[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 190 (Wednesday, December 12, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2545-E2546]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING MARTY GRIFFIN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 12, 2007

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise 
today to honor Dr. Lloyd Martin Griffin for his outstanding 
contributions to Sixth Congressional District, the State of California 
and the Nation. Dr. ``Marty'' Griffin is a physician who realizes that 
a healthy individual depends on a healthy environment. Since the 
fifties Marty has been involved in successful preservation efforts in 
Marin and Sonoma Counties, founded several environmental groups, and 
fought numerous battles to protect the environment.
  Bom in a cabin on the banks of the Ogden River in Utah, Marty recalls 
``being intoxicated by the cool desert canyon smell of trout, willow 
and sage, while my father's mandolin and the murmuring river waters put 
me to sleep.'' Then, not long after moving to Oakland and becoming a 
Boy Scout, he met Brighton ``Bugs'' Cain. Learning from Bugs and his 
father, Loyal, Marty became enamored with nature and medicine. After 
working his way through college to earn a M.D. at Stanford University 
in 1946, he set up practice in Marin County. Over the next decade 
became one of the county's top physicians and was instrumental in 
founding several clinics, hospitals, and retirement homes.
  In 1958, Marty joined three legendary patrician activists, Elizabeth 
Terwillinger, Caroline Livermore and Rose Barrell, and Dr. David 
Steinhart and members of the Marin Conservation League and Martin 
Audubon to save Richardson Bay from fill and development. The bay was 
saved through a strategic purchase of 900 watery acres, which was 
leased to the National Audubon Society and became the Richardson Bay 
Wildlife Sanctuary.
  In 1958 Marty discovered plans for transforming rural Highway 1 into 
a coast hugging freeway from Golden Gate Bridge to Sonoma, destroying 
wildlife habitat and threatening the rich agricultural lands of West 
Marin. The freeway would lead to a marina in Bolinas Lagoon and several 
new coastal communities. In response, in 1961, he teamed up with 
another Audubon leader Stan Prichard and created the Audubon Canyon 
Ranch and several projects to raise money, buy land and block the 
proposed freeway and preserve the gateway to the then proposed Point 
Reyes National Seashore. From this came the Bolinas Lagoon, Bouveri, 
and Tomales Bay Preserves. In 1973 Marty lent his skills to 
a successful effort to overturn a development-oriented Marin General 
Plan and replace it with one that preserved the open spaces of west 
Marin.

  In 1961, Marty purchased a 240-acre ranch on the banks of the Russian 
River in Sonoma County. With his usual energy he planted grapevines, 
turned an old hop drying barn into a winery and eventually hauled onto 
the property a 100-year-old farm house, which he had

[[Page E2546]]

exquisitely restored. In the mid-seventies he produced his first wines, 
including award winning Petite Syrah, Johannesburg Riesling, and 
Zinfandels.
  Hop Kiln Winery became a Sonoma County landmark, and Marty soon 
became a Sonoma County force to be reckoned with. He saw that local 
gravel mining operations were destroying the banks and bed of the 
Russian River, filling its aquifer, lowering water tables, blocking off 
tributary mouths, and endangering salmon migration. Marty then began a 
long struggle against river gravel mining that goes on today.
  Also in the Sixties, Marty became the public health director at 
Sonoma State Hospital and Developmental Center, where with his usual 
tenaciousness and energy, he rooted out corruption, and founded a model 
program to fight hepatitis. In 1999, Marty was honored with a Public 
Health Hero Award from the University of California, Berkeley.
  Today Marty Griffin lives with his wife, Joyce, in Belvedere in Marin 
County not far from where his environmental battles began. In his 
eighties, he remains active and abreast of environmental issues. His 
work goes on through several organizations he founded including the 
Marin County Environmental Forum, the Sonoma County Environmental 
Forum, and Russian Riverkeeper (founded as Friends of the Russian 
River). His book, ``Saving the Marin and Sonoma Coast: the Battles for 
Audubon Canyon Ranch, Point Reyes and California's Russian River'' is 
an engaging story of the ongoing battles and larger than life 
personalities involved in preserving nature's treasures on the edge of 
the Bay Area's teaming cities.
  Madam Speaker, it is a book as well worth reading as Dr. Griffin's 
life is well worth emulating.

                          ____________________