Water and watersheds in Bay history

Area once held wealth of wildlife and water

The San Francisco Bay area was historically one of the most diverse regions in the country - home to a fabulously rich array of plants, fish, birds, and mammals. Bears numbered in the thousands, deer and pronghorn grazed in massive herds, and flocks of birds literally darkened the skies. Native salmon and steelhead choked the rivers during spawning season as they made their way upstream. The Native American groups who settled here many hundreds of years ago depended upon this biodiversity - which arose directly from the abundant water supply in and around the Bay.

Malcolm Margolin's notable anthropological history of this region, The Ohlone Way, describes a very different environment from the dry lands that we now associate with the region. Instead, "California had so much water in those early days: thousands and thousands of acres of freshwater swamps, a San Francisco Bay rimmed with vast saltwater marshes, rivers that flowed throughout the year, springs that bubbled out of the hillsides, natural lakes, ponds, and innumerable creeks. Water was everywhere, and everywhere it was teeming with life."

Biodiversity lost

Surrounded by so much water, early communities couldn't help but integrate the watersheds and creeks fully into their lives. With the advent of greater European populations, though, marshes and wetlands were drained and filled, trees and vegetation, which had maintained a stable atmospheric water cycle, were destroyed, and rapid development and pollution spread. The Bay and its watersheds suffered damage that can never be fully repaired. Over 90% of its original wetlands are now lost, creeks and streams are buried in culverts underground, and most of the remaining surface waters have been forced into constricted concrete channels devoid of soil and vegetation.

Our daily contact with the water around us diminished, and now we catch only glimpses where once we had abundance. Moreover, "out of sight, out of mind" meant that it became easier to abuse our waterways. The negative impacts of our shortsighted development and poor planning have become all too clear. Common problems in the Bay Area include illegal sewage hook-ups dumping directly into creeks; pollution running from paved streets and parking lots into storm drains and then into the creeks ("urban runoff"); development encroaching on fragile creek banks, leading to destabilization, erosion, and bank failures which dump sediment into creek waters; channelized streams that lead to culvert failures and flooding; extensive loss of tree cover and vegetation, preventing percolation of water through the soil and exacerbating soil erosion and flooding; and an overall loss of ecologically essential habitat for fish and other wildlife.

Biodiversity regained?

The pioneering restoration efforts of creek activists over 20 and 30 years ago, along with increasing public awareness and volunteer participation in local restoration projects, have led to a new view of natural creeks and their benefits. Since these first efforts, regulatory agencies have started to see the benefits of watershed management and creek restoration as much more effective mechanisms for preventing stormwater pollution, controlling floods, and improving water quality.

Where once the Army Corps of Engineers called for putting creeks into concrete channels and underground culverts for flood control, it now acknowledges that planting native willows does at least as good a job of holding soil and banks in place, and provides a host of additional ecological benefits. Allowing creeks and streams to follow more meandering courses helps to alleviate flooding, and so cities and agencies are promoting the removal of straightened channels in favor of natural meanders. Perhaps most importantly, agencies and local jurisdictions are beginning to realize that land-use patterns, vegetation removal, and impermeable surfaces (even many blocks away from a stream) all end up directly and indirectly affecting our streams and water quality. Protecting and improving water quality thus requires a comprehensive, community-based effort, founded on long-term vision, full watershed planning, and public education.

Juliet Lamont