River advocate David Yearsley dies
photo Scott Hess The beauty and rich history of the Petaluma River is what David Yearsley fell in love with when he first moved to town in the mid-1990s. That love for the Petaluma River was something he dedicated his life to sharing with others. From Petaluma 360 David Yearsley, 1946-2011 Mr. Yearsley, the former Petaluma Riverkeeper, died after a battle with cancer on Sept. 5, 2011. He was 65. “The Petaluma River just lost its best friend,” said J.T. Wick, a member of the board of directors of Friends of the Petaluma River. Mr. Yearsley grew up in Wisconsin, but spent some of his formative years in the Delaware River estuary near Odessa where his grandfather owned a farm with 200 to 300 acres of marsh. “We got to explore it as boys. Swim in the creeks, fish,” said Yearsley in a 2004 interview with the Argus-Courier. “The tides were very similar to the Petaluma River. They rose and fell five to six feet.” After serving four years in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War working o