Land overboard! The call to stop sprawl is not just for dry land

In the mid-'60s, that era of environmental fervor, Leslie Salt submitted beautiful architectural sketches of cities rising out of salt-pond lands in Fremont and Mountain View. Tens of thousands of people were to inhabit the waters and wetlands of the South Bay.

These are the wetlands that provide a nursery for the food chain, that filter contaminants from the water, that help to control flooding, and that support a vast array of aquatic and bird life. Most of these benefits cannot be bought with mere money.

If this could happen on a few hundred acres, what could we expect on Leslie's additional 30,000 acres of South Bay wetlands, or on its 10,000 acres in the North Bay?

Coming together to win a refuge

One morning about that time I read in the San Jose Mercury News a small note placed by a Santa Clara County planner, Arthur Ogilvie. "If you are worried about the wetlands we are losing, come to my office tomorrow morning and hear about an idea I have."

About 20 people showed up to hear his revolutionary idea - to establish a national wildlife refuge in the midst of our highly urbanized area! What a stroke of genius!

The Fish and Wildlife Service was not enthralled. It was used to staking out refuges in remote areas.

Luckily, we were received more sympathetically by an outstanding member of Congress, Don Edwards, who was willing to shepherd a bill. We consulted with wildlife biologists from resource agencies and other local experts to help determine what lands should be included.

Building support

When you go to a member of Congress, even a very sympathetic one like Edwards, they are going to ask you to show that there's political support. This turned out to be the fun part.

We put together a brochure, and a slide show on the beauties of the Bay - and on the threats facing them: airports, sewage outfalls, development projects. We produced "Save Wetlands" bumper stickers, auto shades, and coffee cups. We got Safeway to print our message (for free!) on a million grocery bags.

We made presentations or set up booths for every organization that would have us: schools, fraternal clubs, scouts, hunting and fishing groups. We obtained resolutions of support from city councils, boards of supervisors, and park districts, and we testified before congressional committees.

One tactic that I regularly recommend to other organizations is what we did: we went down to the edge of the Bay, out onto the levees, and got signatures there, from people who were walking their dogs, jogging, enjoying the Bay views. These were people who already knew and appreciated these lands. We gathered thousands of signatures, and sent postcards to Congress.

We got TV and radio stations to give us one-minute public-service slots. They would call up and tell us they needed someone there in San Francisco in two hours, and we had to find someone whose hair looked good enough that day to go.

One day an Oakland school teacher, home sick for a day, saw us on TV. When her husband, Barry Margesson, a biologist, came home that night she told him, "You're always complaining about what happens to wetlands; do something about it," and gave him our number. He went on to found our Alameda group, one of 10 local groups and affiliates, all operating under the umbrella of the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge. These groups are the on-site experts.

In 1972 the bill passed, authorizing appropriation of $9 million for land purchases by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Over the next several years monies were added, and by the time the acquisitions neared 20,000 acres, a total of $13 million had been appropriated and spent.

We had indeed found a new way of stopping sprawl. Today our refuge is the largest of several such urban refuges around the country. For example, in recent years I have been consulted by wetland-lovers in Detroit, who have succeeded in gaining a refuge there.

A bigger refuge

By 1985 we saw developers coveting every acre we had not acquired in the original legislation. That year saw the birth of the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge (really the rebirth of Ogilvie's earlier group), with the goal of protecting every last wetland acre in the South Bay. As I recall, we had about 30 members in the first year, and within a few years we had grown to about 2,000.

Turning again to the legislative skills of Rep. Edwards, in just one congressional year we brought about the enactment in 1988 of Public Law 100-556, more than doubling the authorized size of the refuge to 43,000 acres. The entire Bay Area congressional delegation signed on to the bill.

A particularly satisfying piece of the saga was the lengthy effort to purchase the 1,626-acre Bair Island. In 1982 Ralph Noble and the Friends of Redwood City launched a referendum to block Mobil Land from building a large development on the island. Over the years the land wasn't developed, but it changed hands twice, coming finally into the hands of Japanese developer Kumagai Gumi. In 1997 Audubon consultant Bill Rukeyser devised the sensational idea of a full-page ad in the western edition of The New York Times - the edition received in Japan. Three weeks later Kumagai called to open talks with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service! The Peninsula Open Space Trust was ready with funding for the $15 million purchase.

In 2003 Cargill Salt (which had bought out Leslie in the '70s) negotiated to sell 16,500 more acres of salt ponds to the state and federal wildlife agencies for $100 million. Fortunately, the expansion of the refuge in 1988 provided a safe haven for those ponds, with no further congressional action required. Left out of the deal, and still needing protection are Cargill's 1,400 acres of salt crystallizers in Redwood City.

What is left to accomplish?

The Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge today still has about 2,000 members. Consistent communication has been the key to that organizational steadiness. We still meet monthly, with about 15 or so "movers and shakers" regularly attending. Every month I send out a letter to over 200 of the most actively involved members. We have indeed a wonderful group of people.

We are still working to acquire some 4,500 acres of lands necessary for biological diversity in the South Bay. The biggest chunk is about 2,600 acres of Cargill salt ponds in Newark. (There are also 7,100 acres that are already owned by the Service, but which Cargill has permanent rights to use for salt production.

Near Coyote Hills the 400-acre Patterson Ranch includes 88 acres of wetlands. Activists in Fremont have just turned in the signatures to place an initiative on the November ballot to protect these lands.

Two former duck clubs on Mowry Slough in Newark also need protection.

Once the land is acquired, the agencies have the scientific and financial challenge of restoration.

Certain lands owned by Catellus and by King and Lyons are subject to agreements requiring the owners to restore the wetlands. They are then to be added to the Refuge. We must be attentive that these restorations are indeed completed and that the lands are turned over in a timely manner.

The tens of thousands of acres acquired are a living monument to a small group that has faithfully watched every acre of wetland, and with devotion and persistence has defended each of them from irreversible development. We salute them.

Aside from such cold statistics, we are moved by the words of Peter Steinhart writing about birds on our refuge, in the winter 2001/2002 Save Wetlands newsletter: "But through their migrations this place still spans vast distances and strings together remote parts of the globe - still brings to earth a feathered peace."

WhatYouCanDo

To join or otherwise contact the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge, contact the LaRivieres at (650)493-5540 or email florence -at- refuge.org

Florence M. LaRiviere, chair, Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge; with Philip D. LaRiviere