West Marin businesses sue to keep oyster farm open

Just as the long-running story of Drakes Bay Oyster Co.’s legal fight to stay in business appeared to be coming to an end, the saga pitting advocates of local food production against the federal government and wilderness supporters has taken another turn.

On Thursday, a group of local farmers, foodmakers and restaurant owners filed a lawsuit against the federal government to stop the oyster farm’s imminent closure.

The group claims that west Marin County stands to suffer a stiff economic blow if the oyster business, operating within a protected estuary in Point Reyes National Seashore, obeys a court order to shut down. The closure will impact local restaurants’ access to fresh, local oysters and further hurt local businesses by cutting the jobs of 40 people who live and shop in the community, according to the complaint.

“If they close down Drakes Bay, it is not only the Lunnys and all their hard-working employees who will suffer,” said Charles “Tod” Friend, owner of Tomales Bay Oyster Co., in a statement.

The plaintiffs include some well-known names in the west Marin food world - the owners of Sir and Star, Osteria Stellina and Cafe Reyes among them - as well as Tomales Bay Oyster Co., a competitor in the industry.

Still, Friend said his business stands to lose between $250,000 and $400,000 if Drakes Bay closed.

“We depend on each other,” he said of oyster farms in the area, adding that his company turns to the larger Drakes Bay outfit when customer demand outstrips what Tomales Bay can grow.

Monique Wells, manager at the Point Reyes Station farm-to-table restaurant Osteria Stellina, said her restaurant has worked closely with Drakes Bay since opening about five years ago. They buy raw oysters from the company for their raw bar and feature a popular pizza with the oysters as well.

“If they close, we’ll be taking the pizza off the menu,” she said. That’s both as a gesture of support and because the oysters from that particular bay have a signature “light, salty finish” that complements the pizza, she said.

“Drakes Bay oysters are unique,” she said. “People have a certain attachment to (the business), and that’s part of the fight.”

The Marin County company’s owners, Kevin and Nancy Lunny, announced last week they were planning to close the majority of their operations by the end of July.

The announcement came at the end of a 19-month legal battle to avoid such a move. The wrangling began when Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar declined to renew a 40-year permit, signed by the oyster company’s previous owner, allowing the farm to operate in Drakes Estero, a designated marine wilderness within Point Reyes National Seashore. The Lunnys bought the oyster farm in 2005 and were aware its lease was set to expire in 2012.

The Lunnys, who have said their farm is environmentally sustainable and beneficial to the estuary, sued and filed numerous appeals, saying Salazar’s decision was flawed. They also asked to be allowed, through a court injunction, to continue farming while the lawsuit was pending.

They took that matter all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. But earlier this month, the high court declined to hear the case, effectively killing the request for an injunction and, according to some environmental advocates, spelling “the end of the road” for the oyster farm.

Not necessarily, a group called the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense fund said Friday. The Virginia-based organization, which says it “defends the rights and broadens the freedoms of family farms,” has launched a fundraising effort for the lawsuit, which seeks a restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt the Drakes Bay closure.

“It’s one last chance to keep an environmentally conscious steward on the land,” said Pete Kennedy, president of the group, which also paid for the majority of the oyster farm’s legal fight. Nancy Lunny, reached Friday afternoon, declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying she and her husband had only learned about it that day.

The legal defense fund framed the suit as an attempt by a different type of environmentalist - foodies who believe food should be grown locally and sustainably - to fight back against “old school” environmentalists who want to see the oyster farm closed because of negative impacts they say it has on Drakes Estero.

Amy Trainer, executive director of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, took issue with that characterization.

“I support sustainable food, but Drakes Bay isn’t sustainable,” she said. She added of the suit, “This is a ridiculous waste of taxpayer time” and questioned whether the plaintiffs had standing to file it in the first place.

The lawsuit argues that the Interior Department ignored its obligations under two acts, the National Aquaculture Act and the Coastal Management Act, when it denied a renewal of the oyster farm’s lease. It asks that the court send the case back to the Interior Department for reconsideration and, in the meantime, allow the oyster farm to keep operating.

“If we don’t get some kind of stay while the action’s being adjudicated, there’s a question of the meaningfulness of (the suit),” said Stuart Gross, lead attorney for the case. Otherwise, the oysters will have been pulled from the estuary and thrown away, the employees living on the land will have been forced to move away, and the buildings will be closed up by the time the suit is decided, he said.

Trainer said she doubted the injunction would be granted: “The bottom line is this is a frivolous lawsuit, there’s no merits to any of these claims, and I hope it is handily and readily thrown out.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jamie Hansen at ?521-5205 or jamie.hansen@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jamiehansen.