Fortunately, there are three alternative sites already owned by the colleges: the golf course, the quarry at the corner of Foothill and Claremont Blvd, and the laboratories on Arrow just west of Indian Hill, where the KGI will begin operation. It is perfectly possible for the colleges and the city to have both a new college and a field station. However, even though building elsewhere makes the most sense, and the environmental impact report identifies the quarry as the preferred site, the colleges still are asking for permission to build on the BFS.

We have the right to say no to this proposal.The California Environmental Quality Act gives us the authority to decide that environmentally damaging projects should not be allowed, even on private land. The decision about project approval will not be made until late fall and is by no means a done deal.

Statements from some of the many citizens who have already expressed opposition to the loss of this land are given below. Please add your voice to theirs by writing to the Architectural Commission and the City Council, and to the Courier and other local papers. The addresses are listed on the back.

Your opinion is important!

"This is our heritage, and a heritage we should be able to leave for future generations. This last remaining mountain view uplifts us all when the world seems too much with us."

Nancy Orange Birch

"Today the land has great value for what it is naturally. There is nothing else like it in this city...or any other that I know of."

Connie Layne

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"All the good intentions as proposed by the Keck can never replace the ecological losses of so many living things"

A. E. Anderson

"The open vista created by the Biological Field Station is one of the best things about Claremont, distinguishing it from all the other overgrown suburbs in the area. Do we want a town where only the people living on the upper edges get to have a vista?"

Kathryn Miller

"It is obvious that a graduate institute can achieve its goals in any number of alternative sites. Why should this terrible loss be inflicted on each and every current and future resident and visitor to Claremont, when there is no logical rationale to justify such catastrophic city planning?
"I have not, I repeat that I have not heard a public hue and cry demanding that the KGI must be placed on the BFS site. What I have heard, however, and heard clearly, is that the public is crying out to save this last magnificent vista left within the city."

John Cullen

"The BFS allows scientific literacy and an understanding of ecology and ecosystems in a way no building full of laboratories can ever do. KGI may indeed turn out to be a wonderful addition to the Claremont colleges, but as there is no logical reason to destroy what is already a wonderful addition to the Claremont colleges (namely, the field station) in order to build it, it ought to be built elsewhere."

March Rosenbluth

"It is a working field station that is an invaluable asset to Claremont's natural resources, to the student population of the Claremont Colleges and the local public schools and to the citizens of Claremont."

Debra Zygielbaum

"I am not opposed to a new graduate school for the colleges and I don't believe most people in Claremont are either. I am opposed to the kind of quick-fix, get-it-done-cheap thinking that would needlessly destroy such an important biological, cultural, and aesthetic resource for the sake of expediency."

Carol Bowdoin Gil

"What kind of community can rein in such power (that of CUC) when it becomes unwieldy? I submit, a united community with a common vision.... a community that is tired of seeing every open space within walking distance paved over in the name of ill-conceived progress

Jason Venetoulis

"I value the field station because of what it offers our community; a respite from sprawl, a place to connect with rare and endangered ecosystems, a valued educational resource and an area where nature prevails. As humans, we need natural landscapes.... what will it take to let KGI know that the community is not going to give in when reason dictates that the field station be preserved? A lawsuit? A town referendum?"

Paul Faulstich

"Keep the field station as it is..... Enough is enough, preserve what is left.

Joan Darrow Lindley

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