4/26/22 Comments on updated version of Cotati interpretive signs – Jenny Blaker Trail_Interp_FINAL_v3.pdf and Trail_Interp_Horiz_FINAL_V3.pdf Laguna de Santa Rosa
10,000 years in red font, presumably waiting for comment from Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (FIGR). Good! I suspect they may want to change this and not give a specific date or length of time; since time immemorial?
Cotati Creek Critters
I realize that rather than “Cotati citizens” the sign should probably say “local residents” as not all the volunteers were necessarily Cotati citizens! And they were associated with the Cotati Community and Environment Commission so the sign should probably say so. I’m sorry, I did not think of this earlier until seeing it in print now.
“…areas of…” seems obsolete.
Suggest: In 1998 a small group of local residents, supported by Cotati’s Community & Environment Commission, began to remove invasive species and plant native trees and shrubs alongside the Cotati section of the Laguna de Santa Rosa.
Photo caption: Volunteers working… [w not W]. It might be interesting to include the date, which was March, 2008, as the area has changed so much since then.
Suggest: Volunteers working along the Laguna, March 2008.
As mentioned previously, I don’t think small white font on a light-colored background works, and I think it will be hard to keep the signs clean and free of algae enough to be easily legible.
A Brief History of Cotati
Pre-History – is this appropriate or should it be “early history”? As well as the questions already posed in red font, I would question the word “thrived” as this completely glosses over the period of genocide, oppression and suppression of culture to which the tribes were subjected post-colonization. “Lived” is neutral; “thrived” is not.
Illustration: as mentioned previously, I think a tule shelter would be more appropriate than a redwood bark one for this area, with its seasonal wetlands and valley oak savannah, rather than redwood forests, but of course defer to FIGR and their local knowledge.