A landscape architect looks to balance ecology and human impact

Landscape architect Kossen Miller was fishing in the bay at Blackie’s Pasture on June 16 when he reeled in something he didn’t expect.

“I was fishing for striped bass or maybe a halibut or something,” he says. “But I caught a shovelnose guitarfish instead.”

Miller took a couple of photos then sent the creature, a member of the ray family, back to its natural habitat.

“It’s kind of one of those things where you catch it and you’re like, ‘Hmm, I’m just really sorry dude,’” he says. “Like, ‘Back to the sea with you. Do whatever you were doing, you know, shoveling about in the mud.’”

Miller, 44, says his relationship with the natural world informs his work as senior associate at Mill Valley-based RHAA Landscape Architects, where he’s working on two Tiburon park projects. The town has contracted with RHAA to come up with final designs for new amenities at the site of the former sanitation ponds near McKegney Green and at Belveron Mini Park. Preliminary concepts include a basketball court, beach volleyball court and outdoor lounge at the former ponds site, while potential upgrades to the mini park include a nature-based play area, an expanded grass lawn and habitats for birds and pollinators.

Miller says the new amenities near McKegney Green will be “awesome.” He says he imagines families out there on sunny days.

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