Boats Like Stars 

Editor:

Thank you for your article on Stone Lagoon ("By the Breach," Feb. 14).

My morning commute from Arcata to Orick must be the prettiest in the world: Four days a week I drive past Big, Stone and Freshwater Lagoons. In winter, the commute is made in the dark. But this time of year, the dawn light obscures the horizon, blending lagoon, ocean and sky into one flat color: I once mistook the lights of crab boats on the ocean for stars hanging low in the sky. One morning a fisher crossed 101 at Freshwater in front of my car, going to the lagoon from the beach. Another morning, at the north end of Big Lagoon, a mountain lion crossed 101, too fast for me to even react. I feel blessed by the gifts of such beauty. At a time when the health of the natural world is threatened by human actions, I can only hope that all peoples can celebrate a jump dance to heal this gift we have all been given.

And I probably won't be the only one to write to tell you that Freshwater Lagoon is part of Redwood National Park, not Humboldt Lagoons State Park. The map inset for in the article had it right; the text in the article was incorrect.

Laura Julian, Blue Lake

Editor's note: California State Parks considers Freshwater Lagoon part of Humboldt Lagoons State Park. The lagoon (and its watershed) actually has multiple owners, as Redwood National Park's chief of vegetation management, Leonel Arguello, tells us: Most of the watershed, including half of the lagoon water, is owned by private parties; Redwood National Park owns the oceanside beach and the other half of the lagoon; State Parks owns some of the dry land on the south side of the lagoon.