The State - News from Feb. 17, 1988

Rare, eyeless bugs described as “the smallest daddy-longlegs in the world” are holding up the construction of an 18-hole golf course in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two species of the tiny, spider-like creatures are believed to live only in rock formations in Edgewood County Park near Redwood City. “Constructing a golf course would wipe out the whole harvestmen populations,” said Thomas F. Briggs, who discovered the two species in 1983 and 1985. Briggs is a high school science teacher and an associate researcher at the California Academy of Sciences. Golf course backer Barbara Kootz of San Carlos contends that San Mateo County has 40,000 acres of protected open space but only one public golf course for 600,000 residents. “This little spider is just another ploy to keep from having a golf course,” Kootz said. “We want to compromise . . . and it’s just not working.” Susan Smith of the Yerba Buena chapter of the California Native Plant Society conceded that she sees no way to compromise.