ANDERSON VALLEY ADVERTISER

December 22, l999

Supes 4-1, evict Point Arena Macaws

TURKEYS TRUMP PARROTS
by Bruce Anderson

Mendocino county consists of 3,510 squre miles. It stretches from the Pacific Ocean on the west to the Coast Range rippling above the Sacramento Valley to the east. This huge expanse is home to two bird-breeding business that somehow, in all the vastness of this vast county, found themselves last summer 700 feet apart on Windy Hollow Road in Point Arena, hard by the Pacific.

One business breeds turkeys, the other parrots. The turkeys are now gone. If Mendocino County has its way, the parrots will soon be gone too. The turkeys had nine years seniority on the parrots when the parrots arrived in Point Arena from Arizona last summer.

The turkeys are called Nicholas Farms and had multipied their numbers since l991 in 700,000 square feet of barns on Windy Hollow road owned by Point Arena's influential Stornetta family. Nicholas Farms was in the process of abandoning their Point Arena perch when Barbara and Geoffrey Gould and thier parrots moved in next door.

The parrots, for all their vivid feathered finery and unique linguistic skills - what other household pet can say to that knock on the door, "If you're from the Jehovah's Witnesses, get the hell away or I'll shoot?"- are up against a bird unanimously considered to be among God's dumbest and ugliest creations, the domesticated turkey. If the thing wasn't edible, no human being, even a board of supervisors, would vote for turkeys over a splendid and amusing animal like the parrot.

But in this unique instance, it's the turkey's human allies who have so far given their stupid and unsightly but tasty fowl the edge over its magnificent neighbors, the Point Arena macaws.

Four of the five Mendocino County supervisors voted Monday to uphold the county's Planning and Building Department's order to evict Barbara and Geoffrey Goulds 120 breeding parrots from the Gould's 16.4 acre Point Arena property. Planning and Building issued the eviction order on October 27, declaring that parrots cannot be commercially bred in an area zoned for agriculture because they are not ag product.

The Goulds had bought their Point Arena property on April 6. "We moved here because Phoenix's growty has turned it into a solar collector, "Mrs. Gould says. "It wasn't good for our birds. Before we purchased our property, the county people said 'great', and that we didn't need a use permit, but forces were at work against us before the ink was dry on our escrow agreement."

It is assumed the Stornettas complained to the Department of Planning and Building about the parrots proximity to the turkeys, and when the Stornettas complain, official Mendocino county hops to.

Supervisor David Colfax sided with the Goulds at Monday's hearing although he'd sped up the appeals process to bypass the County's Planning commission where appeals of cease and desist order are ordinarily first heard. Colfax pointed out the contrdadictions and absurdities in present Mendocino County zoning laws in an airing of the dispute that ran four raucous hours.

"What would happen," Colfax summed up Monday evening, "if a pig farmer moved right next door to an agricultural area which had a tasting room and a vineyard on it? Would that tasting room have to shut down because it is less agricultural than a pig farm? The point being that a pig farm would be obtrusive and not very pleasant to be next to if you're out there tasting wine next door. The Ag Departments Dave Bengston said that probably the pig operation would take precedence, although I doubt in reality that's the direction things would go. In Mendocino county you apparently can't have exotic birds unless they are ostriches. You can draw whatever conclusions you want from that......"

The supervisors, Colfax dissenting, had already concluded Monday that the Gould's parrots and the British owned Nicholas Turkey Breeding Farms represented an incompatible use. The Goulds had been breeding the exotic birds in Arizona for 26 years. They moved themselves and their parrots to Point Arena last June. They thought they had the green light from the county's planners.

The Goulds have dated notes from approving conversations they say they had with planning staffers before they bought in on Windy Hollow road, and they have telephone bills showing numerous calls from Arizona to Mendocino County's planning and building department.

What the Goulds dont have is a letter, written confirmation, from Planning and building telling them to bring the parrots on in from Phoenix. But if the Goulds didn't have verbal assurances that they could breed parrots in Point Arena, they must have enjoyed hearing long distance No's from official Mendocino County because they certainly reached out from Arizona to touch someone in Ukiah a suspiciously large number of times.

Allen Falleri, speaking for the county's planning and building department at Monday's hearing, said that Planning and building's records contain no record of the Goulds plans to breed parrots in Point Arena. Falleri said planning and building became 'aware' of a possible parrot-turkey 'problem' in August, and claimed that only one member of his agency admits to having talked to the Goulds. He declined to name the person who alerted Planning and building that Point Arena's unique parrot-turkey interface was ruffling human feathers.

"I didnt sneak in here", Mrs. Gould pointed out in response to Falleri's evasive and unconvincing recollections of his departments dealings with the Goulds. The feisty parrot breeder went on to say that she'd not only had many encouraging conversations with members of the planning and building department but had consulted with several local real estate agents, none of whom saw any obstacles to parrot production on the Mendocino Coast.

Supervisor Colfax sees the sequence of events the same way. "Someone is dissembling here. Maybe the county was a little sloppy, but to tell the Goulds to pack up and go back to Arizona is irresponsible".

Colfax's fellow supervisors were unmoved and voted 4-1 to evict the parrots.

Dr. George West, of UC Davis, considered California's leading expert on avian matters, has written to the Goulds that Mendocino County's definition of agriculture as food and fiber is contradicted by the county's numerous miniature horse and pig farms in ag areas and its definition of lamas and ostriches as agricultural products although none of these creatures are sold as food or fiber.

Dale Birminhgam, a Pomo Indian artist, showed the supervisors attractive ensembles he's created, all of which depend for their beauty on parrot feathers, implying that the Gould's parrots had indeed brought an important fiber product to Point Arena which was otherwise unavailable on the Mendocino Coast.

Barbara Gould characterized Monday's hearing as 'a railroad job'. She and her husband Geoff paid $1120.00 in filing fees for their now failed-appeal. The Goulds have incurred even more expense by hiring Healdsburg attorney, Bill Phillips, to represent them Monday and in future battles in what is shaping up as a prolonged war with Mendocino County.

Geoffrey Gould said that if the county forces the Goulds and their birds off their $350,000 Point Arena property they may simply donate the place to the nearby Manchester band of Pomo Indians. "That way we wont have to pay taxes and I can build a big hotel", Gould joked. "The Pomos welcome us".

Ironically, the turkeys have already flown their Windy Hollow Road coops. Nicholas Farms' executive officer, Steve Clausen, has said he decided to move the 3000 breeding toms and their fertile hens to several new sites and one old one just last month, a logistical feat that defies the apparent reality.

Nicholas Farms decided some time ago, well before the Goulds and their parrots appeared almost next door, to disperse thier invaluable breeding stock over three or four sites, thus enhancing their birds safety. Apparently experts in avian matters have been advising the turkey people not to put all their eggs into one Nicholas Farms basket because disease, animal liberators, turko-terrorists - just about anything might take out their entire stock in a catastrophic night's work. One delegation of turkeys now occupies a Nicholas property in the state of Washington, other parts of the flock are already ensconced at other Nicholas sites. It is highly unlikely, persons close to the operation say, that Nicholas will ever again raise turkeys in Point Arena whether or not the Goulds and their parrots remain on Windy Hollow road.

If the turkeys are already gone, why do the parrots have to go too? And given the fact that they turkeys are gone, is it likely that Nicholas Farms will ship any part of the flock back to Point Arena after having settled the birds into their new sites, handier to transportation centers?

But Clausen, the turkey farm boss, has told the Stornettas, owners of the property on which the turkey operation has been headquartered for nine years, that he'll resume turkey operations on Windy Hollow Road if the parrots leave.

The Stornettas seems to believe him. At least they say they do.

But the Goulds and their parrots are convenient foils for both the Stornettas and the turkey people. Nicholas Farms can plausibly break their lease with the Stornettas if the parrots remain next door, and the Stornettas can also blame the loss of their tenants on the Goulds and their parrots.

At Monday's hearing, Tim Morrison, attorney for the Stornettas, maintained the fiction that the turkeys left because of the parrots. "they've been run off by the parrots,' he said.

In fact, it is clear that Nicholas Farms had decided to disperse and relocate their flock well before the Goulds arrived in Point Arena. The turkeys had begun leaving before the parrots arrived, and continued to leave after the parrots arrived. Nicholas had decided long ago to both disperse their valuable flock and simplify turkey shipping by moving closer to transportation hubs than remote Point Arena.

Nor did the dozen or so employees of the turkey farm lose their jobs, as several Stornetta and Nicholas Farm spokespeople have alleged. The turkey workers have been relocated along with the birds they care for.

The Mendocino County Farm Bureau, predictably, has expressed its support for Nicholas Farms and the Stornettas.

Two of the Gould's dogs have been shot dead since their arrival in Point Arena, both having been killed as they slept beneath the bedroom windows of the Gould's grandchildren.

Supervisor Patti Campbell, echoing Planning and building's Falleri, remarked that parrot breeding may resemble farm production but 'the end product is a pet."

UC Extension's poultry expert Francine Bradley, a one time student of California's avain expert, Dr. George West of UC Davis, told the supervisors that putting the parrot operation next door to Nicholas Farms turkeys was unwise. But her mentor, Dr. West, is on record as saying that since both businesses scrupulously protect thier flocks, the proximity is not much to worry about as each operation is 'bio secure'.

Bill Phillips, the Gould's attorney, said Monday that despite planning and buildings assurances of flexibility in enforcing the Goulds eviction notice if the Goulds agree to relocate their parrots pronto, the Goulds will have to have ' a written advisory from the county' approving the new location or ' it is likely we'll go to to court and seek an injunction to delay their eviction'.

Attorney Phillips summed up the dispute as an ethical one. "If people can't rely on the verbal approvals from Mendocino County's Planning and Building Department, from now on everyone will have to have written assurances that what they want to do in Mendocino County is ok before they do it.":

Barbara Gould, emerging from her losing battle with the supervisors determined to fight on, said that although "we lost this round' she was especially pleased with the support of supervisor Colfax. "I want to tell all the constituents of the 5th district that supervisor Colfax did indeed understand what the underlying issues in our case are. He likened it to a farmer going through what we went through with planning and building during our property search, only using goats as the animals involved. He said the farmer buys the land, moves onto it, and the county comes in and says "holy heck. These are pygmy goats, not milk goats. You have to move." He told the other supervisors they were about to make a huge error in judgement, and they made it anyway. I appreciate his effort, and want the public to know he rose to the occasion. Farming is farming, period.

Note after the vote, County Councel Peter Klein re entered the supervisors meeting. He admonished them for voting before consulting his opinion. It seems that the Right To Farm Bill, (or something close to that title) has been struck down by at least one federal court, I believe in Iowa or Ohio. That means that no longer can one agricultural interest, vis a vis a dairy or turkey farm, exercise any control over another agricultural interest. It is indeed a private property issue. Their rights end where mine begin, and so now we continue jockying with the county until they understand that good old boy politics are not going to force us to leave that which we saved and worked for for over two decades.