Cleanup of Malibu Creek Area

* Re “High-Tech Team Seeks to Clean Up Creek,” Aug. 16.

As a young girl back in the 1930s, I often played and, yes, canoed in the Malibu Lagoon and its creek with my friend and neighbor Sylvia Adamson, whose parents, the Merritt Adamsons, owned the property and its adjacent Mediterranean estate--now a state-run tourist attraction.

Alongside the creek, on the other side of the bridge, Sylvia’s mother raised sheep as a hobby and her grandmother, May Knight Rindge, Malibu’s largest landholder, was building an enormous family compound on the site of the present Serra Retreat. The project was never completed because of overwhelming state and local litigation.

I remember the beautiful migratory birds that dropped by to take advantage of the clear waters’ bounty. I remember savoring the fresh watercress that grew there in abundance.

Today’s algae-covered green muck carries no hint of its past pristine beauty, a sad commentary on our environmental practices--or lack thereof.

Ironically, as more and more people seek the California dream, they are accompanied by the harsh realities of overpopulation and overdevelopment. Carried to the extreme, that dream could eventually exist only in memory and faded photographs.

GERMAINE BAUR

Ojai