Effect of Lang Ranch Dam

Re “Scouts Gather Acorns Amid Controversy Over Oak Grove,” Nov. 13:

Boy Scouts harvesting acorns from Lang Ranch’s doomed ancient oaks may like to know how for thousands of years the Chumash Indians prized those trees because their acorns were unusually large and nutritious.

One archeologist who studied Lang Ranch even suggested that the Indians planted and cultivated oaks there over many generations for the special acorns.

Chumash settlements overlooking the ancient oak grove dated back 9,000 years.

All traces of the oldest settlements were utterly obliterated by bulldozers in recent years.

We all know the Lang Ranch Dam will bring down the ancient oak grove.

Will it bring down the ancient landslide, too?

It’s high time for Ventura County flood control officials to come up with proof that it won’t.

They don’t even know now if the landslide extends into the basin planned behind the dam.

They must order borings into the soil of the basin area to know for sure.

Why don’t they do this?

Have they forgotten the Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared?”

Jan Osterhaven

Thousand Oaks