Save The Bay's Salty Blog

We've moved!

2011-02-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

Come check us out at our new home here:

http://www.savesfbay.org/blog/

Remembering Save The Bay Co-Founder Kay Kerr

2010-12-22T15:05:00.001-08:00

Save The Bay is deeply saddened to share the news of the passing of one of our heroes. Last week our co-founder, Catherine "Kay" Kerr, died peacefully at her home in El Cerrito surrounded by her loving family. She was 99.

In 1960 Kay Kerr joined two other Berkeley housewives -- Sylvia McLaughlin and Esther Gulick -- over tea to discuss their worry about an Army Corps of Engineers’ map that had been printed in the Oakland Tribune showing that San Francisco Bay could end up being a narrow shipping channel by the year 2020 because of planned Bay fill. They were also concerned about the 40 burning garbage dumps ringing the shoreline. Together, they hatched a plan to save the Bay. These three women mobilized their community to help and as a result, formed the "Save San Francisco Bay Association” In 1961, helping to start the first modern grassroots environmental movement in the Bay Area.

Soon the group was thousands of members strong and eventually won a legislative moratorium against Bay fill; established the first coastal zone management agency in the country, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC); helped create the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge; halted shoreline dumping; and stopped the Peripheral Canal from draining more of the Bay’s fresh water from upstream.

Today, Save The Bay works tirelessly to carry on our founders’ legacy by protecting and restoring San Francisco Bay for the benefit of people, wildlife and future generations. Our work to reduce Bay pollution, stop inappropriate development and restore wetlands is inspired by Kay, Esther and Sylvia – who simply didn’t give up even when told their efforts would be impossible.

We are particularly moved by these words from Kay Kerr:

“When we started out in 1961, we thought all we had to do was to get a good law and the Bay would be saved. What we have learned is that the law itself must be saved, that this requires constant vigilance against those that would change or weaken it. What we have learned is that the Bay is never saved. It is, instead, always in the process of being saved. That is why we have been so heavily involved for all of these years, and why our successors will be involved far into the future.”

Kay Kerr – University of California Albright Lecture Series, 1988

Sylvia McLaughlin remembers her dear friend fondly:

Kay Kerr was a good friend and colleague.

For several years, Kay, Esther Gulick and I would meet at Kay’s home every Monday morning to discuss our strategy for saving the bay from being filled for shoreline development.

Kay did most of the writing as she had been a journalism major at Stanford. She would write statements on behalf of Save The Bay, which I would read at Council and legislative hearings. She was totally dedicated to our cause of keeping fill out of the Bay and beautifying the shoreline.

To honor Kay we are asking you to please share memories or comments about how she has inspired you to support Save The Bay in the comments section below.

San Jose Banning Bags = Huge Victory for the Bay

2010-12-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

By Amy Ricard, Media Relations Manager

WE DID IT! On Tuesday, the San Jose City Council passed the toughest city ban on single-use plastic and paper bags anywhere in California, or anywhere in the country for that matter! This historic decision sets the stage for future bans throughout the Bay Area and the state. It also lets the plastics industry know their intimidation tactics will not prevent Bay Area jurisdictions from prioritizing the health of our communities, our waterways and San Francisco Bay.

Save The Bay held a press conference on Tuesday prior to the vote along with several members of the San Jose City Council, Californians Against Waste and tons of bag ban supporters across the region. After nearly 35 public comments in support of the ban, the City Council passed the ordinance 10-1 to resounding applause and celebration throughout the Chambers. All in all, it was a great day and a huge victory for the Bay.

Check out the media round-up below.

1. SJ to outlaw plastic supermarket bags in 2012 (ABC 7)

2. San Jose City Council approves plastic bag ban (CBS 5)

3. San Jose City Council Passes Plastic Bag (KTVU 2)

4. San Jose to outlaw plastic bags at checkouts (NBC 11)

5. San Jose bans plastic bags (SJ Mercury News)

6. San Jose OKs state's toughest ban on plastic bags (SF Chronicle)

7. Editorial: State should follow San Jose’s lead on plastic bag ban (SJ Mercury News)

8. City passes plastic bag ban (SJ Inside)

9. San Jose, Calif. Bans Plastic Shopping Bags - And Free Paper Ones (Treehugger)

10. San Jose Passes Landmark Plastic Bag Ban, Help Your City Go Next (Change.org)

Opposition to Cargill erupts in Redwood City

2010-10-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Knight, Political Director

Cargill & DMB developed a very big headache at the Planning Commission meeting in Redwood City last Tuesday night. Redwood City asked for their residents' input on the proposed salt pond development, and that is exactly what they got - over three hours of it. The overflow crowd lined the walls, sat on the floors and spilled into the hallway, where a TV and portable speakers had to be set up to accommodate everyone. Not swayed by the developers' slick and expensive presentation, the podium was packed with opponents to the project throughout the night - vastly outnumbering development supporters.

From the neighborhood associations to the mobile home parks and the garden clubs, Redwood City residents made it clear that they're deeply concerned about this destructive development and will be fighting it at every step of the way.

You can watch the meeting here; public comments start with Joel Jensen’s great statement at 01:10 here.

Sadly, despite a September presentation by consultants emphasizing that CEQA was democracy in action, Redwood City actually suggested that “advocacy” would not be tolerated, and that “there shall be no debating the merits of the project.” Residents protested, their city attorney corrected them, and they put out edited slides crossing out the offending provisions.

What the slide seems to suggest is that unless you favor the project, Redwood City doesn’t want to hear from you.

That is unfortunately consistent with the 99-page "Notice of Preparation of Environmental Impact Report for proposed Saltworks Project" released by Redwood City which is reminiscent of the project that it purports to describe: fundamentally evasive about core environmental issues, numbingly large, and preferring to distract attention by emphasizing irrelevant details.

The NOP makes no mention of:

--> the SF Bay Water Board’s recent letter to Redwood City stating the salt ponds to be "an important biological resource” providing “foraging and nesting habitat for a variety of birds." (June 2010)

--> the US EPA’s recent statement that Cargill's Redwood City salt ponds are "critically important aquatic resources that warrant special attention and protection." (Jan. 2010)

The NOP is clearly trying to advance the developers' interest, not the public interest. City Councilmembers insisted in 2009 that the salt ponds be removed from Redwood City's General Plan process at the explicit request of DMB, and their promise that this EIR would evaluate a broad range of visions for the property is now clearly broken.

GO Giants! GO AWAY Cargill!

2010-10-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

The Phillies weren’t the only out-of-towners that were dealt a blow yesterday. As Giants fans were filing into AT&T Park, just before the Giants/Phillies NLCS game on the beautiful Bay shoreline, a banner was flying over the stadium telling Cargill and their luxury developer, DMB Associates, not to pave our precious San Francisco Bay. Fans were reminded that while our very own SF Giants are fighting for the National League title, corporate "giants" from Minnesota and Arizona are scheming to pave over and develop the very Bay that defines our region.

Check out some pics from the flyover!

If the fact that Minnesota-based agribiz giant Cargill has the gall to try to build a city on the Bay enrages you as much as it does us, sign the petition and learn more at DontPaveMyBay.org.

Plastic pollution plagues SF Bay

2010-10-15T10:54:00.001-07:00

By Amy Ricard, Media Relations Manager

Have you ever wondered what happens to those pesky plastic bags or polystyrene foam (Styrofoam) containers that blow out of trash cans and float aimlessly along city streets and through neighborhoods?

Eventually, this plastic pollution finds its way to storm drains, creeks, bays and oceans. Once in the water plastic bags and Styrofoam becomes toxic food for unsuspecting wildlife or flows to join the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating island of trash in the North Pacific Ocean, twice the size of Texas, where studies have found that plastic particles are more abundant than plankton. Plastic litter also smothers our precious wetlands, poisons water quality and degrades our quality of life.

Each year Save The Bay (San Francisco) releases a list of Bay Trash Hot Spots, highlighting the massive and growing problem of trash pollution in San Francisco Bay. The 2010 Hot Spots showcase 225 shoreline areas and creeks all around the Bay polluted with plastic bags, fast food containers and more. The staggering number of hot spots underscores the severity of this problem and the imperative for Bay Area cities to take the lead in eliminating trash from our waterways.

Plastic bags and Styrofoam are some of the most pervasive and costly types of marine pollution. In fact, both items are consistently among the most frequent items of litter picked up by volunteers during Coastal Cleanup Day each year; and Save The Bay estimates that more than one million plastic bags wind up in the Bay each year. Plastic bags and polystyrene do not biodegrade; instead, they break into smaller pieces and are ingested by wildlife.

Amazingly, Californians use approximately 19 billion plastic bags every year. But here is the kicker: the average use time of a plastic bag is only 12 minutes!

It's time to really do something about plastic litter and pollution. The reality is less than one half of one percent of polystyrene food packaging is recycled in California. And for the past 15 years, California has made a concerted effort to promote plastic bag recycling, but despite this, less than five percent are actually recycled and there is little market for “down-cycled” plastic film. What's more, recycling firms report extensive costs from trying to recycle plastic bags because they jam processing machines and cause work stoppages.

Public education campaigns and cleanups are great ways to raise awareness about the problem, but to really reduce plastic pollution, cities and counties must prioritize legislation that ends the distribution of these commonly littered items, prompting consumers to switch en masse to reusable bags and other Bay-friendly food packaging alternatives.

Not surprisingly, the multi-billion dollar plastics industry has dispatched lobbyists to California and other states to block efforts to reduce plastic bag or polystyrene use. Like the tobacco industry, which launched campaigns to stop smoking bans, the plastic bag industry has sued or is threatening to sue cities across the country.

Even so, Washington, D.C. successfully passed a single-use bag fee that has reduced bag use throughout the city despite the bag industry strongly lobbying against it and several cities in the Bay Area have effectively banned Styrofoam. And even though the plastics industry pulled out all the stops to defeat California's statewide bag bill – AB1998 – San Jose, the largest city in the Bay Area, is on the brink of passing landmark legislation to ban plastic and paper bags (with some exceptions), which will make a hugely positive impact on the health of the Bay.

The nation is at a tipping point as more and more cities move toward eliminating plastic pollution and California is on the forefront of the movement. The Golden State has come closer than any other to passing statewide legislation to ban plastic bags and nearly 50 municipalities across the state – 19 in the Bay Area alone – have banned some form of polystyrene food packaging. It is time for the rest of the nation to follow California's lead and crack down on the plastic pollution plaguing our waterways.

P.S. In the meantime, let's do what we can to prevent plastic trash! We can:

--> Reduce our impact by making the switch to reusable bags and Bay-friendly food packaging options.

--> Advocate for policies and regulations that significantly reduce plastic trash flowing to our waterways.

--> Volunteer to clean up and restore shorelines and creeks.

Save The Bay's Trash Contest: Fun with Garbage

2010-09-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Knight, Political Director

If you are reading this, you already know that trash is a serious pollution threat to people and wildlife in San Francisco Bay. This year, Save The Bay's annual Bay Trash Hot Spots lists 225 creeks and shoreline areas identified by the cities themselves as having high levels of plastic bags, cigarette butts, fast food containers, old tires and more. Trash is a dangerous pollutant that harms wildlife, spoils water quality, threatens public health, and smothers sensitive wetland habitat.

In short, trash is a drag.

But we wanted to have some fun with trash this year. So we’re having a trash cleanup contest! Save The Bay is asking you to vote for one of seven selected Bay Trash Hot Spots for us to "adopt" and clean up in 2011. The contest sites were chosen based on several criteria, including proximity to heavily-used areas and major transportation corridors, habitat for endangered species, and Clean Water Act violations – and geographic distribution around the Bay Area.

So please vote for your favorite trash hot spot at www.saveSFbay.org/baytrash. And tell your friends – you don’t want your favorite spot to lose, right?

The contest sites are:

1. Damon Slough – if you drive 880, you know this spot. It is a mess, in part because it flows next to the Oakland Coliseum and Oracle Arena parking lots. I’m not blaming the Raider Nation – unless the can control the wind.

2. The Hayward Regional Shoreline, near where we are working to at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve to restore critical habitat for wildlife – not for garbage.

3. Fremont’s Mission Creek flows through the city’s Central Park, a major recreational area.

4. If you are tired of seeing San Jose’s Coyote Creek on our Bay Trash Hot Spot list, then vote for this spot and we’ll help clean it up.

5. The Guadalupe Slough Baylands are located within sensitive marsh habitat directly adjacent to the Bay. Bay critters do NOT like trash!

6. Redwood Creek flows through downtown Redwood City and accumulates trash from commercial and residential corridors. The creek is next to Bair Island, part of the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge which is being restored to tidal wetlands. Plastic and tidal wetlands do not mix!

7. Colma Creek flows through a variety of urban areas in South San Francisco and San Mateo County, including major commercial zones, high-traffic areas, and pedestrian corridors. Picking up trash all along the way.

While we try to have some fun with trash this year, Save The Bay is committed to working with cities to help stop trash at its source – by passing bans or fees on commonly littered items such as plastic bags, Styrofoam and cigarette butts, and installing storm drains devices to stop trash from flowing to the Bay and ocean. The most common litter items picked up in California last year included cigarette butts, food wrappers and containers and plastic bags. In fact, Save The Bay estimates that more than one million plastic bags pollute the Bay each year. Yuck.

The 225 hot spots come from new Water Board regulations require cities to eliminate hundreds of trash hot spots around the Bay. Cities in Santa Clara County identified 74 trash hot spots, with Alameda County cities picking 69 trash hot spots to call their own. There are 49 hot spots in Contra Costa County, and cities in San Mateo County submitted 31 hot spots to the Water Board. Fairfield, Suisun City and Vallejo are the three cities in Solano County that must comply with the Water Board's provisions – these three cities selected a total of 10 trash hot spots.

We are excited that our Bay Trash Hot Spots event has grown over the years and is now the cities themselves (who never liked our calling out sites in their community, and who can blame them) that are identifying these trash-filled spots. So please, vote today and stand with Save The Bay against trash.

Dead End Ahead for Cargill

2010-07-14T16:12:00.001-07:00

By Josh Sonnenfeld, Campaign Manager

Sign the petition to stop Cargill and help us meet the goal to get 5,000 signatures by spreading the word to your friends!

Things keep getting worse and worse for Cargill and their Arizona-based luxury homes developer in their attempt to fill in 1,436 acres of San Francisco Bay salt ponds.

Not only have more than 140 elected officials from around the region come out against the project, but so have the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News. An editorial in today’s San Mateo Daily Journal describing Cargill’s “overambitious plan” warns of “a long and contentious road ahead” if they continue on their current path.

This follows recent statements from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Water Board, and the EPA – three of the agencies Cargill would need permits from for their project to be approved – noting the importance of protecting and restoring the Redwood City salt ponds.

And today Save the Bay is proud to announce our new website – DontPaveMyBay.org – to ratchet up the pressure on Cargill and the Redwood City Council. While the support of elected officials, newspapers, and strong statements from regulatory agencies are big boosts to our work – we know that to beat America’s largest private company, we need everyone in the Bay Area on board. Will you help us?

NOW is the time for you to stand up to stop Cargill from paving our Bay! We need 5,000 signatures by August 16 to show Redwood City Council there is widespread opposition to Cargill's proposed development and convince them to stop this project in its tracks. Please sign the petition and spread the word at www.DontPaveMyBay.org! Please promote this on your Facebook and Twitter pages also.

Cargill’s development is 17 times bigger than any other bay fill project approved in the past 50 years. It is, by far, the largest proposal on the San Francisco Bay since the introduction of environmental regulations in the early ‘60s. Now is the time for the entire region to show that our bay is not for filling – but for the health and enjoyment of all.

Virtual Saltworks -- See the Cargill salt ponds' past, present and possible future

2010-06-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

By Amy Ricard, Communications Associate

A couple of months ago, Save The Bay was approached by Karin Tuxen Bettman, a wetland scientist and Redwood City resident concerned about Cargill's plan to pave over and develop over 1,400 acres of former salt ponds – an area that once belonged to the Bay and a huge swath of Bay shoreline that can and should be restored to wetlands. Knowing the immeasurable benefits of wetlands and tidal marsh in maintaining a healthy Bay ecosystem, as well as in protecting communities from the threat of sea level rise, Bettman decided it was time to get involved.

Bettman currently works at Google helping non-profit organizations use Google Earth to achieve specific goals and convey messages, so her involvement with this project was a perfect fit. Over the course of several weeks, she worked with Save The Bay to develop a website that would take users on a virtual tour of the site, underscoring its history as tidal marsh in addition to the importance of the habitat it currently provides for wildlife and the myriad ways restoring the site would benefit both the Bay and the region.

Bettman's project – Virtual Saltworks – launched a couple of weeks ago and has since been featured in an article published in Bay Nature and the Bay Citizen.

Check out Virtual Saltworks and learn more about the history of the Cargill site and how you can get involved in the fight to save this critical piece of the Bay.

Wood doing good

2010-06-02T14:32:00.000-07:00

This is a guest post written by Nate Ivy, Coordinator of the Service-Learning Waste Reduction Project (SLWRP) -- a joint venture between StopWaste.org and the Alameda County Office of Education. Students at Wood Middle School recently organized their 2nd Annual Beach Clean-Up as part of their participation in the program. These same kids have also participated in Save The Bay field trips to learn more about their watershed and the ways in which their actions impact the health of the Bay.

Enjoy the post!

Wood Middle School 2nd Annual Beach Clean-Up

Wednesday, 26 May 2010

At first glance, Crown Memorial Beach in Alameda appears to be a clean, pleasant retreat highlighted by sweeping views of San Francisco. Unlike many other public shorelines along the San Francisco Bay, Crown Beach does not appear on a list of Trash Hot Spots. However, students from Wood Middle School in Alameda discovered that looks can be deceiving as they participated in their 2nd annual microscopic beach clean-up.

Designed by science teacher Jeannette Frechou, the microscopic clean-up focuses on small bits of plastic that birds and other animals often confuse for bite sized bits of food. A close examination of the high tide line reveals a smorgasbord of multicolored plastics that easily float on the surface of the water.

"People are jerks! Who would do something like this?" one student declares.

In fact, students found many bits of debris from products they themselves use. Data tracking sheets reported the collection of plastic forks, bottle caps, salsa packets, and even a small plastic army man.

"We all do it," replies another. "It's not like people come and throw this on the beach... every piece of litter that falls on the ground or out of our car door gets washed down to the beach. We all have to be more careful." As if to emphasize the source of litter, a storm drain outlet peeks out of the receeding tide- connected to a storm drain one block from school labeled, "No Dumping! Drains to Bay."

This year, students have been working to do more than just be more careful with litter they produce, they have been studying choices that help to eliminate waste before it is produced. Staff and students from Wood Middle School have engaged in a partnership with the Alameda County Office of Education and Save The Bay to address marine debris through a grant provided by NOAA.

Earlier this year, students wrote letters to the editor addressing the challenge of candy wrappers entering the ecosystem at Halloween. In a study of healthy eating, students observed that healthier food choices usually use less packaging and benefit both human and environmental health. In just 60 seconds, one participant picked up 13 soda bottle caps along the tideline highlighting the challenges to our health and our environment.

Frechou helped students make further connections at the beach as she pointed out a tar ball, likely a legacy of the Cosco Busan oil spill of 2007. "Plastic is made from oil. We use a huge amount of oil to transport so many of the things we buy from all around the world. To help avoid spills in the future, we need to use less oil and less plastic."

Ms. VerDuin, another participating teacher from Wood, plans to use the beach clean up activity as a starting point for a discussion on marine debris, oceanic currents, the Pacific Garbage patch and the impact of plastic on wildlife. "There is a disturbing series of photos from Chris Jordan taken at Midway Atoll that shows birds killed by bits of plastic just like the ones we are cleaning up today. The clean-up activity will really help students connect to this global problem."

Click here to see the original post, complete with photos!

In with the new, out with the old

2010-04-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

By Darcie Goodman Collins, Ph.D., Habitat Restoration Director

As Save The Bay's Habitat Restoration Director, I am extremely proud of my team and the 3400 + volunteers who conquered a rainy winter for a successful planting season!

Since the start of our planting season, which begins as soon as the rains come – this year it was September – community members and school groups have assisted Save The Bay in transplanting 25,532 native salt marsh plants at our numerous sites around the Bay.

At Save The Bay, we involve volunteers in every step of the restoration process. They help us collect seeds from native salt marsh plants such as gumplant, salt grass, sea lavender and California Poppies at least one year before they are ready to be planted. Volunteers help us grow all of our plants in our two native plant nurseries, and then finish the job by actually getting the plants into the ground.

Although these plants are local and have adapted to living in the marsh ecosystem, a rainy year such as this one is a blessing for wetland restoration. Ample rain and moist soils help give the newly planted vegetation an extra boost in their new marsh home. And this year, the wet conditions have expedited our ability to meet and exceed our goal to plant 25,000 native seedlings around the Bay!

So what do we do now? With a successful planting season completed, our staff and volunteers are busy making sure our newly planted seedlings are thriving in their new environment. This includes removing invasive plants to reduce competition and in drier seasons, may even involve some hand watering.

General maintenance of our sites coupled with science-based restoration techniques developed by Save The Bay experts over the past 11 years has resulted in over 100 acres of restored and enhanced tidal marsh around the Bay.

Save The Bay’s restoration efforts focus specifically on the important, yet narrow, “transition zone” which is a strip of vegetation (usually less than 30 feet wide) between two types of habitat. In this case, the transition zones we restore border the salt marsh and the upland system. A healthy transition zone is vital for the overall well-being of the marsh because it provides refuge for wildlife during flood events, a food source for marsh species, and also acts as natural buffers to protect the surrounding lands from sea level rise.

I could talk all day about Save The Bay's Community-based Restoration program and the importance of our work in maintaining a healthy Bay eco-system. But for now, if you are interested, please visit our website for more information.

Cargill developer "myths" debunked

2010-04-15T12:16:00.001-07:00

By Stephen Knight, Political Director

Recent blog and Twitter posts by Cargill's Redwood City developer DMB state, "there’s been a lot of misinformation and half-truths being circulated out there."

No kidding.

Openly concerned about the attention being paid to their unprecedented plans to build a new city in the Bay, the increasingly desperate developer is clumsily attempting to erase many simple and inconvenient facts by claiming that they are "myths."

But the evidence is overwhelmingly to the contrary.

Did Cargill not tell their Arizona-based development partner these basic facts about their Bay property? You be the judge:

--> Astonishingly, Cargill’s developer claims it is a "myth" that the site "was diked off from tidal action to create salt evaporation ponds." This property is former tidal marsh, diked off from the Bay to make salt. Is there another way to make a salt pond? Just look at this 1943 aerial photograph.

--> DMB says it is a "myth" that site is located within a FEMA flood plain. Apparently they have not seen Redwood City's General Plan. (Redwood City General Plan Map, page BE-54).

--> Cargill's developer refuses to admit that the Redwood City salt ponds are the largest unprotected stretch of restorable bay shoreline because, they say, the site "is privately owned by Cargill." Yet the fact that these salt ponds remain in private ownership defines why they need protection from development.

--> DMB asserts that the current zoning for the site "anticipates future development proposals." In fact, Redwood City's General Plan states of the Cargill salt ponds: "Due to the sensitive nature of these open space areas, it should be assumed that they will remain as open space forever." These salt ponds have never been zoned for housing.

--> Cargill's developer also calls a "myth" the fact that state and federal laws prohibit filling wetlands when alternatives are available. But nobody contests that fact. The US EPA recently called these salt ponds "a critically important aquatic resource that warrant special attention" (EPA letter, Jan. 5, 2010). And Cargill has filed documents with the US Army Corps calling the site "waters of the US" protected by the Clean Water Act.

--> Cargill is running ads on TV and in newspapers telling the Bay Area public that this site is "a century-old industrial facility." Does this look like an industrial facility to you?

--> The developer threatens that the only choice is to approve their massive development, otherwise Cargill will continue making salt. Nobody is telling them not to keep making salt; it is their legal right to do so. But Cargill has already made clear that salt harvesting is no longer economically viable in Redwood City (Paul Shepherd, Cargill Land Manager, letter to Redwood City residents, 2006).

Just as Redwood City voters prevented Bair Island from being developed a generation ago, Cargill’s development must be stopped so that – like Bair Island – it can be added to the Don Edwards SF Bay National Wildlife Refuge and restored to tidal wetlands to benefit people and wildlife.

For more photos and documentation behind the real facts, please visit our Flickr site.

Sowing the Seeds of Change

2010-04-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

By Trisha Allen, Education Coordinator and Natalie LaVan, Restoration Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator

When I say service, you say learning: service-learning, service-learning! Three cheers for the 21st Annual National Service Learning Conference.

A few short weeks ago, thousands of youth, teachers, and service-learning practitioners from around the globe gathered at the San Jose Convention Center to get inspired, share ideas, and gain tools for engaging young people in community-service projects across disciplines. The diverse representation of exhibits, workshops, thought sessions, and projects showcased during the three-day conference underscored just what a powerful teaching method service-learning can be.

And just what is service learning, you ask? To put it simply, service-learning is education in action! And the secret to successful service-learning projects lies in a few critical and common ingredients, namely: meaningful reflection, diversity, youth voice, and partnerships. Service-learning builds community and spans cultural and national boundaries and develops young people.

On the second day of the conference, Save The Bay got the chance to show participants how it’s done! About 35 individuals from all corners of the U.S. descended upon the Palo Alto Baylands for a Community-based Restoration Program. With representatives of all backgrounds – from places like Texas, New York, Tennessee and Illinois (just to name a few) – we were able to plant almost 100 native seedlings along the Bay. What's more, the group was able to learn about the key elements of a successful service-learning program and our precious Bay.

Click here for more information and resources about service-learning and the National Youth Leadership Council.

Or better yet, make Save The Bay’s Community-based Restoration Program your next service-learning project. This program engages young people in reinvigorating their communities, learning about wetland ecology and issues affecting the health of the Bay, and literally sowing those seeds of change.

Are you an educator? If so, find out how to this program aligns with curriculum standards and connects to many areas of study.

Save The Bay Moves To Drupal

2010-04-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

By Eric Broder, Online Outreach Specialist

Hello world, my name is Eric Broder and I'm the new Online Outreach Specialist at Save The Bay. I'm excited to be using my web skills to promote a clean and healthy San Francisco Bay. For the last four months I've been working with the communications team and a great technology consulting firm, Jackson River, to upgrade Save The Bay's website, and the new site just launched! Please check it out at saveSFbay.org.

Our website is powered by Drupal - a free and open source content management system and the hottest website framework in the world today. Drupal provides a cutting-edge foundation for a broad range of online activities, and it allows us to easily update and manage our website.

My favorite thing about Drupal is that it's open source. That means the source code on which Drupal runs is essentially in the public domain, giving us much more freedom than a closed proprietary system. This openness leads to remarkable levels of collaboration and innovation. Developers all around the world build new features that anyone can use. Google has a great blog post about openness that sums it up well - "open systems win". At the same time, Drupal provides a highly secure website and has a long history of strong and stable protection against security threats. And the Drupal community stops new threats as they arise.

Which brings me to my second favorite thing about Drupal. Barack Obama uses Drupal for the official website of the U.S. government, whitehouse.gov. (Those of you who know me, know that I'm a big Obama fan). Dries Buytaert, the original creator of Drupal, puts this into context:

First of all, I think Drupal is a perfect match for President Barack Obama's push for an open and transparent government -- Drupal provides a great mix of traditional web content management features and social features that enable open communication and participation…....Second, this is a clear sign that governments realize that Open Source does not pose additional risks compared to proprietary software, and furthermore, that by moving away from proprietary software, they are not being locked into a particular technology, and that they can benefit from the innovation that is the result of thousands of developers collaborating on Drupal.

In addition to using Drupal to manage our web content, we also started using the Salesforce relationship management system for nonprofits for our back-end database needs. Salesforce and Drupal integrate with each other, helping us run our organization more efficiently behind the scenes.

The bottom line is that this major technology upgrade allows us to put more of our time and resources towards our important work to protect and restore San Francisco Bay. Hands down our website is the best place for you to learn about our priority work, get important Bay updates, connect with our community of 25,000 Bay lovers, and support us through giving, volunteering and advocacy.

Please check out the site today and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

"Ignite the Night" at the W

2010-03-26T11:26:00.001-07:00

By Amy Ricard, Communications Associate

If you live on Earth, you may have heard about Earth Hour, a special event tomorrow evening whereby everyone worldwide will turn off the lights to raise awareness about climate change. In the words of the organizers:

On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people around the world will come together to call for action on climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. The movement symbolizes that by working together, each of us can make a positive impact in this fight, protecting our future and that of future generations.

So who says standing up to climate change can't be fun? Save The Bay invites you to switch off your lights and head to the W Hotel in San Francisco to celebrate Earth Hour with a cocktail in your hand. From 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. the W Hotel will power down while you drink up, and will donate a portion of their proceeds to Save The Bay.

This is truly a win-win situation. You can delight in some delectable eats and libations while essentially participating in an environmental double-dip – protecting the Earth and the Bay!

Check out the details below. And we hope to see you there!

Mid-Pen Chapter of Charity League teams up with Save The Bay

2010-03-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

This post was submitted by Lindsay Farino of Menlo Park, CA, a member of the Mid-Peninsula Chapter of NCL, along with her daughter Julia Farino, a freshman at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, CA.

On Saturday, November 14, a large group of volunteers from The Mid-Peninsula Chapter of the National Charity League (NCL) worked together with the Save the Bay organization to learn about wetlands and plant close to 200 native plants in the Palo Alto Baylands. Mothers and daughters worked alongside one other to help restore the wetlands with blue-eyed grass and marsh-coyote brush saplings. Save the Bay staff member Jill Jacobson explained that the NCL volunteers’ planting in the wetland transition zones, "creates shelter and habitat for animals when water is high in the wetlands."

Save the Bay staffer Megan Kelso said, "Having local volunteer groups like the National Charity League come out to the wetlands creates a sense of stewardship for the participants." She emphasized to the group of mothers and daughters that Save the Bay was founded by women. It is important to remember the three East Bay women, Kay Kerr, Sylvia McLaughlin and Esther Gulick, who founded the Save the San Francisco Bay Association in 1961, to stop the destruction of the bay that they loved so much. Their first volunteer effort mobilized thousands of members to stop the City of Berkeley's plan to double in size by filling in the shallow Bay off-shore.

The NCL teenagers responded enthusiastically to the educational activities that took place prior to planting the wetlands. Emma Peyton, an 8th Grade NCL member from Redwood City said, “I like doing this because I am doing some good for the community.” Menlo Park 8th-grader Nora Lewis added, “Doing NCL (itself) gets me closer to my Mom. It gets us to bond together.” The National Charity League (NCL) teaches young women to be confident that they can make a difference in their own communities both as young women and throughout their adult lives.

The Mid-Peninsula Chapter of the National Charity League is made up of mothers and teenage daughters from Menlo Park, Atherton, Redwood City, Woodside, Portola Valley, Belmont and San Carlos. The purpose of NCL is to initiate and promote charitable endeavors in which mothers and daughters work together. Other philanthropies currently supported by the NCL Mid-Peninsula Chapter include the Friends of the Menlo Park Library, My New Red Shoes, Shelter Network’s Haven House and Redwood Family House, American Cancer Society (including the Menlo Park Discovery Shop), Family & Children Services, Art in Action and Rebuilding Together Peninsula. For more information, visit www.nclmidpen.org.

Bay Area leaders step up to save salt ponds

2010-03-03T14:03:00.001-08:00

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

Regional opposition to Cargill’s plan to build a new city of up to 30,000 people on 1,436 acres of restorable salt ponds continues to grow dramatically.

Last week more than 90 elected officials from all nine Bay Area counties submitted a letter to the City Council of Redwood City urging them to reject a massive development on Bay salt ponds proposed by Cargill Inc., declaring, "The era of filling San Francisco Bay is over."

You can read about this significant swell of support from Bay Area leaders in the SF Chronicle and the SJ Mercury News.

Dozens of mayors and city council members, county supervisors, and state legislators strongly oppose the project, agreeing that "salt ponds are not land to be paved – they are part of San Francisco Bay to be restored to tidal marsh for wildlife habitat, natural flood protection for our communities, cleaner water, and recreation areas for everyone to enjoy."

In addition to this latest batch of elected officials to come out against the proposed development, the Menlo Park City Council voted to formally oppose the project citing the urgent need to protect and restore San Francisco Bay.

And Peter Drekmeier, former mayor of Palo Alto has said, "It is not 1960, and the Bay is not the place for housing. This is not smart growth like Redwood City's award-winning downtown projects. That's why the City Council should just say 'no' to Cargill now."

The bottom line: we all have a stake in what happens to our Bay. We must come together as a region to stop Cargill from paving over and destroying our great natural resource. If you have not yet signed our petition opposing this project yourself, please sign it today. You can also urge your own state legislators to sign the opposition letter by clicking here.

The Luck of the Bay Saver! Save The Bay Educator and Girl Scouts See Rare, Endangered Mouse

2010-02-17T14:23:00.000-08:00

by Jill Jacobson

What does a Bay Area resident have to do to find the luck-bringing creature, the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse? For years, I have read the tales of ecologists spotting these tiny creatures in the wee hours of the night and imagined it happening to me. Up until this past Saturday, the only mouse I had ever spotted was the one stuffed in an exhibit at the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve. As one must conclude, I was skeptical and wary of the possibility that I may one day be lucky enough to see one of these elusive creatures.

My luck has changed! Finally after five years leading over 450 educational programs in the San Francisco tidal marshes for Save The Bay, I have successfully spotted a Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse! I am honored to be one of the first with Save The Bay to see this rare and tiny creature that is endemic to the San Francisco Bay.

The mouse was first spotted by a few Girl Scouts this past Saturday at 11:42 a.m. during a Save the Bay Girl Scouts volunteer planting day at the Palo Alto Baylands. One of the girls tugged on my sleeve and said "Jill, there is a mouse in the water, over here! Look!" The other girls were exclaiming all at once "How cuuuuttttee!" Sure enough, there was the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse swimming at the water's edge. Cautiously, I signaled to the girls to step back to observe the mouse silently from a distance so as not to scare it away.

What makes spotting the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse so lucky?
To start with, this creature is incredibly tiny, said to fit on the tip of your thumb and weigh about as much as a nickel or quarter. In addition to being small in size, this creature is endemic to the San Francisco Bay wetlands. With only 10 percent of the Bay wetlands remaining, the population of the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse has declined over the past century, putting it on the endangered species list with a population under 2000. Finally, this mouse is nocturnal, making it nearly impossible to see the mouse under the sunlight.

So, why did we spot this mouse?
This mouse lives primarily in the pickleweed, a low zone tidal marsh plant that is often submerged under the brackish water during high tide. During the high tide, the mouse usually finds shelter in the mid zone plant species, like alkali heath or gumplant. During extreme high tide events, like this past Saturday, this mouse must find shelter in the higher zone plant species which sometimes do not exist, due to the development of roads, trails and parking lots. Over the past few years, Save The Bay has been working in partnership with the Palo Alto Baylands to restore these high or “transition” zone plant species to provide shelter and habitat for species like the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse.

What does a Bay Area resident have to do to see a Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse?
Become a Bay Saver and join Save The Bay as a volunteer to protect and restore the habitat for the Salt Marsh Harvest and the hundreds of other animals that call our wetlands home! We cannot guarantee you will be lucky enough to spot this creature, but we can guarantee you will see wildlife and have a great day out on the beautiful San Francisco Bay!

Eden Landing - it's for the birds

2010-02-04T15:19:00.000-08:00

By Megan Kelso, Restoration Field Educator

As part of the South Bay Salt Ponds Restoration Project, Save The Bay is working to restore more than 600 acres of tidal wetlands at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in Hayward. This effort, part of Save The Bay’s partnership with the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), will involve thousands of volunteers in hands-on restoration and stewardship projects to improve habitat.

To give you a bit of history, Save The Bay worked for decades to secure public ownership of the salt production ponds in South San Francisco Bay, which was accomplished in 2003. Since 2006, Save The Bay has been restoring and enhancing habitat at Eden Landing, helping to advance the largest wetland restoration project in the history of the Bay. The goal of the project is to replenish the Bay ecosystem, provide recreation opportunities for residents who historically have been walled off from the Bay shoreline and increase valuable habitat for endangered waterfowl, shorebirds and fish.

We are currently working along a levee that borders a former salt pond that has recently been opened back up to tidal action. Planting native seedlings here creates habitat for the thousands of birds that use this haven for feeding and nesting during the winter. On any given day one can see great egrets, godwits, sanderlings, willets, black-necked stilts and long-billed curlews.

Eden Landing is a birder's paradise, especially since millions of migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway stop to refuel in the wetlands of San Francisco Bay before continuing their long journey. Accessing this site before was tricky, but in the last few months Eden Landing has opened up public trails, so residents and Bay enthusiasts can now stroll along the shoreline and check out the wildlife.

And what's more, Save the Bay is expanding its project site to include a new section of the recently breached levee. Our first plantings went in at the end of last year, which means we are now actively working to restore and enhance 30 acres of habitat at this site. And this is good news because, well, more habitat is for the birds.

Click here to learn more about our Community-based Restoration program.

The W is for Wetlands

2010-01-27T16:46:00.000-08:00

By Megan Kelso, Restoration Field Educator

The W Hotel has its eye on sustainability. And saving the Bay is part of that process.

The San Francisco hotel is working to become LEED certified and as part of that certification, they have volunteered with Save the Bay several times, getting their hands dirty by restoring wetland and upland habitat.

A couple of weeks ago, we hosted our first restoration program of the New Year with W employees. About 50 of us headed out to Eden Landing Ecological Reserve along the Hayward shoreline where the volunteers planted and caged nearly 300 gum plants (Grindelia stricta) and picked up three big bags of trash!

Their work has been instrumental in helping us improve habitat at this site, reach our goal to plant 25,000 native seedlings this winter and restore 100,000 acres of healthy wetlands around the Bay.

To learn more about how your employee team or community group can volunteer with Save The Bay, go to www.saveSFbay.org/community.

Jumping on the "ban-wagon"

2010-01-08T13:58:00.001-08:00

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

If the flurry of recent media attention is any indication, it is looking like 2010 may turn out to be the year we put an end to plastic bags. While DC residents are busy adjusting to a new five cent fee on plastic bags, several other cities have indicated they might be moving in the same direction. In fact, state legislators in Maryland and Virginia are pushing for a fee on plastic bags and border town Brownsville, TX just recently passed a plastic bag ban that will go into effect by 2011.

From Florida to DC to a handful of cities here in the Bay Area, more and more cities are jumping on the "ban-wagon," so to speak, by working to end the free distribution of plastic – and often paper – bags within their jurisdictions.

Even Walmart is getting in on the fun. Three stores in Northern California recently began pilot programs to encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags by charging 15 cents for a reusable bag, rather than handing out free plastic bags.

Have we reached a tipping point? Perhaps the San Jose Mercury News said it best when they editorialized: "This is the way movements begin. Somebody had to be the first to ban smoking in restaurants. Who questions the wisdom of that now? It will be the same with plastic bags a generation from now."

We hope so.

Community-based Restoration gettin' cred with community

2009-12-23T13:38:00.000-08:00

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

We think our Community-based Restoration program is pretty awesome, but it's always nice to hear that the community thinks so too. Just in the last week, two separate videos hit the web touting the benefits of teaming up with Save The Bay to restore vital wetland habitat around our great natural treasure.

Last Thursday, a group of students from Fremont's Kennedy High School Green Tech Academy came out with us to plant marsh gumplant into the wetlands surrounding a recently-breached salt pond at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve along the Hayward Shoreline. The group was lucky enough to be joined by a CBS 5 reporter who taped a news segment for that evening's broadcast. Check out the web clip of the segment here.

And on Monday, a video was posted about employees from Pure Digital -- makers of "The Flip" digital camcorder -- and their experience planting native seedlings along the MLK Jr. shoreline in Oakland. Check it out.

Participating in Save The Bay's Community-based Restoration programs gives your employee, community or student group the opportunity to restore and explore the Bay. Over 100 businesses and community groups participate in our restoration projects each year and we are currently looking for more groups to schedule private weekday programs, which provide fun and engaging ways to bring your team together.

Interested in scheduling a program for your group? Contact Natalie LaVan, Restoration Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator, at natalie@savesfbay.org or (510) 452.9261 x109. To learn more about our private programs, visit www.saveSFbay.org/community.

Fish out of water

2009-12-21T12:12:00.000-08:00

By Chiara Swartout, Canoes In Sloughs Field Educator

It’s mid-afternoon at Bothin Marsh and we are approaching the turnaround point of our canoe adventure. It is at this moment that I realize I should have checked the tides more carefully, because I have no memory of this marsh ever coming even close to draining as I am seeing it now. We watch gull fights from the island newly exposed in the middle of the marsh as we head back, pushing our paddles off the mud rather than through the water to move back to the launch site.

It is a day where I particularly relish being in the lead boat with students, because the two girls in my canoe need no introduction or motivation to being fascinated by the natural environment, which includes serenading pelicans and a peregrine falcon fighting a crow overhead -- clearly, today is an epic bird day. We are met by two boats of kids who, undaunted by the sluggish task of paddling through mud, have taken it upon themselves to tie their boats together in the form of a raft to increase their power. “Row, row, row your boat!” they shout as they power back home.

I am thoroughly impressed by these kids as they are neither frustrated nor tired at the end of a thorough day of paddling. As we approach the beach, the shoreline jumps alive with what appear to be perch that have been driven onto shore by our boats! The two girls from my boat step out of our canoe and instantly jump over to the squirming fish, excitedly, but gently throwing them back into water, which is quickly filling up with an ever-increasing number of canoes of sixth-graders negotiating the narrowing channel.

I realize I am clearly not going to motivate anyone to carry a boat up to shore when they can be chucking perch back into water, running along the shoreline towards their yelling classmates, who are spotting perch from the water. So I watch and wait, taking in this beautiful demonstration of care in ensuring that these fish are thrown back to the water, shallow though it may be.

It was a teachable moment that required no explanation from the teacher. I know the students were just as struck as I was by the show of a vibrant ecosystem thriving in the wetlands in their backyard, and they demonstrated this understanding in their eagerness to discuss ways to protect it as we debriefed the day.

It is these days that motivate me to continue teaching day after day in the ecosystems about which we educate our youth. This setting creates unexpected and unrepeatable experiences for youth – who are often fish out of water themselves – to witness and enjoy, turning the San Francisco Bay from a mass of greenish brown waves and mud into an ecosystem to celebrate and protect.

Click here to learn more about our Canoes In Sloughs program.

A slew in the slough

2009-12-08T16:43:00.001-08:00

By Trisha Allen, Education Coordinator

Have you ever wondered what 1,137 middle and high school students navigating the San Francisco Bay sloughs in canoes look like? It looks like gaggles of excited and nervous kids clad in Save The Bay’s finest PFDs, outfitted with paddles, and all geared up for a sensory exploration of the estuary in their own backyard.

This year nearly 70 Bay Area middle and high school classes participated in Save The Bay's Canoes In Sloughs program for a perfect blend of ecology, fun, and teamwork. For most students these canoe trips involve many firsts: first time out on the Bay, first time working together with classmates to steer a canoe, first time nibbling on the popular marsh plant pickleweed, first time handling slimy Bay creatures. And if we’ve done our job right, the canoe trip will make clear to the students the need to celebrate, protect and restore the Bay; thus transforming this handful of firsts into life-long stewardship of our great natural resource.

So why canoes? Well, travel by canoe has its advantages. This slow and sleek vessel allows students to intimately explore the Bay. They are able to venture into the narrow sloughs and cozy up next to egrets poised to spear lunch and black-crowned night herons resting quietly in the vegetation. These wetlands support an abundance of wildlife, and through observation and hands-on investigation, students discover this unique ecosystem and the billions of organisms living within it.

Using San Francisco Bay as a classroom and laboratory, Save The Bay’s field trips teach and inspire environmental stewardship and community leadership in today’s youth, who often spend most of their time inside and disconnected from the natural world. Through the Canoes In Sloughs program, students are allowed to experience the beauty and wonder of the outdoors, increasing their environmental science knowledge and inspiring a sincere appreciation for the Bay.

But don't take our word for it. See what teachers are saying:

"If you are looking for team-building, connecting with the Bay, and fun…this is the trip to go on."
Fadwa Musleh, Granada Islamic School, Palo Alto

"It’s a great way to experience local ecology through active learning, collaboration and the Save The Bay staff is excellent."
Julian August, Alameda Community Learning Center, Alameda

"It was an awesome way to get into the sloughs by touching, tasting, hearing, seeing and smelling the Bay.”
Vandy Shrader, Explore! Camp, East Palo Alto

"Save the Bay is an excellent organization that makes a significant impact on our Bay, enhancing young people’s understanding of the important Bay issues."
Patricia Williamson, Alameda Community Learning Center, Alameda

Learn more at www.saveSFbay.org/education.

Global Warming Plan (A)dapation and Plan (B)ackup

2009-12-04T17:34:00.001-08:00

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

A series of recent articles published in the San Francisco Chronicle detail the urgency in California – and perhaps more directly, the Bay Area – to address the very real issue of sea level rise as a result of global warming.

On Wednesday, the Chron reported Governor Schwarzenegger's call for a backup plan on global warming; and just yesterday readers were left to ponder this: "adapt to climate change or die."

According to recent reports, sea level may rise as much as 18 inches in the next 40 years and over four feet by 2100. Experts are recommending that local governments adapt to the effects of global warming, which includes developing backup plans to "prepare for the worst."

Much of Save The Bay's work gets to the core of these recommendations, which include restricting development in areas vulnerable to climate change impacts and considering higher water levels in planning transportation. We are currently fighting to save over 1,400 acres of retired salt ponds in Redwood City, where agri-business giant Cargill plans to build a mini-city with up to 12,000 housing units. With the site currently sitting right at sea level, any development on these ponds directly opposes the recommendations.

Further, experts are advocating for better flood control systems to mitigate the effects of sea level rise. That's why Save The Bay is working diligently to re-establish 100,000 acres of healthy wetlands around the Bay, since wetlands work like sponges, absorbing runoff and acting as buffers as water levels grow ever higher. Restoring more wetlands sooner will help Bay Area cities combat the effects of climate change and protect our communities.

To learn more about Save The Bay's work, visit www.saveSFbay.org.

Local youth take on trash

2009-11-20T16:11:00.001-08:00

By Sigrid Mueller, Education Director

As you may know, Save The Bay works hard to curb the steady onslaught of plastic bags and trash on our local waterways and the Bay. And now the Education Department is joining the fight with a new partnership with StopWaste.org, integrating watershed with waste reduction education for students and teachers in Alameda County.

Save The Bay and StopWaste share a common goal: to reduce the harmful impact of trash, waste and pollutants on the Bay and our community. And we share a common approach: using hands-on, experiential environmental education and service-learning to support young people with developing the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to adopt a sustainable life-style.

During almost all of our Canoes In Sloughs field trips, students find trash floating around the wetlands and they often wonder where it comes from. It is then that a proverbial light bulb goes off. An 11th grader from Berkeley High School had this to say:

“To tell you the truth, I littered even after our teacher has done all that recycling work with us. But when you took us out to the sloughs I saw for myself how the litter from my community washes down to the Bay and I was appalled by it. Since then,I have stopped littering.”

Analogous to “a picture is worth a thousand words” students leave our field trips deeply touched and motivated to change their attitudes and behaviors.

And this is where StopWaste comes in. They provide students with the perfect opportunity to turn their motivation into action through a year-round, on-campus program called Service-Learning Waste Reduction Project (better known as SLWRP). SLWRP trains and supports teachers to educate students about waste and to engage them in waste reduction projects in their schools and communities. This school year, Save The Bay is partnering with five SLWRP schools closing the loop for many students by helping them understand how the Bay is connected to their campus and why it matters that they’re doing their part to keep trash off the ground.

One of our partner schools has already kicked into gear! A teacher at Wood Middle School started to notice the rapid increase of candy wrappers in her own neighborhood and at school weeks before Halloween. She brought this issue to the attention of her 8th graders, who quickly recognized those candy wrappers are not just an eye sore but are potentially harmful pieces of trash. The students decided to take action by writing letters to the editor of their local newspaper, demanding more public awareness around the threats of litter to wildlife, the Bay and the ocean. Here’s how one 8th grader put it:

“Every year I realize that happy, candy-loving children throw plastic candy wrappers on the ground. Well, for one thing piles of non-degradable plastic go into the drains and right into the ocean. The fish in the sea think the plastic is food. And the seagulls -- who eat ANYTHING -- eat the wrappers and the fish. The plastic blocks the throat and the stomach and kill the animal! We throw the trash on the ground and don’t bother to pick it up because a) no one is watching; b) it’s now stepped on; and c) you’re just not going to bother. If we could just remind parents and children to not litter, there is less work for the environment and less work for the trash collectors. Please help us save Alameda and the world. The world lies in our hands.”

We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

Help Save The Bay win a grant to stop Cargill – VOTE TODAY!

2009-11-18T16:04:00.001-08:00

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

Cast your vote to help Save The Bay win a grant to help mobilize Bay lovers to stop Cargill’s plan to build a city in the Bay.

For the past six years, Free Range Studios – the firm that created "The Bay vs. The Bag" campaign – has awarded one non-profit their YouTopia Grant, and this year they are asking the public to vote on the winner. Save The Bay applied to win funds to create an online video and website for our campaign to stop Cargill from paving over our natural treasure.

Help Save The Bay remind Cargill and others that the era of paving paradise to put up parking lots is OVER! We need your vote today!

Be sure to act quickly – voting ends December 1st. And remember to spread the word – tell your friends to vote for Save The Bay too!

Bay Trail-blazin'

2009-11-10T12:04:00.000-08:00

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

Good news for Bay Trail users in Richmond! Chevron has agreed to donate 1.5 miles of Bay Trail easements on the western side of the Point San Pablo Peninsula to the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). And last week, the EBRPD Board of Directors voted to accept Chevron's generous donation and appropriated $100,000 for trail alignment engineering, surveying and title costs.

More public access and trail expansion in this area is a welcome addition. With 32 miles of shoreline and 26 miles of Bay Trail now in place, Richmond has more shoreline and more Bay Trail built than any other Bay city – some of it quite stunning and much of it unexplored.

Save The Bay was founded in part to increase public access to the Bay shoreline and nearly 50 years later, we enjoy watching the vision of our founders come to fruition. When complete, the Bay Trail will be a continuous 400-mile recreational corridor that will encircle the entire Bay Area, linking together a necklace of shoreline parks. To date, 240 miles of the Bay Trail, or more than half its ultimate length, have been developed.

Two former Save The Bay board members – Bruce Beyaert and Nancy Strauch – are on the Trails for Richmond Action Committee and have worked tirelessly to advance Bay Trail projects in Richmond and around the Bay. This committee, in addition to Chevron and EBRPD, deserves great kudos for this major step toward completing the San Francisco Bay Trail on the Point San Pablo Peninsula.

Friday's Oil Spill Fouls Bay

2009-11-03T15:33:00.000-08:00

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

Nearly two years to the day after the Cosco Busan oil spill devastated shorelines and killed countless birds and wildlife, San Francisco Bay has again fallen victim to a damaging oil spill. The U.S. Coast Guard reported that on Friday, October 30, at approximately 6:50 a.m., heavy bunker fuel was released into the Bay during a fuel transfer operation between an oil tanker, the Dubai Star, and a fuel barge. At this time, it is estimated that 400 to 800 gallons of oil was spilled into the Bay. The cause of the spill is still being investigated.

Upon being notified, The Coast Guard, the Marine Spill Response Corp., and the National Response Corp., deployed booms and skimming vessels to contain and clean up the oil Emergency crews are currently focused on the Alameda shoreline, where rescue workers are trying to save oiled birds and remove balls of sticky tar.

The Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) has several teams working to rescue oiled birds and wildlife. No public or volunteer assistance is needed, and OWCN asks that the public refrain from entering the affected beaches because this activity severely stresses the wildlife. Oiled wildlife should be reported to 877-823-6926.

Beaches along the Alameda County shoreline, from the Bay Bridge to the San Mateo Bridge, are closed in order to help clean-up crews, protect the public and provide peaceful and safe areas for birds to land. Further, fishing and shellfish harvesting are suspended in the same areas.

Save The Bay is working with the appropriate agencies to monitor the situation and will continue to post updates as more information becomes available.

Want to help? Here is what you can do:

--> Make a donation to our BAY EMERGENCY RESPONSE FUND. This fund enables us to provide rapid response in a crisis, gather and distribute critical information quickly, educate the local community, and advise key decision makers on actions that require immediate attention.

--> Volunteer to restore wetlands to strengthen the health of the Bay and to provide wildlife with increased habitat for greater survival during such emergencies.

--> Sign up for our Bay Savers Email Action Alert to help us advocate for stronger oil spill legislation and other policies the Bay needs to stay healthy.

Cargill facing growing opposition on Peninsula

2009-10-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Knight, Political Director

There is a growing rebellion against Cargill's plan to build a city in San Francisco Bay.

In an important opinion piece in the Palo Alto Weekly, Palo Alto City Council member Yoriko Kishimoto calls out Cargill's plan as a grave threat to the Peninsula's future: "A proposed development in Redwood City so breathtaking in its size and misguided in its scope that nothing of its kind has been seen in half a century." She points out that "this is not an infill site and this is not the place for housing."

And the Redwood City Daily News recently reported that the Menlo Park City Council is moving to declare the project an environmental hazard to the region. Menlo Park Council Members Kelly Fergusson and Andrew Cohen agree that "the current Cargill/DMB development proposal seeks to reverse long-standing regional and local policies to protect the Bay and its wetlands."

Meanwhile, in an opinion piece published in the Redwood City Daily News, Redwood City resident Marsha Cohen expressed concern that the city "is stonewalling requests for public records." She points out that the mayor works for business lobbyist SAMCEDA, a strong public supporter of the Cargill development. Ms. Cohen wants to know what advice was given to the mayor about the conflict of interest.

Currently, the Redwood City Council is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to determine whether Cargill’s application should move forward. Clearly, many leaders on the Peninsula have found a much cheaper answer: It should be dead on arrival.

Go to www.savesfbay.org/redwoodcity for more information and to sign our petition, and stay tuned for more interesting updates.

SF Water Board puts trash in its place

2009-10-15T17:37:00.001-07:00

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

Fish and wildlife may finally get some relief from pervasive trash pollution.

Yesterday, the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board voted to approve historic and long-overdue requirements for cities to make significant, measurable reductions in trash flowing to the Bay.

This is great news for the Bay! Even the San Francisco Chronicle thinks so.

Under the new municipal regional permit, cities and other permittees must reduce trash getting into the Bay by 40 percent in the next four years, and achieve zero trash discharge from stormwater within 12 years.

Intense public interest and involvement and years of sustained advocacy have finally produced a permit approach that can begin to reduce Bay trash. In fact, 20 state and federal legislators, nearly 40 community organizations and environmental groups and thousands of Save The Bay supporters have joined us in advocating that trash must be reduced like mercury and other urban runoff pollutants.

What to do now? Save The Bay is urging the Water Board to work diligently to ensure full compliance with these groundbreaking regulations; and through the Clean Bay Project, we are working with cities to help them achieve these important trash reductions.

Battin' Cleanup

2009-09-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

Last week Save The Bay launched its 4th annual list of Bay Trash Hot Spots in anticipation of Coastal Cleanup Day to raise awareness about the trash problem in the Bay and to recruit volunteers to Coastal Cleanup events throughout the region.

This year, we put the spotlight on plastic bags; and even used last year's Coastal Cleanup Day data to help us determine the ten locations around the Bay where volunteers removed the most plastic bags. Not only are these ten spots choked with bag pollution, but they are indicative of a larger problem in the Bay. Plastic bags are ubiquitous -- literally, they are everywhere. And since they are so light and flimsy, they are easily picked up by the wind and blown into our storm drains and creeks, and eventually to our Bay and ocean where they harm wildlife, degrade habitat and spoil our quality of life.

Each year Save The Bay hosts several cleanup events and this year was no exception. We had teams out at three sites: Candlestick Park in San Francisco (one of our hot spots), Coyote Creek in Milpitas (also a hot spot) and Eden Landing in Hayward. Volunteers came out in droves -- 200 in total -- to help clean up the Bay. They were rewarded with an absolutely amazingly beautiful day and the gratification of a good, hard days work.

Here are the numbers:

Candlestick Park - 109 volunteers; 2,000 lbs of trash and recyclables
Eden Landing - 45 volunteers; a 20 yard dumpster and two truck beds of trash and recyclables
Coyote Creek - 46 volunteers; 450 lbs of trash and recyclables

And the latest from the California Coastal Commission, which oversees all Coastal Cleanup Day events for the entire state, is this: With 65% of the cleanup sites reporting, the statewide count stands at 66,550 volunteers, which should approach the event goal of 70,000 volunteers. Those volunteers picked up 819,394 pounds of trash and an additional 89,899 pounds of recyclable materials, for a total of 909,294 pounds. They expect to exceed 1,000,000 pounds of trash when all the totals are in. Not too shabby for three hours worth of work.

Save The Bay wants to thank all the volunteers in the Bay Area and statewide who donated their time to cleaning up our waterways, protecting habitat and wildlife.

If you are interested in protecting and restoring the shoreline year round, visit www.saveSFbay.org/restore.

VM Ware "runs" up the total

2009-09-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

By Natalie La Van, Restoration Volunteer Coordinator

The fog is setting in and I’m absolutely freezing while standing next to San Francisco’s most iconic landmark, the Golden Gate Bridge. I’m not alone. There are over 100 other people here with me from around the globe -- I know this by the myriad accents and languages I hear floating through the atmosphere. And these people are ready.

I have never been a runner myself, so I’m just sitting back watching the largest number of fabulously fit forty-somethings in almost obscenely short shorts with pure glee! They are poised on the edge of their starting line waiting for that moment when they are set loose and the pure rush of adrenaline is theirs to do with as they please. Oh yeah and did I mention that these righteous runners are practically throwing money at me from the bottom of their sweet Nike’d soles? Heaven!!!

This is not just any run, my friends; this is the VM World Fun Run. Every year, the virtualization mogul VM Ware holds a conference for their international and local markets called VM World. This year they decided to give some thing back. When Craig Williams -- the leader of this effort -- started receiving emails from participants interested in going for a run on the world renowned Golden Gate Bridge and wanting him to suggest a trail, he saw this small request as an opportunity for those weary conference-goers to get out, stretch their legs and see the sights our lovely Bay has to offer. Being a champion of the environment himself, and knowing the commitment Palo Alto-based VM Ware has to the local ecosystem and the care their clientele has for the entire planet, Craig decided to bring this event full circle by donating the entry fees to a local charity.

Remember I said they were practically throwing money at me?! With only a shirt and a beer to entice them back to the finish line, each group took off into the blustery twilight to enjoy the view of the sun setting gently over the ocean with the tapping of tennies on the Golden Gate Bridge singing in their ears.

My hands were cold but my heart was warmed when, after the run, even more people who were inspired by our lovely Bay, emptied their bitsy britches of every dollar they had to support the efforts of Save The Bay. All in all, the VM World runners and TrainSignal raised about $2,300 dollars!!

Save The Bay will use their donations to continue restoring the Bay, educating many more future environmental stewards, removing trash and repopulating our shores with native plants and wildlife.

It is the simple efforts of people like Craig Williams -- taking a small request and turning it into a big event that keeps me toasty during those brisk early San Francisco evenings. And those diminutive drawers don’t hurt either!

Is there a Hot Spot near you?

2009-09-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

Have you checked out our Bay Trash Hot Spots yet? Click on the link below to see our interactive map, watch our clever two-minute video, take action and sign up to volunteer!

Bay blighted by bags

2009-09-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

By Allison Chan, Policy Intern

It’s a sunny weekend morning and you decide to head out to do some hiking along the Bay shoreline. As you stroll through the brush and marshlands, you commune with nature, you enjoy the sprawling bay views… and you encounter scattered plastic bags wedged between rocks and clinging to vegetation?

Oh yes. Plastic bag pollution is a growing threat to Bay habitat and wildlife. In 2008, Coastal Cleanup Day volunteers in the Bay Area removed over 184 tons of waste from the Bay, including over 26,000 plastic bags! Plastic bags are among the most harmful, ubiquitous and preventable types of pollution. Not only does this pollution smother wetlands and harm wildlife, it negatively impacts our recreational experience in and around the Bay. Isn't it time we took a stand against plastic bag pollution?

To address this growing problem and to encourage Bay area cities and residents to find a solution, today Save The Bay launched its fourth annual list of Bay Trash Hot Spots. Using data collected by volunteers during last year’s Coastal Cleanup Day, we have listed the ten sites where the most plastic bags were removed. On just one single day, volunteers picked up anywhere from 384 bags at Ryder Park in San Mateo County to a staggering 7,497 bags at the Albany-Berkeley-Emeryville shoreline in Alameda County. But I’m sure most of us agree that one bag in the Bay is a bag too many.

It's time to really do something about plastic bag litter and pollution. For the past 15 years, California has made a concerted effort to promote plastic bag recycling, but with disappointing results. Less than five percent are actually recycled. Plastic bag recycling is cost-prohibitive because there is no market for the plastic film and it is difficult for recycling machinery to handle effectively. And, due to the amazing aerodynamics of plastic bags, even those destined for a recycling plant are easily rerouted by gusts of wind into the streets and, ultimately, into the Bay.

So, what to do? The solution is actually very simple. First and foremost, kick your bag habit! Find some snazzy reusable bags and keep them in your car, in your purse, or by the front door. Second, help round up the bags floating around right now by participating in Coastal Cleanup Day this Saturday, September 19th. I think most of us can squeeze in a few hours to help protect Bay wildlife and make our next experience on the Bay more enjoyable. Finally, speak up! Tell your mayor to support legislation to ban the distribution of free plastic and paper bags. The more cities that reduce plastic bag pollution flowing to the Bay, the healthier our natural treasure will be.

Check out our interactive website to see a map of this year's Hot Spots, photos, video and how to help.

Plastic bag industry spins and spends in Seattle

2009-08-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

By Laura Reinhard, Policy Associate

Watch out for higher prices in your grocery bills — maybe plastic bags will end up costing stores even more as plastic bag industry lawyers and lobbyists fly around the country squashing local initiatives.

Seattle’s groundbreaking proposal to place a 20-cent fee on all single-use bags was defeated Tuesday in a David v. Goliath PR battle. The plastic bag industry shelled out the first round of cash to get signatures to put the ordinance, previously approved by city council, on the ballot. A syndicated AP article reports the bag industry spent $1.4 million to defeat the proposal. Unfortunately, the bag industry is much better prepared to take on these fights than it was just a few years ago, when few cities were considering bag ban or fee ordinances. When plastic bag industry representatives sued Fairfax, CA for passing a plastic bag ban ordinance, Fairfax took it to the voters themselves and passed the measure with 79% of the vote.

But Fairfax is a small city and times have changed. Now, the list of cities considering bag ban or fee ordinances is long and the plastic bag industry, recognizing the threat, is out in force.

That doesn’t mean that cities have to capitulate to industry pressure. This year Washington, D.C. passed a single-use bag fee, despite the bag industry paying for a presidential-election style spin campaign complete with automated calls to residents. And just this spring, Palo Alto, CA successfully passed a ban restricting large grocers from distributing single-use plastic bags, despite a lawsuit from plastic bag industry lawyers.

So what should reusable bag advocates take away from this experience? For one, cities trying to cut down on unnecessary plastic bag litter and help solve the problem of marine plastic should expect well-funded lobbyists flying in from corporate HQ. Communities must be prepared to overcome this by speaking up loudly for policies that restrict the distribution of free plastic bags. San Jose, CA is considering enacting a strong policy to prevent free plastic bag distribution. We urge residents of San Jose and San Jose elected officials to take this opportunity to stand up for a clean community and a healthy San Francisco Bay.

Just like Big Tobacco, the plastic bag industry will have to fight these battles until they find a new line of work.

Help us raise $500 to fight plastic pollution in the Bay!

2009-08-03T09:47:00.000-07:00

by Amy Alton, Communications and Policy Associate

Over one million – that's right, one million!! – plastic bags end up in the Bay every year, polluting our waters, smothering wetlands and killing Bay animals. Plastic never biodegrades; and plastic waste from the Bay flows into the ocean to join the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating island of trash estimated to be twice the size of Texas. We want this scourge to stop!

And we need your help. If we raise $500 from our Facebook community by August 31st one of our Board Members will match every contribution dollar-for-dollar to help us clean up the Bay. And University of Phoenix will match it again! That’s $1,500 for our Bay!

If we all donate just $5 or $10 we can help Save The Bay meet this goal. Join our Cause today and your gift will be tripled!

To learn more about Save The Bay’s work towards a clean and healthy Bay, visit: www.saveSFbay.org/bayissues.

Thank you for your help!

Runoff pollution running through the Bay

2009-07-31T14:30:00.000-07:00

by Amy Alton, Communications and Policy Associate

NRDC recently released their annual beach water quality report, naming storm water runoff – an untreated toxic brew of trash, oil, pesticides, heavy metals and chemicals – as the #1 source of pollution in our Bay and waterways.

Read all about it.

The truth is most of the pollution in San Francisco Bay doesn’t come from shoreline industry or boaters. It comes from all of us. Pollution from our homes, cars and neighborhoods, which includes plastic bags, Styrofoam cups, cigarette butts, and toxic chemicals like pharmaceuticals and mercury, flows unfiltered through storm drains into the Bay, killing wildlife, smothering wetlands and spoiling water quality.

Fortunately for us and for the Bay, since we create this pollution, we have the power to diminish it. All it takes are simple lifestyle changes to protect the Bay.

Click here to learn how you can reduce Bay pollution.

Sticking to the ban

2009-07-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

by Amy Alton, Communications and Policy Associate

Yesterday, the City of Palo Alto settled out of court with an industry-backed group, Save The Plastic Bag Coalition (no joke!), over the city's plastic bag ban, which is set to go into effect on September 18.

Both the San Jose Mercury News and the Palo Alto Weekly ran stories about the settlement.

Under the settlement, the city will be able to maintain its ban. But any expansion would have to be accompanied by a complete environmental review. This is good news for both the city of Palo Alto and for other Bay Area cities looking to reduce plastic bag litter and pollution in their cities and in the Bay. Right now a statewide coalition of municipalities, non-profits and foundations is working together to draft a master environmental assessment, which will help cities complete the necessary environmental reviews to pass ordinances that either ban or impose fees on single-use bags.

Kudos to Palo Alto for taking on the plastic bag industry and banning plastic bags to clean up the environment and their community!

To learn more about plastic bag pollution and its effects on wildlife and the Bay, visit: www.saveSFbay.org/bayvsbag.

The Chron calls out Cargill

2009-07-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

by Amy Alton, Communications and Policy Associate

Today the San Francisco Chronicle ran a feature editorial, "Bay at risk," which calls out Cargill’s proposed development in Redwood City as one of the major threats to the health of the San Francisco Bay. Other dangers to “the lifeblood of our region” include trash, chemical pollution, climate change and regulatory oversight, as the state budget woes threaten the existence of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

As the Bay’s leading champion since 1961, Save The Bay wages effective advocacy and education campaigns to diminish these threats. We are working diligently to:

Stop Cargill’s unwise development in the Bay;

Reduce Bay pollution through public education and urging local governments to enact strong pollution prevention policies, and requiring stricter regulation of trash in the upcoming municipal stormwater permit;

Re-establish 100,000 acres of wetlands around the Bay for a sustainable ecosystem and to provide natural flood control to protect Bay Area communities from the impacts of sea-level rise, and;

Advocate at the state level to save BCDC, the agency that regulates Bay shoreline development.

However, we cannot do it alone. As underscored by the Chronicle, “The Bay needs the local community more than ever."

Please join us today in protecting and restoring San Francisco Bay by becoming a member, taking action to protect the Bay, and helping us restore critical wetlands around the shoreline.

Our quality of life and economy depend on this great natural treasure. And the Bay needs all of us working together to save it.

Ecology in Education -- Makin' it Work

2009-07-16T13:46:00.001-07:00

by Sigrid Mueller, Education Director and Alicia Moore, School Programs Manager

Connecting students to the San Francisco Bay and supporting teachers who share this commitment have always been at the core of Save The Bay’s educational vision. We believe that outdoor environmental education – such as our Watershed Education Programs – works best with appropriate preparation and follow-up. And, recent research supports the idea that students learn and retain more when field-trip activities are bookended by classroom lessons.

Since 1999 Save The Bay has hosted a professional development workshop for teachers interested in our Watershed Education Programs. Our regular evaluation has found that teachers desire, and benefit from, methods and strategies to integrate the field trip experience into the classroom lesson plan. Our workshop teaches classroom techniques to prepare for and get the most from our field trips.

This summer our workshop added an additional day to help teachers incorporate the field trip into the classroom. Participants worked with Save The Bay staff and colleagues to design lesson plans derived from our Canoes In Sloughs and Community-based Restoration field trips – to strengthen the impact on students and improve learning outcomes.

From June 30 to July 2, sixteen middle and high school teachers and five environmental educators gathered to explore in canoes and restore wetlands, and learn how to bring it all back to the classroom. Highlights from the two field-based days included seeing California Clapper Rails in their native habitat, identifying invertebrates and native wetland plants, and discussing the importance of service learning. Participants were also excited to have a third day to work on classroom lesson plans with Save The Bay staff and their colleagues. As one teacher remarked: "It was incredibly beneficial to actually conduct some lessons and discuss them with our peers. It makes it much easier to actually integrate field experiences into my teaching if I have done it before."

To learn more about Save The Bay's Watershed Education programs, visit: www.saveSFbay.org/education.

Here are a few photos taken during the three-day workshop:

How clean is your city?

2009-07-13T12:26:00.001-07:00

Last year Save The Bay launched the Clean Bay Project (formerly Cities Keep It Clean) to provide Bay Area cities with a roadmap to a cleaner San Francisco Bay and empower them to adopt innovative and common sense programs to reduce Bay runoff pollution.

The Bay Area's largest city, San Jose, is the first Clean Bay Project partner. But we need more cities to participate – and that's where you come in. Help us determine which cities have effective pollution programs, which are behind the times, and what programs you’d like to see in your community!

Please take just five minutes to complete this short survey and you will be entered to win an iPod shuffle.

We are counting on your input to help make the Clean Bay Project even stronger. We’ll compile your answers and share with you the results.

Pollution threatens our quality of life, health and economy. Please take the short survey today and help our community clean up the Bay! And be sure to forward this email to your friends so they can take the survey too!

Stand by your plan

2009-06-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

by Stephen Knight, Political Director

As our readers know, Cargill and DMB recently submitted an application to Redwood City, proposing to build up to 12,000 housing units on retired salt ponds that should be restored to natural wetlands. Before reviewing Cargill's development proposal, the Redwood City Council is working to finalize a new general plan.

In January, the City Council made a public commitment that there were to be no changes made on Cargill's Redwood City salt ponds in the updated plan.

In fact, Redwood City's current general plan map clearly places the entire salt pond property under the category of "Open Space." And the current general plan, in place since 1990, says this about the salt ponds: "Due to the sensitive nature of these open space areas, it should be assumed that they will remain as open space forever."

But a recently released general plan map would remove the words “Open Space” from hundreds of acres of the Cargill salt ponds. See the map here. City staff told the Planning Commission that the so-called "Urban Reserve" on a section of the Cargill property "really wasn't an open space designation." A proposed new "Open Spaces" map graphically illustrates the result – nearly half of the Cargill salt ponds would be taken out of open space.

Redwood City must honor its commitment to "take the Cargill site out of the General Plan Process." The city should renew its vision of saving the salt ponds "as open space forever," just like they are in the current general plan.

We have been told that the City is working to resolve this issue and intends to stand by their word by continuing to describe the "urban reserve" as open space on the land-use map. Exactly what they will do with other existing Cargill-related language from the current general plan – that it should "remain as open space forever" – remains unclear.

Save The Bay is committed to urging the City to renew their vision of saving the salt ponds as open space, which will benefit both people and wildlife.

Learn more at http://www.saveSFbay.org/redwoodcity.

Coots Scoopin' Booty

2009-06-24T12:06:00.001-07:00

by Amy Alton, Communications and Policy Associate

If not for recent and shocking reports of pirates capturing large vessels on the high seas, I would not have believed that pirates truly existed. Honestly, until a little over a year ago, I was naïve enough to think that pirates were the stuff of movies and amusement park rides. Imagine my embarrassment at several dinner parties in exposing this truth… But talking pirates got me thinking about another pirate—one of San Francisco Bay’s truest resident pirates: the American Coot.

This bird even looks like a pirate; it has a black body with a bone-white beak and red eyes! You can find coots all around San Francisco Bay, and in especially large numbers at Lake Merritt in Oakland and the duck pond in Palo Alto. But don’t mistake the coot for a duck! Its feet are lobed, rather than webbed, making it part of the rail family. The lobes allow the coot to have both sea and land legs—good for swimming, diving and walking.

Another pirate-like feature: coots are kleptoparasitic, which means that when they don’t feel like hunting for their own food, they’ll steal their booty from other species, such as dabbling ducks, or diving ducks bringing plants up to the surface of the water. They’ve even been known to swipe the food right off a duck or swan’s bill!

Like pirates, coots are often viewed as obnoxious, ugly, and unwelcome pests (hence the term, ‘you old coot!’); but when their population decreases, it’s often a bad sign for other species, as well. Coots are an important indicator species of the overall health of the wetland ecosystem. While pirates may be a danger to those sailing the high seas, I suppose this particular pirate might not be so bad after all.

Cargill paves the way to pave the Bay

2009-06-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

by Stephen Knight, Political Director

Cargill Inc and their luxury developer DMB Associates recently released their plan to build a "mini-city" on 1,433 acres of retired salt ponds in Redwood City. Their proposal includes up to 12,000 housing units and 30,000 new residents and would be the largest development on the Bay shoreline since the 1960s.

The project would put new development in the path of rising sea levels and destroy Bay shoreline open space that should be restored. This is not an infill site, nor is it the place for housing and commercial development. You can help us urge Redwood City to continue its current smart growth redevelopment downtown.

On Sunday, the Insight section of the San Francisco Chronicle published an opinion piece written by Save The Bay Executive Director David Lewis pointing out the arrogant and irresponsible nature of Cargill and DMB's plan. These developers, like so many before them, believe they can buy approval for massive sprawl into the Bay, spending millions on slick PR campaigns to pass Bay fill off as "green" development, and making big promises to restore some wetlands on site in exchange for destroying the rest.

Read the article now.

Our region’s quality of life and economy depend on a healthy and vibrant San Francisco Bay, which brings millions of dollars to our state from tourism, industry, recreation and fishing. The Bay and its marshes moderate our local climate, provide vital habitat to 500 species of wildlife and offer natural flood protection for people and communities.

The Bay, including these salt ponds, belongs to all of us, not just Redwood City. The era of filling in San Francisco Bay is over and the entire Bay Area should tell Cargill and DMB that housing doesn’t belong in our Bay.

Help us protect the salt ponds today by visiting our website and adding your name to the many individuals and organizations that have joined Save The Bay, the Sierra Club, and others in signing the petition to save the Redwood City salt ponds.

Weeding in sheets is 'mulch' easier

2009-06-10T13:49:00.001-07:00

by Melanie Lopes, Restoration Specialist

“Is there any easier way to do this?”
“Can’t you just get a bulldozer and clear this whole area?”
“Isn’t there some sort of spray that you can use on these plants to get rid of them?”

These are questions that we often hear from volunteers participating in weeding projects through our Community-based Restoration program. The work, albeit satisfying, is labor intensive and time-consuming, and after about an hour’s worth of pulling, digging, and lopping, people start to wonder if there’s a better way.

The manual removal that we do with volunteers is an effective strategy for thoroughly removing populations of weeds in areas where native plants are present. Bulldozers, power tools, and herbicides, however time-saving they may be, are not as selective, and simply are not options given the nature of our sites and the nature of a community-based program.

However, we have found a technique for weed management that is efficient, effective, and appropriate for our programs – it's called sheet mulching. And it's a technique that can be used to eliminate large areas of weeds while simultaneously enriching the soil. It involves smothering the weeded area by laying down a layer of compost, then cardboard, followed by a thick layer of mulch (wood chips, straw, leaf litter, etc). As time passes, the cardboard and the existing weeds underneath begin to decompose, adding nutrients to the soil. Furthermore, sunlight is blocked from the soil, preventing future weed germination. This creates a blank slate for planting native seedlings in enriched soil, without competition from aggressive weeds.

Here are a few photos to show you what we mean.

So far, we have tried this technique at only one site, along a trail at the Palo Alto Baylands. We chose an area that was covered solely by non-native plants, making it easy to completely cover the area without fear of destroying any natives. With the generous contributions from the City of Palo Alto, we had enough compost, cardboard, and mulch delivered to the site to get the project underway. In the fall of 2006, a group of volunteers from PG&E came out to help install the first section of sheet mulch – an effort that was met with great success. The area was left to rest for one year, in order to allow the cardboard and weeds to decompose. The following winter our first plantings went in and the results were phenomenal. Three years later, the area is thriving with native plants, with hardly any weeds in sight!

We've expanded the sheet mulch area down the trailside, and we hope to continue using this technique at other sites as well. Finding appropriate areas for this approach and acquiring the necessary resources (cardboard, compost, mulch) are the main obstacles we face, but based on the remarkable results we’ve seen down at the Palo Alto Baylands, we know that getting another sheet mulch project underway is well worth the effort.

Sign up for one of our Community-based Restoration programs at www.saveSFbay.org/restore.

Save The Bay makes the national news!

2009-06-04T16:04:00.001-07:00

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

We got some national attention last night when ABC's World News with Charles Gibson featured our "The Bay vs. the Bag" video during a segment on the negative environmental impact of plastic and paper single-use bags and the steps cities across the nation are taking to reduce pervasive bag pollution and litter.

Check it out!

And read all about it. Click here for more news stories about cities nationwide that are helping residents to kick the bag habit.

Bay Savers: The Next Generation

2009-05-21T16:21:00.000-07:00

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

You're never too young to take an active role in caring for the Bay. Ten year old Alyssa Lee proved this point last weekend when she mobilized a group of her friends to clean up a section of the Alameda/Oakland shoreline. Here is the story…

Two weeks ago, when taking a walk with her family, she discovered an extremely littered section of the shoreline. Rather than turn a blind eye to the problem, she took action. She invited several friends to give up their weekends to join her in a trash cleanup.

Being the conscientious type, Alyssa's dad contacted Save The Bay to ask how to responsibly dispose of the heaps of trash they would no doubt collect. He also mentioned that most of the trash was plastic and that as a result, he had been telling his daughters and their friends about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the impact non-recycled plastics have on the environment.

As you can imagine we were thrilled to learn of these budding Bay Savers! We pointed them toward the appropriate recycling and waste centers and outfitted them with Save The Bay stickers and patches to thank them for their invaluable contribution to the health of the Bay.

According to dad, "the cleanup was a big hit with the kids! It gave them a great sense of pride to do something for the environment."

At the end of the day, they had filled at least four big garbage bags – most of which were non bio-degradable plastics. Both the impetus and result of Alyssa's cleanup serve as a good reminder of the massive amounts of trash flowing to the Bay from our parking lots, streets and neighborhoods. It also underscores the necessity to significantly reduce this trash and plastic pollution, which harms wildlife, spoils water quality and lowers property values and our quality of life.

Do your part and help Save The Bay protect our valuable resource from trash and litter:

Learn more about preventing trash pollution.

Sign our petition to "Kick the Bag Habit!" and make the switch to reusable bags.

Tell your leaders to eliminate plastic bags in California.

No business like 'sow' business

2009-05-19T16:09:00.001-07:00

by Jocelyn Gretz, Community Programs Manager

If you've ever been to Yosemite around this time of year, you would know that Yosemite Falls is in full force – much like the surge of requests for corporate group programs I have been receiving lately. Every spring things pick up, as if workers around the Bay Area are coming out of cubicle hibernation and are craving an outdoor team-building experience.

The corporations that have recently come out with us or are scheduled to come out in the next few weeks include: Sun Microsystems, Roche, Trulia, SAP, Charles Schwab, Polycom, Life Technologies, Cupertino Electric, Robert Half International, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Delloitte, Codexis, Maxygen, VM Ware and NBC. Whew!

Adult volunteers play an important role in our Community-based Restoration programs. They quickly learn plant identification skills that allow them to work in our most sensitive habitats, acting as sleuths to find and remove invasive weeds amongst recently planted seedlings. These volunteers also provide critical manpower in the delicate tasks of seed collection, sowing seeds and rooting plant cuttings for future seedlings in our two native plant nurseries.

In addition to helping restore vital habitats, many of these businesses also make a donation to Save The Bay, acknowledging that providing team-building volunteer programs takes professional coordination, experienced field staff and adequate equipment to make the projects run smoothly. These donations help us offset some of these costs, but also allow us to continue to offer free programs to school and community groups that do not have funding. Save The Bay sincerely appreciates both the time and support these businesses have given our programs!

Roughly 100 corporations and community groups come out with Save The Bay each year. We hope you will join us - during any season - and the long list of Bay Area businesses that make our Community-based Restoration programs a success.

Learn more at www.saveSFbay.org/community.

DMB plan should be DOA

2009-05-14T11:55:00.001-07:00

by Stephen Knight, Political Director

Yesterday, DMB Associates unveiled their massive development plan for the Cargill site in Redwood City.

As our Executive Director David Lewis says in this San Jose Mercury News article, this project "should be dead on arrival."

Save The Bay opposes Cargill and DMB’s Bay salt pond development project in Redwood City. We therefore urge Redwood City, state and federal agencies to reject the project and promote full restoration and protection of habitat and open space on the site.

The project would destroy Bay shoreline open space that should be restored. It would put new development in the path of flood waters and rising sea level.

This site is not infill and it is not the place for housing and commercial development. Redwood City should continue its smart growth redevelopment downtown. These salt ponds should be permanently protected for restoration that benefits people and wildlife.

Once again, it is up to residents to make their voices heard and stop this destructive project.

Learn more at www.saveSFbay.org/redwoodcity.

In the zone

2009-04-30T13:59:00.000-07:00

by Stephen Knight, Political Director

You might have heard about the Pacific Institute’s recent report, "The Impacts of Sea-Level Rise on the California Coast," which states that a half a million current California residents and $100 billion of the state’s infrastructure will be in the inundation zone by 2100.

If you haven't heard – read all about it. Check out this article from the San Francisco Chronicle and this story from NPR.

Over two thirds of that "at risk" infrastructure is in the San Francisco Bay Area.

What's more, California's number one, most threatened municipality is San Mateo County, both in terms of population and infrastructure. San Mateo County has $24 billion in infrastructure at risk – almost one quarter of the entire statewide projected impact from sea level rise. Check out the maps from the report.

The Bay Area faces an enormous challenge to protect existing infrastructure around our Bay, including San Francisco Airport, Highway 101 and many thousands of residences. In the face of this growing threat, one thing is clear: Redwood City should not approve Cargill’s plan to place billions of dollars of new housing infrastructure out on Redwood City’s bayfront salt ponds.

Learn more at www.saveSFbay.org/redwoodcity.

Plastic bag makers miss the mark

2009-04-22T16:11:00.000-07:00

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

No doubt to coincide with Earth Day, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) – the trade group for the major plastic bag makers – announced yesterday their plan to use "40 percent recycled content in all plastic bags by 2015, including at least 25 percent postconsumer recycled plastic."

What a big hurrah they deserve for aiming at a whopping 25 percent post-consumer material in the bags they produce no sooner than six (plus) years from now. The Earth is indeed saved.

Oh wait.

While aiming to use recycled content in plastic bags is better than NOT using recycled content, it still doesn't address the ever-growing issue of plastic bag litter, which continues to plague the environment.

Plastic bags were the second largest item of littler picked up by volunteers during the Ocean Conservancy's 2008 International Coastal Cleanup Day. On this day, 1.37 million plastic bags were removed from coastal areas worldwide, second only in number to cigarette butts.

Enormous quantities of plastic bags are polluting our waters, smothering wetlands and entangling and killing animals. Bags also clog storm drains and recycling equipment and bag litter lowers property values and degrades recreational areas.

Rather than using disposable plastic (or paper) bags, we encourage shoppers to use reusable bags at grocery stores, retail outlets, farmers markets – you name it!

And others would agree. In this article, folks from Earth Day Network and National Resources Defense Council weigh in on the ACC's latest public relations ploy:

"It's annoying. And it's transparent," says Kathleen Rogers, president of Earth Day Network. "The death knell has sounded for plastic bags. They're just trying to continue to make a bad thing."

The Natural Resources Defense Council agrees: "We don't want people to use disposable bags. We want people to use reusable bags," says Darby Hoover, a senior research specialist.

The bottom line? Make the switch to reusable bags and eliminate ALL plastic bag litter – recycled or not.

Learn more at http://saveSFbay.org/bayvsbag.

Have you checked out our movie yet?

2009-04-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

If you aren’t one of the tens of thousands of people who have already watched our clever two-minute movie, watch it now and share it with your friends!

Choose the Bay over the Bag!

2009-04-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

Did you know that Bay Area residents use an estimated 3.8 billion plastic bags per year and discard over one hundred plastic bags per second? You might also be surprised to learn that the average plastic bag is only used for 12 minutes. That's it—just 12 minutes.

Plastic bags are a major component of urban litter. Even when placed in trash or recycling bins, these lightweight bags are often picked up by wind and blown into the gutters –where they flow into creeks and storm drains and then into the Bay and ocean. In fact, it is estimated that more than a million of these bags wind up in the Bay each year, spoiling water quality, smothering wetlands and entangling and killing marine animals.

Yet we continue to produce, use and discard plastic bags with reckless abandon. In just a few short hours, during last year's International Coastal Cleanup Day, 1.37 million plastic bags were removed from coastal areas worldwide.

So what can we do about it?

The multi-billion dollar plastic bag industry would have you believe that recycling is the answer. But recycling isn't a viable solution. California has pushed a statewide effort to recycle plastic bags for fifteen years, but despite this, less than 5% of all single use plastic bags in the state are actually recycled. Further, recycling firms report extensive costs associated with recycling even this small portion of plastic bags and there is very little market for the recycled plastic film.

The fact of the matter is the plastics industry is putting profits over the health of the Bay, the ocean and wildlife. All over California (and the rest of the country), industry lobbyists and slick PR experts have been deployed to whip up opposition and undermine local efforts to protect the environment.

That's why we need a statewide approach to relieve cities from taking on the plastics industry one-on-one. Save The Bay is supporting California Assembly Bill 68, which would require a 25-cent fee on plastic and paper bags.

One may ask if we should be requiring fees on plastic bags during this tough economy. The truth is we already pay for plastic bags through local taxes and increased food and retail prices. It costs nothing to bring your own bag and in fact, many stores give you a credit if you do.

San Francisco Bay is one of our nation’s most beloved natural resources and California's rivers, creeks and streams are vital to the health of our environment and our quality of life. Join us to protect our waterways and tell the plastic industry to back off. It’s the Bay vs. the Bag and only one side can win!

Join the campaign, take action and watch our online movie at www.saveSFbay.org/bayVSbag

At war with weeds

2009-03-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

by Jocelyn Gretz, Community Programs Manager

Weeds are plants where you don’t want them – plain and simple. And although these weeds are often beautiful, restoration ecologists refer to them as invasive species. As we gear up for our spring and summer weeding season, I have been recalling the hundreds of hours I’ve spent pulling weeds – sometimes in outrageous situations – and contemplating the huge effort needed to maintain our native ecosystems.

In college, instead of serving cocktails like my peers, I spent summer days restoring tall grass prairies in Wisconsin. Even in the seemingly 150% humidity, we were fully clothed in long sleeves and pants while ripping out non-native wild parsnip, hoping it wouldn’t lash back and give us a chemical burn that blistered the skin. Talk about invasive!

I have also duck-taped my shoes around my ankles to prevent them from falling off as I plunged through a sedge mat on a mosquito-y bog, all to rip out the robust purple loosestrife.

One of my more “painful” restoration tasks was when I wielded a chainsaw to cut down native cottonwood trees. I thought, "But I like trees." I had to be reminded that even though invasive plants can be pretty, they out-compete our natives and need to be removed for a natural environment to thrive.

Certainly on a given day’s work, tactics can be frustrating. In a sea of weeds with seeds that are viable for five or more years, one can easily get discouraged. However, after several seasons working to protect San Francisco Bay, I have witnessed progress–we have significantly reduced invasive weeds like iceplant in our wetlands.

And that is where you come in. Save The Bay's Community-based Restoration program works with thousands of volunteers each year to help us improve habitat and we rely on a continual flow of volunteer groups and individuals to help us restore wetlands at six sites around the Bay.

As we head into spring and summer, we are in particular need of "weed warriors" to help clear away the invasive species that degrade habitat for birds, fish and other Bay wildlife. It's a great way to get outside and give back to the environment and your community. If you're interested in a fun day on the Bay, contact me to set up a project for your community group or employee team or sign yourself up for one of our public restoration events.

Mission accomplished: Over 20,000 native seedlings in the ground

2009-03-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

by Laura Wainer, Restoration Projects Manager

With the planting season just about "sown" up, we are thrilled to report that we have exceeded our ambitious goal to plant 20,000 native seedlings into several wetland sites ringing the Bay! Nearly 3,500 volunteers donated their time at over 100 programs since November to help restore critical wetland habitat, which is vital to maintain the health of the Bay and also to support the 500 species of wildlife that live in and around it.

Volunteers at Oakland's Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline worked extremely hard this winter, taking the top spot by planting over 8,000 seedlings. Folks who participated in programs at San Francisquito Creek in Palo Alto ran a close second with just under 8,000 native plants in the ground. And with fewer programs offered, volunteers at Bothin Marsh in Mill Valley, Eden Landing in Hayward and Bair Island in Redwood City held their own with totals ranging from 1,000 to over 2,800 seedlings. Collectively at these three sites over 5,600 plants were planted.

An exciting addition to this year's planting season were the Volunteer Appreciation Days held at Bothin Marsh, San Francisquito Creek and the MLK Jr. Shoreline. Together we honored our dedicated volunteers and celebrated with good food, music, fun giveaways and speakers. In fact, participants at Bothin Marsh were joined by a very special guest star—a gopher snake curious to see what all the ruckus was about outside its home.

At our site in Oakland, evidence of the success of our Community-based Restoration programs also posed a bit of a challenge. Over the last several years, Save The Bay staff and volunteers have done such an effective job of creating habitat for the endangered California clapper rail, that the increased population of clapper rails is actively using that habitat. While that is great news and a clear demonstration of the success of our restoration work, it also meant that we had to vacate the habitat and create a different restoration site to avoid disturbing the endangered birds. It took some creative thinking, but in the end, we made it work.

With the plants in the ground, we now begin weeding the wetlands to clear away invasive species that ultimately degrade habitat for fish and wildlife. Grab your gardening gloves and sign up for one of our many restoration programs.

Cargill property draws skepticism from Bay planners

2009-03-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

by Stephen Knight, Political Director

A top priority for Save The Bay is stopping Cargill from developing its 1430-acre retired salt pond site in Redwood City – the single largest restorable wetland site currently under threat of development anywhere around the Bay.

Cargill’s developer, DMB, has yet to file an actual development plan, but last week DMB gave a general introductory presentation to the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) – which is just one of the many state and federal agencies that will eventually have to approve development on these retired Bay salt ponds.

DMB’s consultants sketched out a picture of restored wetlands and other popular amenities like waterside trails and bike paths across Highway 101 to downtown. But virtually no mention was made of housing, traffic-choked streets, overtaxed water use, or of the many real-world impacts.

Numerous commissioners raised significant issues, such as:

--> How do you build “transit oriented development” on the other side of Highway 101?
--> Should a Bay salt pond even be considered for a housing development?
--> What about climate change and sea level rise?
--> Will the proposed development be built on fill, or behind massive levees? (Answer: both.)
--> What are the flood control risks raised by such a development in the Bay?
--> What about the likely impacts on the endangered California clapper rails that live nearby?
--> How do we help guide this process so that Redwood City does not pursue a development that we won’t approve?
--> Shouldn’t complete salt pond restoration of the site be considered?
--> In San Mateo County, not even a fraction of the El Camino Real corridor has yet been developed.

Commissioner Eric Carruthers observed that the Cargill salt ponds were tidal wetlands as recently as 1943, which he said was “not ancient history.” He added he felt “very uneasy about such a major” alteration of the salt pond site.

Among those expressing opposition to any development at the site were Save The Bay, Sequoia Audubon, Committee for Green Foothills, Friends of Redwood City, the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge, and Loma Prieta Sierra Club. The Chamber of Commerce showed up to speak in favor.

Redwood City Mayor Foust also attended and told BCDC that the city looks forward to working with DMB to conduct a planning process, starting with a “conceptual plan” from the developer later this year.

Interestingly enough, this week a major new study was released showing the worst-case scenario in sea level rise—one meter by 2100—could be overly optimistic.

“Rising seas, storms and extreme high tides are expected to send saltwater into low-lying areas, flooding freeways, the Oakland and San Francisco airports, hospitals, power plants, schools and sewage plants,” the article says. “Lessons from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina are not to build below sea level.”

As the city’s general plan and the specific development processes move slowly forward in the coming months and years, Save The Bay and many others will be working and watching to see that Redwood City reaffirms that these restorable salt ponds are not a place for housing. The public can make themselves heard through this form on the City’s General Plan website and you can take action on our website.

Giving our volunteers a High-Five

2009-03-06T14:39:00.001-08:00

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

Simply put, our Community-based Restoration programs wouldn’t be possible without the labor and dedication of the community. To show our sincere appreciation of all the hard work our volunteers have contributed to restoring the Bay shoreline, we recently held volunteer appreciation days at Bothin Marsh, the Palo Alto Baylands and at the Martin Luther King Shoreline.

Our fabulous volunteers were treated to good food, musicians, raffle prizes and much more! We plan to host more appreciation days in the future, so check our website for updates. In the meantime, take a look at photos of this year's festivities on our Facebook page.

Sewage spill soils the Bay

2009-02-24T15:08:00.000-08:00

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that approximately 720,000 gallons of sewage spewed into the Bay during last week's spill at the Sausalito-Marin City Sanitary District.

Not surprisingly, sewage spills are a health risk for both people and wildlife—touching, inhaling, or ingesting sewage-contaminated water can cause rashes, infections, and nausea and vomiting. And large amounts of sewage can also cause die-offs due to increased nutrient load as oxygen in the water is used to break down the influx of organic matter, causing fish and wildlife to leave, or even die.

This current leakage, in addition to the spills in Marin last year, are some of the largest sewage spills in recent years. But in reality, sewage spills happen quite regularly because the infrastructure is old and weak and significant investment is needed to repairs these lines and upgrade our plants.

While it's true that sewage spills can harm both people and wildlife, you might be surprised to learn that runoff pollution from our homes, cars, and neighborhoods poses a much larger threat to the health of the Bay. Check it out:

-- Each (car-owning) Bay Area resident contributes one quart of motor oil to the Bay from their cars every year.

-- When cars are washed on pavement or in the driveway, soapy water, motor oil, copper, zinc, lead and other heavy metals are washed down the storm drains – which bypass the wastewater treatment plants – and flow straight into creeks and the Bay.

-- Pharmaceuticals and mercury put down any drain contribute to Bay pollution.

-- A 2005 study found an average of three pieces of trash along every foot of streams that lead to the Bay.

-- Mercury from one thermometer can contaminate five million gallons of Bay water – the same amount of water needed to fill six Olympic-size swimming pools.

Click here to learn more about how YOU can prevent Bay pollution.

A Mouse in the House

2009-02-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

by Darcie Collins, Ph.D., Habitat Restoration Director

$30 million in the stimulus package for a mouse? That was the claim in last Thursday’s Washington Times. GOP officials, arguing the new stimulus package is stuffed with Democratic pork, charged Nancy Pelosi with earmarking $30 million of the $780 billion package to protect the salt marsh harvest mouse, an endangered animal endemic to the marshes of the San Francisco Bay.

The story evolved like this: last week, a House Republican staffer circulated an email claiming an unnamed Federal Agency would spend “thirty million dollars (of stimulus money) for wetland restoration in the San Francisco Bay Area—including work to protect the salt marsh harvest mouse.” Although there is no specific language in the bill indicating the money would go explicitly to protecting the endangered animal, the staffer held to this claim: “The bottom line is, if this bill becomes law, taxpayers will spend $30 million on a mouse.”

Pelosi’s staff disagreed. “There are no federal wetland restoration projects in line to get funded in San Francisco,” Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill said. “Neither the Speaker nor her staff have had any involvement in this initiative. The idea that $30 million will be spent to save mice is a total fabrication.”

In truth, it's not a total fabrication. But many San Francisco Bay wetland restoration projects—earth-moving, planting, fence and road building, and creating wildlife viewing areas and parking lots—are currently at a stand-still due to inadequate funding. These “ready-to-go” projects are prime for the stimulus package. And they would help protect the salt marsh harvest mouse.

So what is wrong with a project that benefits an endangered species and creates job opportunities? Unfortunately the little mouse has been getting a bit of a bad rap.

In wetland restoration, the salt marsh harvest mouse operates as an “indicator species." Indicator species are very sensitive organisms that respond to extremely small changes in the environment and are often used to indicate pollution and other impacts in ecosystems. In the case of the salt marsh harvest mouse, the loss of San Francisco Bay tidal wetlands and salt marshes has caused a dramatic decrease in the harvest mouse population, resulting in its addition to the Endangered Species List in 1970.

But just as sensitive species can be indicators of disturbance, they are also indicators of healthy systems, and restoration biologists often use these species as evidence of the successes of restoration work.

So what does the mouse-bashing mean for SF Bay restoration ?

Healthy salt marshes are vital for a sustainable Bay ecosystem, which helps combat the effects of global warming and leads to a sustainable fishing industry, improved water quality, and increased tourism and recreation. GOP officials may bash the little mouse, but a thriving salt marsh harvest mouse population indicates a healthy wetland ecosystem. And since salt marshes are the lungs of the Bay—providing habitat to hundreds of fish and wildlife species, trapping pollutants from urban areas before they reach the Bay, capturing carbon from greenhouse gases and providing flood and erosion control—this is a good thing.

The proposed stimulus package includes $30 million to restore San Francisco Bay wetlands, which ultimately protects the salt marsh harvest mouse. Some call it pork; others call it cheese. I call it a good investment for our Bay.

Learn more about Save The Bay's wetland restoration program.

Big win for the Bay!

2009-02-13T14:46:00.000-08:00

by Laura Reinhard, Policy Associate

I was at the hearing this week where the Water Board unanimously agreed that 24 tributaries and two major shoreline sections of the Bay are so clogged with trash that they violate the Clean Water Act. This historic step was widely reported in over 20 media stories, including this article in the San Francisco Chronicle or this article in the San Jose Mercury News.

Save The Bay members and concerned citizens helped document this problem by sending in photos of trashy creeks and shorelines around the Bay. Of course, now we have a lot more work to do to make sure that our creeks and Bay get cleaned up. Stay tuned!

For more information on Bay trash, and to find the trash hot spots near you, click here .

Way to GTO!

2009-02-03T16:06:00.001-08:00

by Sarah Lyons, Administrative Assistant

A photo of Sylvia McLaughlin, one of Save The Bay’s founding members, hangs in the hallway and watches over me as I work at my desk. The gorgeous Bay landscape and Sylvia’s determined smile are part of what prompted me to recently become head of our Greening The Office (GTO) committee. GTO is a new, inter-departmental group committed to the task of reducing our carbon footprint, and adhering as much as possible to the three R’s--reducing, reusing, and recycling.

It is amazing how much paper, cardboard, electronics, desks, plastics, food waste, disposable bags, metals and more a normal office can go through in just a single day. But Save The Bay is no normal office, and we set about to reduce, reuse, recycle (and compost!) everything we could get our hands on.

A war was already being waged on the most obvious culprit, paper. Some sources say that the consumption of paper in the United States increases by 20% every year. To combat this, we replaced all virgin paper with post-consumer recycled content paper products. And all non-sensitive used paper, including shredded sensitive documents, are placed in clearly-labeled recycling bins. If only one side of a piece of paper is used for a print-job, it’s flipped over and re-used.

A small compost bin is in the kitchen for our discarded food scraps, and my own, personal compost bin has never been happier with the amount of veggie and fruit material I bring home since we have some very healthy staffers. Cotton towels are hanging in the kitchen and bathrooms, and the small amount of paper towels still used is added to the compost. Environmental and animal-friendly soaps and detergents were also thrown into the mix, as well as compostable cups and plates when re-usables are not available.

On the to-do list is the addition of more office plants, a basement cleanout to support bulk orders of supplies (thus cutting down on fuel for transport and packing materials), and aerators for the sinks (supplied by EBMUD). We're always looking to do more, so please feel free to share any ideas you have!

All of these steps are singularly small, but together they make a big difference. It's important to remember—when faced with the daunting task of saving the Bay--that every little bit helps. Not all our efforts to save the Bay need to take on the Bay; some can happen right in our downtown office.

Office greening resources:
www.Stopwaste.org
The Environmentally Green Office at a Glance
www.ireuse.com

Kick the Bag Habit

2009-01-30T16:02:00.000-08:00

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

The San Francisco Weekly published this article a few weeks ago about plastic bags and whether or not banning their usage is the proper way to clean up the environment and end global warming. As the debate between paper versus plastic heats up, it seemed appropriate to share with you Save The Bay's stance on the matter: BYORB—Bring Your Own Reusable Bag.

Californians use an estimated 19 billion plastic bags per year, but only five percent of these are recycled. While some plastic bags sit in landfills for thousands of years, many find their way to our Bay where they often entangle, choke and even kill wildlife. In fact, an astounding fifteen thousand plastic bags were pulled out of the Bay by volunteers in just one day last year.

Paper bags aren't really the answer either. That's why Save The Bay is asking you to join us in supporting a single-use bag fee by signing our petition and helping your community make the switch to re-useable grocery bags, keeping both plastic and paper bags out of the Bay. And while you are shopping, please remember to bring your own bags!

The other kind of Water Boarding

2009-01-27T17:19:00.000-08:00

by Laura Reinhard, Policy Associate

While most Bay Area residents don’t lose sleep wondering what is going on at the San Francisco Regional Water Board, people in Vallejo (and elsewhere around the Bay) just might start. The Vallejo Times-Herald recently reported that the city's Rindler Creek is one of many Bay Area creeks being considered for the EPA's "303d" list of trash-impaired waterways. This "303d" designation has sparked backlash from municipalities and, on January 14, brought a showdown at the ol’ Water Board hearing room. I was glad to be there to witness some real leadership for the environment.

On one side: The Clean Water Act and the health of the Bay

On the other: The well-paid consultants who make their money off of studying trash pollution at city expense.

And the bone of contention is the possibility of the Water Board reporting 24 Bay tributaries and two sections of Bay shoreline to the EPA for being so full of trash as to violate the Clean Water Act,. This would require cities to clean up the trash and fix the problem. You will note, quite often the companies making lots of money studying a problem for cities are not the companies making money fixing the problem.

Bay Area cities are understandably concerned about budget woes. But it makes more sense to invest in solutions than superfluous studies of a well-documented problem. Inserts in storm drains that catch trash are one type of project that would keep trash out of our waterways.

In considering reporting these creeks and shorelines to the EPA, several Water Board members spoke out about the crisis of trash and plastic debris in the Bay. Board member Steve Moore, an engineer who has extensive experience with runoff and trash issues, spoke passionately about the need for action. He pointed out the opportunity to put Bay Area residents to work through overdue infrastructure investments that will also clean up the trash and polluted runoff choking our waterways.

The outcome of this showdown looks to be going the Bay’s way. An official vote won’t come until next month or later, but if the January 14 hearing was any indication, the score might be Bay: 1 Trash: 0

Learn more about Save The Bay's Bay Trash Hot Spots

Reporting from the Inauguration: A new day dawns for the Bay

2009-01-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

by David Lewis, Executive Director

I’m huddled with my wife and two young daughters below the U.S. Capitol, watching Barack Obama’s historic swearing-in as the 44th President of the United States.

The spectacle is impressive – the huge throngs, the dramatic setting, the pomp and circumstance. The emotion and import is overwhelming –a nation founded upon legal slavery is actually installing an African-American as its national leader.

Most stunning: this dramatic transfer of power and enormous political shift is again accomplished peacefully and orderly, as it has been for more than two centuries.

So what will it mean for San Francisco Bay? We have reason to be optimistic that the federal government will start doing more to prevent pollution of our Bay and accelerate restoration for fish and wildlife. President Obama says a challenging economy actually presents an opportunity for bold steps to strengthen our environment and infrastructure – saving the Bay is a great place to start.

Save The Bay and our sister organizations from estuaries around the nation are already working with the Obama administration on an ambitious plan to increase federal funding for wetland restoration. Restored tidal marsh helps combat global warming by capturing carbon from the atmosphere, protects against coastal flooding, and provides wildlife habitat and recreation for people.

Creating jobs that rebuild the nation’s infrastructure should include upgrading stormwater and sewer systems so they stop trash, bacteria and other toxics from polluting our Bays and oceans.

Nancy Sutley, the new director of the Administration’s Council on Environmental Quality, knows San Francisco Bay and Save The Bay from her years of service on California’s Water Resources Control Board. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senators Boxer and Feinstein, and many of our region’s Members of Congress are Bay champions.

These are all reasons for us to work harder than ever to make progress for the Bay.

Ways to help Save The Bay:
Sign up to volunteer
Join our Bay Saver Email Action Network
Become a Facebook Fan

Gore-tex, Gardening Gloves, and Good Partnerships

2009-01-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

by Jocelyn Gretz, Community Programs Manager

My job is to recruit and coordinate details for approximately 5,000 participants for Save The Bay’s programs each year. I love getting people out on the Bay, but every winter I run into the same conundrum—the seasonal rains make it the perfect time for us to plant, but they are also a deterrent for many groups to sign up for projects. The solution: the Gore-tex clad outdoor industry.

After a successful Earth Day project with The North Face last year, I connected with ConservationNEXT—the outreach arm of The Conservation Alliance, a group of outdoor businesses whose collective contributions support conservation organizations and their efforts to protect wild places. They wanted a local environmental service project where their member companies could volunteer, learn about the Alliance and celebrate their service to the earth. Enter Save The Bay.

The first "Backyard Collective" service project was held in partnership with Save The Bay on Friday, January 9 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline Park in Oakland. A thick morning fog soon lifted to blue skies and temperatures in the 50s, a perfect clear winter day for our project. Over 80 volunteers from seven Bay Area outdoor companies—The North Face, Mountain Hardwear, CamelBak, Clif Bar, REI, Ahnu Footwear, and Wilderness Press—learned about the importance of wetlands as they improved habitat. In one day, this inexhaustible group accomplished the following:

-->Nearly 800 native seedlings planted
-->Over 100 pounds of trash collected
-->Almost 250 hours of service—equal to one person working full time for six weeks!

Our Community-based Restoration Program relies upon the community, and that extends to Bay Area businesses. We need a continual flow of volunteer groups and individuals to help us restore our "backyard" wetlands all around the Bay. In return, we provide a fun, team-building and educational experience at a beautiful shoreline parks.

Whether you'd like to be a winter planter, a weed warrior in the spring and summer, or transplant seedlings in the fall, I encourage you to join us out on the Bay. Contact me to set up a project for your community group or employee team or sign yourself up for one of our public events.

Connecting People to the Bay in their Backyard

2009-01-12T16:21:00.000-08:00

by Alicia Moore, School Programs Manager

One of the many strengths of Save The Bay’s Watershed Education Programs is that we connect people to the Bay within their own community. Back in 1961, when Save The Bay was founded, there were only about six miles of public Bay shoreline access. Since then, Save The Bay and many other organizations have worked to increase access and now more than half of the Bay is ringed with public trails, linking a necklace of shoreline parks.

We take advantage of this increased access by working with site partners to get adults and students out on the Bay—to learn about it and to protect, restore, and celebrate it. We use place-based education to connect the human communities around the Bay to the ecological communities in the Bay.

As our lives and surroundings become more urban, we begin to think of nature as a place we have to visit--a place apart from our city and our normal existence. Getting connected with the vast ecosystem of San Francisco Bay recontextualizes all of that. Realizing that you can easily hop a bus, ride your bike, walk or drive to the Bay reframes your life. Nature is no longer somewhere other than where we live; nature is now the uniting entity that gives our unique and beautiful home its very name: the Bay Area.

10,000 native seedlings down, 10,000 to go!

2009-01-06T16:56:00.001-08:00

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

Just two months into our winter planting season, we are nearly halfway to reaching our goal of planting 20,000 native seedlings at several sites along the shoreline to restore wetland habitat for the Bay and its wildlife. With many more programs scheduled from now until the end of March, we are in great position to meet our ambitious goal!

Planting native seedlings into the wetlands ensures that Bay animals like the endangered California clapper rail and salt marsh harvest mouse have safe and thriving habitat to call home. Wetlands also help curb global warming by capturing carbon from greenhouse gases in the air. In fact, estuarine wetlands, such as those surrounding the Bay, sequester ten times more carbon per area than any other wetland ecosystem. And wetlands also filter runoff pollution to improve water quality, provide flood control when water levels are high and prevent erosion.

We rely heavily upon the Bay Area community to help during this crucial winter planting season and offer many ways for schools, business and community groups, families, and individuals to get involved.

Sign up at www.saveSFbay.org/bayevents if you're interested in getting down to the shoreline to participate in any of our planting programs around the Bay. And if you don't like getting your hands dirty, but you'd still like to support our winter planting season, consider adopting a plant through our Facebook Cause.

Ripples, Reflections and Reading Recommendations

2008-12-22T17:02:00.000-08:00

by Adrien Andre, Development Manager

Originally posted on December 3, 2008

A little over two years ago I discovered Save The Bay when searching for a way to get involved with restoring Bay Area open spaces I had spent so many weekends and vacations exploring and falling in love with. As the largest and most defining feature of our region, the Bay seemed like a good place to start. Little did I, self-proclaimed nature nerd, know how much I didn’t know about the Bay; or how one volunteer outing would alter the course of my life.

I signed up to volunteer at MLK Jr. Regional Shoreline out by the Oakland Airport, curious to see what our urban Bay shoreline actually looked like up-close. Upon arrival I discovered a shockingly wild and beautiful shoreline park nestled amongst the super-urban industrial area of Hegenberger Road. There I spent a satisfying Saturday morning working together with volunteers of all ages to pull giant piles of invasive weeds amidst the teenage native plants Save The Bay staff, volunteers and students had carefully grown and planted the previous winter.

First, I learned that water or runoff from almost half of the landmass of California (40%) flows into our Bay watershed, and that we have only 5% of our original Bay wetlands left. I also learned that wetlands are the “lungs” of the Bay and that over 500 species depend on the Bay’s health. Though many other Bay facts were shared that day, I was stuck on those first two numbers that seemed so unmatched, and completely struck by the beauty, the vulnerability, and the importance of the health of the Bay to our quality of life, economy and very own corner of the natural world.

Just three ladies from Berkeley started the movement to save our Bay in 1961. At that time our habitat rich, ocean-flowing Bay was studded with regularly flaming open garbage dumps and raw sewage flowed freely into it on a daily basis. The plans to fill and develop on top of its wetland shoreline and far into its shallow middle threatened to narrow it into a thin urban-flanked trickle. I felt deeply the threats to the Bay and it’s need for all of our support to restore the 100,000 acres of wetlands scientists tell us we need for it to maintain a healthy ecosystem.

Now, as Save The Bay’s Development Associate since September 2006 and primary member services contact, I am here to help others get involved with our work, to answer questions, to provide assistance with membership and donations, and to share information about our education, restoration and advocacy work.

The health of the Bay has come a long way since the 1960’s with the support of Save The Bay’s members and founders. I’m honored help carry forward the legacy they started and to work every day to ensure our member services are excellent and our membership base is healthy and growing.

Adrien’s Bay Must Reads:

The Ohlone Way, by Malcolm Margolin

Ecology, A Handbook, by Ernest Callenbach

A Natural History of California, Alan Schoenherr

Delta deals dozens of bird species

2008-12-22T16:56:00.000-08:00

by Dave Seel, Education Specialist

Originally posted on November 18, 2008

As we stepped on to the Delphinius, the tule fog was thick over the still delta water. Pushing away from the dock, Ron Patterson of Dolphin Charters welcomed our group of birders, who had come to see the wonders of the Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta.

The trip--one of several Save The Bay sponsored outings--focused on the annual bird migration to the delta’s maze of waterways, islands, and corn fields. The delta, once a network of sloughs and wetlands, has changed dramatically over time by the increasing demand for more agricultural and cattle grazing land. Now, sloughs have been straightened and dredged and the wetlands drained. But still every year thousands and thousands of birds, from the Sandhill Crane to many species of ducks, stop in the fields and tule marshes as they migrate from the cold north to warmer southern climates.

Sitting on the top deck of the boat, we scanned the horizon with our binoculars, waiting and listening to our knowledgeable captain who pointed out the sites and sounds of the surrounding waterways. “Northern Harrier—one o’clock! Look at him work that cattle field. He’s probably looking for his morning meal.” All binoculars turned and gazed at the beautiful raptor gliding effortlessly over the landscape.

A bit later, we happened upon a flock of Sandhill Cranes just about to alight in a corn field. A dozen or so swirled and circled surveying their landing spot and then beat their large grey wings as they came to rest, perhaps after many hours of flying. Lit perfectly by the morning sun, the Cranes’ red crowns glistened against their grey bodies. The engine silented for a moment and we listened to their squawking, trying to understand what they had to say about their journey.

The day was a long one and we began to tire of looking for Green Herons or American Bitterns, only to find giant flotillas of American Coots. But just as we thought we’d seen it all, we saw what looked like a darkening storm cloud. But as we focused our binoculars, we saw thousands of geese and tundra swans, swirling upward from a far off field. In that moment, I realized the immense biodiversity that we have here in the San Francisco Estuary. For thousands of years, these birds have been returning to this spot, relying on it for food, water, and rest. Without these wetlands, these birds wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be able to share in their profound beauty.

Why I love the Palo Alto Baylands: It's a Feeding Frenzy!

2008-12-22T16:51:00.000-08:00

by Alicia Moore, School Programs Manager

Originally posted on November 11, 2008

Save The Bay works with site partners at roughly 11 sites around the Bay to offer Canoes In Sloughs and Community-based Restoration outings to school groups, community and corporate groups, and members of the public. Each site is special, and offers endless gems, but one of my favorite sites is the Palo Alto Baylands.

The Palo Alto Baylands is one of our most tidally-dependent sites, as it is one of the shallowest and muddiest. But it is precisely this mud that makes Palo Alto one of my favorite sites: it is a treasure trove teeming with life. Within a handful of Bay mud, you can find up to 40,000 living organisms. Now, of course most of these organisms are microscopic (or else you’d have to have a pretty big hand), but all this life within the mud makes for a lot of life outside of the mud.

On any given day, you can go to the Palo Alto Baylands at a lower tide, and see mud flats imprinted with the tracks of avocets, black-necked stilts, great blue heron, western gulls, California gulls, curlews, godwits – the list goes on. Much of the time you will see these tracks ending at the bird that made them. This place is a jackpot for birders who come to feast their eyes on the birds that come to feast their beaks on the macroinvertebrates that come to feast their mouths and valves on the microinvertebrates that come to feast upon the algae, bacteria and detritus within the mud. That’s one big feast!

You can witness this feast as you help us restore this habitat, or you can head on down to the Baylands with a picnic to join this feeding frenzy yourself. Either way, don’t forget to bring your binoculars!

Remembering the Cosco Busan

2008-12-22T16:41:00.001-08:00

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

Originally posted on November 7, 2008

Today marks the one year anniversary of the November 2007 Cosco Busan Oil Spill. It's hard to believe a year has passed since the 900-foot cargo ship left the Port of Oakland in heavy fog only to run into one of the towers of the Bay Bridge. The ship spewed more than 50,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel into the Bay and fouled 56 miles of shoreline, killing 3,000 birds. Bay Area residents will never forget the images of birds and wildlife coated in oil and our beaches covered with thick, black sludge. It was a tragedy for our Bay.

Even so, the outpouring of public concern and support following the spill proved how much the community loves our Bay. Our quality of life and economy depend on a healthy Bay and it defines our region. And the community knew that.

At Save The Bay, the mood of our staff varied from sadness and anger to motivation and inspiration. In the wake of the spill, we realized it was more important than ever to strengthen the health of the Bay and to provide wildlife with increased habitat for greater survival during emergencies. Today, we continue to work toward our goal of restoring 100,000 acres of healthy wetlands around the Bay and will plant 20,000 native seedlings along the shoreline this winter.

In direct response to the oil spill, Save The Bay did the following:

      --demanded a full investigation into the accident and reparation for the damage

      --testified to Congress and advised policymakers how to restore the Bay’s health

      --provided expertise and support on state and federal legislation to protect the Bay against future spills

      --provided accurate, timely spill information for volunteers, the news media, and elected officials

      --helped wildlife agencies document the oil’s impacts and submitted over 180 photos to Natural Resource Damage Assessment teams

      --noted impacts to sensitive eelgrass and oyster beds

      --educated thousands of students and adults about the impact of oil spills

      --enlisted community volunteers to clean up the shoreline and restore wetlands

Chillingly, this was only a modest spill, so it serves as a wake-up call to improve vessel security, ship traffic control, hazardous material handling, spill prevention and response and volunteer coordination. There is nothing more frustrating than having an army of able-bodied volunteers and not being able to use them.

Governor Schwarzenegger did sign several bills to increase oversight of Bay ship pilots, train emergency responders, and improve communications when oil spills occur. But the Governor DID NOT DO ENOUGH to protect the Bay. He vetoed bills that would have required faster response, more pre-positioned equipment, and new cleanup technologies.

In truth, the Bay is under assault every day from runoff pollution and it can take years for ecosystems to recover from spills of this magnitude.  But to help ensure a faster recovery for the Bay, you can do the following:

      --Volunteer to help restore Bay habitat.

      --Make simple lifestyle changesto reduce runoff pollution.

      --Sign up for our Bay Savers Email Action Network and we’ll alert you when we need your help on important policy efforts.

The fight goes on

2008-12-22T16:26:00.000-08:00

by Stephen Knight, Political Director

Originally posted on November 5, 2008

Because Cargill’s developer DMB spent nearly $2 million in just three months (or more than $150 for every vote in their favor) in a community of 75,000 residents, we are disappointed, but not surprised that Redwood City’s Measure W did not pass yesterday.

Measure W is the Charter Amendment that would have guaranteed Redwood City voters the final say on any development of open space in the city – including Cargill’s 1,433 acres of retired salt ponds.

In dozens of mailers and ads, the developers’ campaign confused and misled voters about supposed impacts on individual homeowners and painted Save The Bay as "Oakland-based outsiders," never mentioning our name! This is interesting coming from an Arizona-based luxury housing developer representing Minnesota-based Cargill.

Because the vote against W rests on that foundation, it does not reflect support for Cargill’s massive and controversial development. Even many opponents of Measure W publicly stated they are opposed to development on these salt ponds.

Cargill faces many more hurdles to development on this site. Save The Bay has protected and restored the Bay since 1961, and we will continue to fight against any development on Cargill’s salt ponds on the Redwood City shoreline. These ponds were once thriving wetlands and they can be again. The fight goes on.

To learn more, get involved and/or tell Cargill not to pave our Bay, go to www.savesfbay.org/redwoodcity.

Celebrating the good times

2008-12-22T16:17:00.001-08:00

by Adrien Andre, Development Manager

Originally posted on October 28, 2008

There was a lot to celebrate this October 16 when Save The Bay's staff and Board, along with supporters of Save The Bay's Greening The Bay campaign gathered in a donated flat with sweeping Bay views at the swanky Infinity Towers in San Francisco.

We were treated to an early evening of classic Bay Area Indian summer weather, inspired Bay-themed cocktails (like the "Marshtini!") and inspiring Bay-minded company. In line with our mission and ideals for environmental sustainability, we indulged in the local delicacies of our bounteous state with organic hors d'oeuvres garnished with pickleweed grown in our own nursery and spectacular wine donated by Napa winemakers at St. Supery.

We expressed our sincere gratitude for the support of the Greening The Bay Advocates who are making possible the work outlined in our Greening The Bay report--a vision and long-term plan for restoring the 100,000 acres of thriving Bay wetlands needed to sustain a healthy Bay ecosystem. In coming together to thank these dedicated Save The Bay members and supporters, we enjoyed an evening in the company of a group with a strong shared passion for the Bay. We also honored Save The Bay's ongoing legacy of local residents and institutions coming together to speak out for our natural treasure.

In speaking to the crowd, our Executive Director, David Lewis, remarked that it is significant that in a year when the Governor set a record for vetoing bills, he signed Assembly Bill 2954 to establish the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, which can generate funds for Bay wetland restoration. With the accomplishment of the Greening report's first major recommendation, we celebrated a huge step toward realizing our vision for the Bay. We celebrated the support of California State Assemblywoman Sally Lieber who endorsed our Bill. And we celebrated our ability to take part in the state legislative process to benefit the Bay, in the face of many people telling us this step was just too big to attempt successfully.

In all, we acknowledged Save The Bay's diverse community of supporters and the exciting work we are undertaking together for the health of the Bay. In these times when communities tend to be many and fragmented and the future of the environment can feel tenuous and challenging to secure, the opportunity to come together and share the company and mutual values of others for the benefit of our local environment, while toasting to the success of major concrete wins for our Bay, may be the greatest reason of all for celebration.

Yes on W--Yes on Open Space

2008-12-22T15:55:00.000-08:00

by Stephen Knight, Political Director

Originally posted on October 24, 2008

Save The Bay was founded almost 50 years ago to ... well, save the Bay, from Bay fill. And it was saved--back then; but somehow it never seems to stop needing to be saved again. With seven million of us living all around it, the pressures on the Bay will always be enormous, no matter how much we love it and realize how important it is to our quality of life and economy.

We'd like to think that in the 21st century, any further massive Bay fill would be off the table. Not so.

At the top of Save The Bay's agenda right now is passing a ballot measure—Measure W—in Redwood City. Measure W gives Redwood City voters the final say if the City Council approves development on open space, parks and baylands. The largest threatened open space left along the Bay shoreline is a 1,430-acre salt pond site owned by Cargill Inc., where current zoning does not permit the truly massive development planned by Cargill developers.

In their campaign against Measure W the Cargill developers are spending around $20,000 a day to confuse voters by claiming that Measure W will somehow hurt homeowners, leave seniors hungry, and even burn down houses! Redwood City residents should reject these baseless claims, get the facts and send the developers a message by voting Yes on W.

Redwood City’s quality of life and economy benefit directly from the smart decisions made to preserve open space. Because citizens acted, Bair Island is now a wildlife refuge instead of an office park, and Marina Shores’ massive high rises were stopped.

This November, Redwood City voters should make another smart decision for open space by voting Yes on W.

Watch our Yes on W video on YouTube

Restoring wetlands in Rhode Island

2008-12-22T15:46:00.001-08:00

by Darcie Collins, Ph.D., Habitat Restoration Director

Originally posted on October 21, 2008

I attended the Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE) 4th annual conference held last week in Providence, Rhode Island.

The alliance members range from the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, with four full time staff who work to educate and advocate for the implementation of sound coastal policies, to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation which boasts six offices, including the Merrill Center which is a “green” Environmental Center, one of the world’s most energy-efficient buildings. However, all 11 members share the common goal of protecting and restoring or coastal resources.

The five-day conference focused on the advancement of science and the success of habitat restoration and provided a unique opportunity to blend people and policy as well as business and best practices. There were trips to the Cape Cod National Sea Shore restorations sites, urban restoration in Boston Harbor, and forums on monitoring, adaptive management and climate change.

Highlights for me included flying in a four passenger Cessna plane over restoration sites throughout Narrangansett Bay, participating in a volunteer restoration project along the Providence River, and most of all, interacting and brainstorming with fellow Habitat Restoration Directors from a variety of RAE alliance members.

I learned that a few of the non-native salt marsh plants we tirelessly attempt to eradicate here in the SF Bay Area—like cordgrass (Spartina sp.)—are among the top natives planted in salt marsh restoration projects on the East Coast! I learned the importance of coastal wetland restoration in protecting communities in the hurricane threatened landscapes of Louisiana and Texas, as well as the imperative to rebuild these important ecosystems following the devastation caused by these storms. And, I also learned that volunteer enthusiasm and Community-based Restoration Programs like ours are thriving along the West, East and Gulf Coasts of the United States.

Although the next RAE conference is not until 2010 in Galveston Bay, Texas, the coastal and estuarine habitat restoration community is further armed and ready to continue innovative exploration of best estuarine restoration and management practices.

Taking our message to Washington, D.C.

2008-12-22T15:38:00.001-08:00

by David Lewis, Executive Director

Originally posted on October 15, 2008

Governor Schwarzenegger recently signed into law a landmark bill to restore Bay wetlands. The passage of A.B. 2954 was a HUGE triumph for Save The Bay. Yet even as we savor the taste of victory, we know there is still more work to be done. A few weeks ago, I flew to Washington D.C. to testify to Congress on a bill Save The Bay helped write that would help restore habitat around San Francisco Bay’s national wildlife refuges. Although I worked on and around Capitol Hill for 14 years, I’ve only been a “witness” a handful of times, and never for the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Ocean.

It was a thrill to hear praise for the work Save The Bay does to protect and restore San Francisco Bay – from Members of Congress representing South Carolina, Maryland, Michigan and Guam! As you can see if you watch the hearing video, even leaders from other parts of the county understand San Francisco Bay is a treasure.

Fremont Congressman Pete Stark and all 13 Members of Congress from the Bay Area have co-sponsored H.R. 6479, to establish the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex, including the 7 wildlife refuges that stretch from Marin County to Monterey. These wildlife refuges are some of the most-visited in the nation. Rep. Stark’s bill emphasizes the need for federal funding to restore habitat in these areas, which is one of the priority recommendations in Save The Bay’s 2007 report, Greening the Bay.

Although Congress will adjourn in just a few weeks, we’re working hard to get this bill passed, and get San Francisco Bay’s wildlife refuges the resources they need.

The Gov signs our wetlands bill!

2008-12-22T15:16:00.000-08:00

by Jessica Castelli, Communications Director

Originally posted on October 2, 2008

The Save The Bay staff is jumping up and down in excitement and celebratory orange and blue streamers are hanging from our hallways—we are celebrating a landmark win for San Francisco Bay wetlands!

Late Tuesday night Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law AB 2954, establishing the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority to secure crucial funding to restore Bay wetlands. Creating this Authority is the primary recommendation in Save The Bay's ground-breaking August 2007 "Greening the Bay" report. And the policy team has been working very hard over the past year to make this bill a reality!

Scientists say that establishing 100,000 acres of wetlands is essential to a healthy, sustainable Bay. However, securing the funding necessary to pay for restoration has been the biggest obstacle to reaching this goal. Now with the enactment of AB 2954, the 100,000 acre goal is in reach! The next step is for the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) to appoint seven board members to the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, to being exploring ways to secure regional funding for wetland restoration.

Assembly Speaker pro Tem Sally Lieber (the bill's author) said it well: "It's our responsibility to take care of and restore San Francisco Bay, one of our State's most valuable and beautiful natural treasures. Our greatest asset is also one of our greatest protections against the impacts of global warming. Our bay wetlands provide natural flood control and capture greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere."

Thank you to everyone who took our action and asked the Governor to sign AB 2954—your voice made a difference! We'd like to ask you to also send a thank you message to the Governor. He vetoed a heck of a lot of bills this year and we want to thank him for signing this one.

Save The Bay does Coastal Cleanup Day

2008-12-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

by Jocelyn Gretz, Community Programs Manager

Originally posted on September 26, 2008

Photo by Adrienne Miller

Last weekend Save The Bay hosted five Coastal Cleanup Day events in four counties ringing the Bay. Coyote Creek and the Guadalupe River in San Jose, Eden Landing Ecological Reserve in Hayward, the Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline Park in Oakland and Mission Creek in San Francisco all got a little TLC from over 300 Save The Bay volunteers.

Coastal Cleanup Day started in Oregon in 1985 and California--with its sweeping coastline--was quick to join the following year, taking the lead ever since. Last year over 60,000 Californians volunteered out of an international total of 378,000! I suppose we could thank our long coastline and large population, but I think it might have more to do with the quality people of our state and their love for our aquatic resources.

I led 75 volunteers at Mission Creek in cleaning up trash from Giants fans, homeless encampments and runoff washed down from the watershed. We found plenty of the usual items like cigarette butts, needles and plastic bags, as well as unusual items like suitcases, car parts and electronic boards. I had to run around to keep up with the demand for bags and garbage bins, and not until the end of the three hours was actually able to pick up some trash myself. Our county coordinators at Literacy for Environmental Justice helped keep us stocked and indicated that all of their sites were maxing out on supplies--a good indicator that this year was much bigger than last year.

Our volunteers varied in ages, with high school students to octogenarians cleaning up their neighborhood waterways. Many groups like Building With Books, The Eden United Church of Christ, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, UC Berkeley's Circle K Community Service club, and even employees from the Hard Rock Café joined our Bay-wide cleanups!

In total, we had 319 volunteers contributing 957 hours of service to the Bay collecting 11,000 pounds of trash and over 1,000 pounds of recycling. Statewide preliminary results indicate that 60,000 volunteers collected 635,000 pounds of trash and over 100,000 pounds of recycling. Thanks to all who showed up for the event! We're looking forward to another successful Coastal Cleanup Day event next year!

In the meantime, Save The Bay hosts monthly cleanup and restoration events at several sites around the Bay. And we are just about to start our winter planting season! Sign up to volunteer today!

A landmark step for wetlands

2008-12-22T14:32:00.001-08:00

by David Lewis, Executive Director

Originally posted on September 23, 2008

Right now a landmark bill for wetlands is in limbo waiting the Governor’s signature.

Forty years ago, public outcry put a badly needed end to the slow destruction of San Francisco Bay from widespread filling and development. Indeed, the Bay as we know it now is a monument to that victory. Today, we have a significant opportunity to build on that legacy and ensure that future generations can enjoy the economic and ecological benefits of the Bay. The key lies in making smart investments to restore thousands of acres of salt ponds and diked hayfields to tidal wetlands

Only five percent of the Bay’s original wetlands remain&mdashrestoring more wetlands is vital to support endangered species, combat global warming, filter pollutants from the water, protect communities against flooding, and provide open space.

In 1999, scientists created a regional blueprint for restoring Bay wetlands, including 100,000 acres of restored tidal marsh at sites where it was still possible. Large shoreline parcels were acquired to pursue this blueprint, from salt ponds in San Jose to hayfields near Petaluma. Although state and federal resource agencies and private foundations have already invested at least $370 million, a broad long-term commitment supported by public and private interests is needed to preserve the Bay.

Save The Bay’s Greening the Bay report documents for the first time the total projected cost of these restoration projects, finds strong public willingness to pay that cost, and recommends ways to secure the necessary funds. The report states that over 50 years, $1.43 billion of investment will be required to fully restore more than 36,000 acres of tidal marsh. That’s only about $4 annually per area resident. We have the will and the wallet – what we lack is a way to translate this strong regional support into steady funding for restoration of Bay wetlands.

That's why Save The Bay sponsored California Assembly Bill 2954, which establishes the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, a special district that can raise funds and make grants to restore tidal wetlands in San Francisco Bay, without new costs to the state. Currently, this bill has passed the California Legislature and is waiting to be signed by our Governor.

Over the last four decades, Bay Area residents have overcome tremendous odds to prevent the Bay from being destroyed. By developing a long-term Bay wetlands restoration plan now, we can make the Bay healthier for people and wildlife long into the future.

Please help by telling the Governor to sign this landmark wetlands bill.

Trash talk gets tough

2008-12-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

by Laura Reinhard, Policy Associate

Originally posted on September 19, 2008

A few days ago as I was enjoying my morning coffee, I overheard a funny conversation between a pair of cyclists in San Mateo. They had just finished their post-ride sandwiches.

      “Hey, you’re not going to throw away that plastic bag, are you?”

            “Well, I don’t really need it. They just gave it to me with my leftovers.”

      “Give it to me! Those things are like gold in San Francisco now.”

As a result of San Francisco’s recent ban on plastic bags San Franciscans are saving and re-using plastic bags instead of throwing them away—where they often wind up in our creeks, Bay and ocean. This result is exactly what environmental advocates have been encouraging for decades. Yet often our local, state and federal governments opt for the easy-out—the “public education” approach—shying away from the controversy of putting laws on the books.

Overhearing this exchange brought home to me just how effective public policy can be in changing our behavior. “Public education”, while important, won’t be enough without effective regulation. The problem of marine debris and plastics pollution seems so much bigger than our family’s grocery bags. Often, we don’t feel like our actions matter enough to warrant changing our behavior. But that’s the point of legislation—to help us, en masse, to do the right thing—even when we can’t always see the impact for ourselves. San Francisco’s ban has made plastic bags less plentiful and disposable. More people are switching to reusable bags, keeping millions of plastic bags out of the Bay and ocean, and ultimately out of the stomachs of seals, turtles, and birds.

Despite massive public outcry over plastic pollution in our bays and oceans, many Bay Area cities are lobbying hard to block regulation aimed at stopping trash flows into the Bay. Unfortunately, they might be winning. The San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) has the authority to require cities to stop the daily flood of trash into the Bay from polluted creeks and rivers. The Water Board can set limits on the amount of pollution cities can discharge into the Bay when they re-write the storm water permit this Fall, Save The Bay wants a strong permit that requires measurable, enforceable reductions in trash pollution. Cities and counties, on the other hand, want a weak permit, with toothless regulations on trash. We won’t know if their lobbying efforts are paying off until we review the next permit draft when it is released in a few weeks.

Most of us have no idea how the Water Board seriously affects our lives and environment, but they are a critical regulator of pollution. Trash in the Bay affects our quality of life, not just the lives of sea birds and seals. That’s why there’s never been a better time to speak up and tell the Water Board that you want a strong storm water permit. We’ve been flushing our trash into the Bay for long enough. It’s time to get strong trash pollution laws on the books.

Bay Trash--Threatening Damon Slough and shorelines near you!

2008-12-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

Originally posted on September 17, 2008

If you’ve ever taken BART to an event at Oracle Arena or McAfee Coliseum, you have crossed over it. If you’ve ever traveled in or out of the Oakland Airport, you’ve flown over it. And if you live in East Oakland, your neighborhood storm drain connects right to it. I’m talking about Damon Slough. A thriving habitat flowing around the Coliseum and running alongside the Nimitz Freeway, Damon Slough in Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline Park opens up to Arrowhead Marsh and is home to several species of native plants, including pickleweed and arrowgrass, and endangered wildlife like the California clapper rail and the salt marsh harvest mouse. It’s also home to unsightly masses of trash and debris.

At Save The Bay, we call it a “Bay Trash Hot Spot.” In fact, for the last three years we have compiled a list of some the Bay Area’s trashiest waterways to call attention to this problem and Damon Slough has been on the list for three years running. One of the few, three-time repeat offenders, Damon Slough in its current state is particularly disturbing given it has all the makings of the proverbial Cinderella story.

In the 1980’s, crews from the Port of Oakland began dumping fill into the northeast side of the marsh. Fortunately the commotion caught the attention of East Bay Regional Park District staff and they contacted the authorities. After a successful lawsuit headed by the Golden Gate Audubon Society, Save The Bay, and the Sierra Club, $2.5 million dollars were allocated for restoration of this 72-acre wetland.

Since 2000, Save The Bay has partnered with East Bay Regional Park District to work with schools, community groups and corporations to restore wetland habitat along Damon Slough. Part of that effort includes shoreline cleanups to pick up trash and debris from urban runoff, litter, and dumping. To date, our volunteers have removed over 20,000 pounds of trash and recyclables!

Even so, Damon Slough is repeatedly inundated with plastic bags, Styrofoam cups, cigarette butts, bottle caps, car batteries, shopping carts, industrial waste, and old electronics.

While Damon Slough is of particular concern, trash accumulates in massive amounts all over the Bay, choking wetlands, poisoning and entangling wildlife, and harming water quality. A 2005 assessment by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) found an average of three pieces of trash along every foot of streams that lead to the Bay. And this trash also has global ramifications; it flows out the Golden Gate to form part of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”—a floating island of trash the size of Texas.

So what can we do? The good news is that because we create this pollution, we have the power to diminish it. We can:

Reduce the amount of trash we generate and make sure our trash doesn't end up in the Bay.

Dispose properly of hazardous waste, switch to reusable bags, and recycle and compost when we can.

Advocate for tougher policies and regulations to reduce trash flowing to the Bay. In fact, the Water Board has the opportunity to stop trash from fouling the Bay as they vote this fall to renew the storm water permit. Save The Bay is working to ensure that the permit limits the amount of trash cities and counties discharge into the Bay.

Volunteer to clean up and restore the Bay shoreline. Save The Bay hosts monthly cleanup and restoration events at several sites around San Francisco Bay. This Saturday, nearly 100 Save The Bay volunteers will clean up hot spot Damon Slough at the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline in Oakland, as part of the Coastal Commission’s 24th annual Coastal Cleanup Day.

No longer nameless!

2008-11-20T10:36:00.000-08:00

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

Originally posted on September 16, 2008

The people have spoken! And they want The Salty Blog!

Having difficulty coming up with a name ourselves, we asked you to democratically elect the name of our first-ever blog. As with any election, voter turnout could have been better, races were tight, and there were even a couple of folks who mounted a strong write-in campaign. The votes were close, but in the end, however, the clear winner was The Salty Blog.

We find this a fitting title given the nearly 50 years of experience we have protecting, restoring, and celebrating San Francisco Bay. And just as the Bay features a brackish mix of salt water from the Pacific with the fresh waters of our rivers and creeks, The Salty Blog will also include a mix of influences and varied topics.

Through this foray into new media, we plan give you the inside scoop on our progressive, and sometimes controversial, advocacy initiatives. And we will show you a new side of Save The Bay—one where you will get to know our staff, and see what we do day to day as the region’s leading champion of San Francisco Bay.

Thanks to all those who cast their vote; and in doing so, helped shape the image of a new and important element of our organization. Be sure to check out our previous entries and add us to your RSS feed for regular updates!

And welcome to The Salty Blog!

Connections and Connectivity

2008-11-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

by Bree Candiloro, Nursery Manager

Originally posted on September 12, 2008

Connections. Connectivity. We need it; humans, plants and animals alike. Connectivity is in high demand for animals like mountain lions that need 200 square miles of appropriate habitat and connection to other populations of mountain lions so that they will remain healthy. Connection in terms of human touch is necessary to keep babies alive. Plants in the marsh need the tidal waters to connect their seeds to new areas for growth.

The wild plants and animals are just as much our neighbors as the people who live in the house next door. So what is our connection to them? We assume wild lands are out there somewhere—in the National Parks we visit once a year—and we don't really need to protect more. But we do. We desperately do. Our every breath is dependent on the health and properly working systems of the Earth.

Let's focus in on California systems. Fire. The fires that devastated much of California earlier this summer made us very aware of the increasing number, frequency and intensity of these natural disasters. Non-native invasive plants can quickly come into an area after a burn and increase the danger of another fire burning more rapidly and more intensely than the landscape has been accustomed to enduring for the hundreds to thousands of years before. These fires are changing the face of the California landscape.

Not all of us, but many people in California have lost a connection to the natural world and don't understand the important role wild plants, wild animals and wild protected open spaces play in our everyday lives. I go from my house, to BART, to my downtown Oakland office on the ninth floor. I work on the computer, go home, and never think about the water rushing through the tap or from where it originates. I never think about the farm from where the wheat used to make the bread in my sandwich was grown. And I also assume that I will forever be able to draw clean water from my tap and purchase bread wherever and whenever I need it. But the health of the system that provides the clean water and provides the soil for the farm is so intricately connected with my life in so many ways. Keeping these systems healthy means keeping myself healthy too.

We launched a blog! Help us name it.

2008-11-13T14:30:00.000-08:00

by David Lewis, Executive Director

Originally posted on September 10, 2008

Save The Bay is thrilled to launch a blog dedicated to bringing you the latest news about our organization and the issues impacting our great natural treasure, San Francisco Bay. We plan give you the inside scoop on our progressive, and sometimes controversial, advocacy initiatives. We also aim to show you a new side of Save The Bay—one where you will get to know our staff, and see what we do day to day as the region’s leading champion of San Francisco Bay.

In short, this blog has it all! Except a name. As part of our first ever entry, we are asking you to help us choose a clever name for our blog. So, please help us out by taking just a few minutes to cast your vote right now!

We hope that through this blog you gain further insight into our work to protect shoreline open space from inappropriate development, reduce the toxic runoff pollution from our homes, cars and neighborhoods, restore 100,000 acres of critical wetland habitat, and educate thousands of adults and students about the Bay each year. Above all, we hope you will use this blog to learn about the Bay, its wetlands, and the ways we all can protect, restore, and celebrate our natural treasure.

We plan to keep our blog current by updating it weekly. I encourage you to post comments, engage in discussion with other readers, and send us feedback. We welcome your suggestions and ideas. And remember to take the quick survey to help us name our blog today. We will announce our new name in an upcoming posting.

Enjoy!