Camp Meeker Beat by Tom Austin — February 2020

And I for one welcome our new corporate overlords! But seriously folks, I’ve always wanted to use that line. It’s actually quite happy news: Sonoma Media Investments (owners of, among other things, the Press Democrat) has acquired the Sonoma County Gazette. This means that the paper will continue and allow Vesta, after a year of transition, to go on to her next adventures. Well done, good and faithful Community Advocate! I am also tickled that in the Press Democrat article announcing the sale, the Gazette was described as providing “…everything from Camp Meeker updates…”. That’s right, people! We are bona fide! King of tha woild! I look forward to getting to know the new crew as they come on board.

So, here’s a Camp Meeker update for you: do you remember the “police activity” that got everyone so riled up last November? Despite total noncooperation from the four arrested suspects, the Sheriff’s Office eventually did identify the miscreants involved. They were all in their twenties, and all from the East Bay or points farther afield. Two were employed as software engineers, one at Google. They were apparently protesting the presence at Westminster Woods of members of a Berkeley-based 501(c)3 nonprofit called the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR). The four were arrested on charges of felony child endangerment, felony false imprisonment, felony conspiracy, misdemeanor resisting arrest, wearing a mask while committing a crime and trespassing. I don’t know about you, but none of this makes any sense. CFAR is a Berkeley-based nonprofit that holds workshops that could be loosely classified under the self-improvement umbrella. Apparently the miscreants were unhappy with something that CFAR did or does. That is all factually based information – the who, the what, the where, the when. The “why” is where one has to leap into the speculative. The robes, the Guy Fawkes masks, the visiting of this agenda upon a Christian Camp on Dutch Bill Creek? You got me. Methinks maybe they watched a few too many movies.

What else, then? It’s pretty quiet in Camp Meeker. Our hard working Park and Rec Board continues work on various ongoing projects and routine business. Homeowners are, we hope, planning their next round of defensible space work. The rain patters down in appropriate amounts, in between drought and flood amounts. The raccoons and the crawdads and the banana slugs go about their business. Your humble narrator peruses the campmeeker.org website looking for material, and - hey, what’s this? It appears that someone has been hard at work adding a whole slew of interesting historical photos! Yes, it’s right there athttps://campmeeker.org/gallery. If you’re not aware, Camp Meeker has quite a history: at one time there were two hotels, a post office, a library, a community theater, a couple of schools, a haunted house, a “New England Home”, not one but TWO lakes, and more! Much, much, more! You really, really should take a look – and send in your own photos! I know some of you OG Camp Meeker residents have the pictures great-Grandma took with her old Brownie.

That’s it for the hard news. Most of what is happening in Camp Meeker is on a smaller, humbler scale. Pacific Giant Salamanders are nestling under the fern in your yard, reveling in the wet leaves and muck. Salmon eggs sit in the gravel beds, growing cell by cell in preparation for a spring hatching deadline. Raccoons are in winter conference, exchanging ideas via PowerPoint on the best way to upend a garbage can. Marvin the mountain lion roams his territory, extending from Salmon Creek School in the south, to Green Valley Road in the east, to Highway One in the west, to the Russian River in the north. He may or may not contend with others seeking to encroach on the turf and take one of his deer. Bobcats work underneath, doing their best to stay out of Marvin’s way, while marking their subturf territories with strategically placed scat on the game trails. Crows and ravens and jays rule the roost below the tree tops, while red tails and turkey vultures soar above, keen eyes out for unwary rats, voles, and hares. Life, in the forest, goes on.