In several news reports, EHL staff spoke out against the devastation of
San Onofre State Beach by the proposed Foothill tollroad. Also, EHL
Board Member Jane Block was extensively profiled in the
Riverside Press
Enterprise.
In the December 7, 2005
Orange County Register (“Agency picks route for
241 tollway extension”), EHL Executive Director Dan Silver stated,
“We're really concerned with the catastrophic impact on the state park,
plus all the other affected habitat to the north. To say they picked
the least damaging is kind of like saying, ‘Which of my four arms and
legs do I want to remove?’”
EHL Staff Attorney Michael Fitts explained to readers of the
San Diego
Union Tribune
(“Toll road extension vote delayed a week,” January 13,
2006) that the tollroad agency’s data on impacted structures – cited
as the reason for rejecting the alternative of widening Interstate 5 –
was, according to an engineering study, grossly exaggerated.
In the
Los Angeles Times (“With a State Park at Stake, Opponents of
O.C. Tollway Extension Offer Directions,” January 13, 2006) Fitts was quoted:
“Feasible non-toll-road alternatives exist. Our results shatter the
TCA's numbers.”
Similar comments were made in the
North County Times of Jan. 18, 2006
(“Toll road studies challenge Orange County agency findings”). “We
believe the (Transportation Corridor Agencies’) numbers simply can't be
trusted,” said Michael Fitts, an attorney with the Endangered Habitat
League. “In fact we believe they’re wrong.”
On January 12, 2005, the
Riverside Press Enterprise ran a major profile
of EHL Board Member Jane Block – “A fight for Box Springs Canyon led
Jane Block to activism” – along with a half page color photo of Jane
overlooking one of her conservation projects in San Timoteo Canyon. The
article detailed Jane’s extraordinary range of accomplishments, from
environmental protection at the Santa Rosa Plateau to women’s health
and childcare to local political campaigns. Her collaboration,
community engagement, and tenacity are a model for us all.