).
Price wars aside, Holmes is impatient with the whole Skaggs Island ordeal. "This is the restoration project that should be but isn't. First, I'm incredibly frustrated with the Navy for not proceeding with a minor clean up costing a few hundred thousand in pocket change out of what appears to be stinginess. Second, I'm equally frustrated with the Department of Interior and Fish & Wildlife for not moving this forward. Third, I'm frustrated with them for not going after neighboring properties aggressively, and finding a way to pay their actual value. When you really look at it, there are no significant logistical obstacles to this deal." Contact: Jim Haire (707) 224-9379; Marc Holmes (415) 721-7680 or Marge Kolar (510) 792-0222 ARO
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