Free Republic

An historic Northern California oyster farm along Point Reyes National Seashore will be shut down and the site converted to a wilderness area, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced on Thursday. Salazar said he will not renew the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. lease that expires Friday. The move will bring a close to a yearslong environmental battle over the site.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar rejected a proposal to extend the lease of a popular oyster farm at Point Reyes National Seashore on Thursday, effectively ending more than a century of shellfish production on the 1,100 acres where Europeans first stepped foot in California. The decision will allow the National Park Service to turn the picturesque bay where Sir Francis Drake landed more than 400 years ago into California's first federally designated marine wilderness area.

If this dates me, so be it! My grandparents used to refer to Prince Charles when he was a baby as "Bonnie Prince Charlie," as did many others. When I heard Prince Charles was coming to the town of Pt. Reyes Station with his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, I thought "Wow!" what an honor. The week before the Prince arrived, the town was abuzz with the Secret Service, both Brits and American "Men in Black," tramping all over, inside buildings, on roofs, and measuring our streets and sidewalks. When the week before the Prince came to town, the...