Bay watch: marsh hopping besides San Francisco Bay - includes related information on the San Francisco Bay Area

Sierra, July-August, 1998 by Jerry Emory

I was raised two miles from San Francisco Bay, but I ignored it for most of my youth. The bay was just the place where people dumped their garbage and where we occasionally went to toss stale bread to mixed-breed ducks. Then, as a high-school cross-country runner, I took up a friend's challenge and ventured down to the shoreline for a run along the levees. We moved out among blue-green sloughs fringed with pockmarked mud and towering hedges of green rules. The sky seemed enormous, and we had the place to ourselves. Coming around a bend we startled a gathering of white pelicans--inland species on a California vacation. We skidded to a stop and watched them slowly catch air and labor skyward. Once the silent funnel had disappeared, we realized we weren't alone after all. Shorebirds frantically worked the mudflats, insects bounced off our legs, and terns dive-bombed into the waters. Since then, the bay, once a mere backdrop, has become my back-yard.

Much of San Francisco Bay's 400-mile shoreline is accessible. One of my favorite destinations is the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, along the bay's shallow southern reaches. The refuge takes in 23,000 acres and includes 30 miles of trails--a huge swath of open space in the middle of a densely populated area. Walking or cycling its eight-mile-long Alviso Slough Trail, you can trace the routes followed by Ohlone Indian canoes and Spanish rowboats. Brush rabbits sprint down the trail, gulls crisscross the sky, and diminutive marsh wrens belt out territorial songs from the rules while northern harriers skim the marshes in search of a quick meal. You may see Amtrak's Coast Starlight pass by or hear jets take off from San Jose International Airport, but in the heart of the refuge it's just you, still waters, crisp-looking pickle-weed, and the cacophony of thousands of shorebirds. (Black-necked stilts and avocets are particularly vocal when you get too close for their comfort.)

In all, more than a million shorebirds seek out San Francisco Bay and its marshlands for food and rest during migration along the Pacific Flyway. Only humans seem to be put off by this fertile muck-so much so that by the 1950s, 95 percent of San Francisco Bay's wetlands had been destroyed by landfills, dikes, and garbage dumps. Since then, however, conservationists have worked relentlessly to stein the tide of destruction by educating the public about the bay and converting abused bay-front parcels into parklands. The Edwards Refuge is only one of dozens of activists' achievements. While you soak up the serenity, give a little thanks to those who worked so bard to convince their communities to preserve these wetlands instead of paving them.

NUTS & BOLTS

HOW TO PREPARE

The San Francisco Bay Area enjoys fairly mild weather. But due to its proximity to the Pacific, you should be prepared for variable conditions, In summer, fog can blanket the region, quickly dropping the temperature from 75 to 55 degrees. The rainy season normally lasts from November through March, but the shorebirds don't mind.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Contact the Don Edwards San Francisco Day National Wildlife Refuge at (510) 792-0222, or visit its Web site at www.r1.fws.gov/sfbnwr/sfbnwr.html, The refuge runs a visitors' center near the Dumbarton Bridge in Fremont and an education center near Alviso. The Bay Trail, a 200-mile-long shore-hugging pathway that will eventually circumnavigate the bay, provides access to many bay shore locations, For information, contact the Bay Trail project at (510) 464-7901), or go to its Web site at www.abag.ca.gov.bayarea/baytrail.html

FOR DEEPER READING

A classic primer on the bay's natural history is Joel W. Hedgpoth's Introduction to Seashore Life of the San Francisco Bay Region and the Coast of Northern California (University of California Press, 1962), A broader perspective on the bay and surrounding terrain can be found in the lavishly photographed Bay Area Wild by Galen Rowell and Michael Sewell (Sierra Club Books, 1997).

THE POLITICS OF PLACE

Although park acquisitions and marsh restorations are in the news today, the bay's shoreline is still a shadow of its former natural glory. Bay watchers find hope in various ongoing wetland-restoration efforts, such as the 300-acre Sonoma Baylands Project and acquisitions of "remnant wetlands." One such purchase would complete the addition to the Edwards Refuge of three islands known collectively as Bair Island, The area provides critical habitat for resident and migratory wildlife, including a variety of endangered species, Conservation organizations, including the Sierra Club, have proposed that about two-thirds of the $15 million cost of the 1,600-acre project be covered by the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. They are working to raise the remainder from other sources. Write President Clinton (see postcard at right for address) and urge him to support this purchase. For updates on Bair Island, contact the Peninsula Open Space Trust, 3000 Sand Hill Rd, 4-135, Menlo Park, CA 94025; (650) 854-7696.