Good news for Muir Beach and Big Lagoon

Free Redwood Creek! Kick the berms out!

The mouth of Redwood Creek, and Big Lagoon, into which the creek flows, are close to being restored. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) has released a final Environmental Impact Statement/Report for restoring the wetland and creek area between Muir Beach and Highway One.

Redwood Creek, which for decades has been confined by berms (mounds of earth), roads, and development in its floodplain, will be allowed to flow more naturally and adjust its channel. The old bridge over the creek was only about 20 feet long, giving almost no room for natural stream processes. GGNRA's initial proposal called for removing the berms and widening the bridge to 150 feet. The Sierra Club suggested widening it by another 50% - and GGNRA has agreed!

The changes will reduce upstream flooding while protecting downstream salmon habitat. Until now the flooding problem has necessitated periodic dredging of the creek, which impacts salmon habitat. The changes will also slow stream flows, thus allowing more refuges for the stream's genetically unique salmon population at times of high flow. A second overflow channel in the restored floodplain will also provide such habitat.

The urgency of the restoration is emphasized by recent reports that this year has been a disastrous one for salmon spawning in Marin. In particular, no coho returned to Redwood Creek. The coho have a three-year life cycle; three years ago 93 redds (egg deposits) were recorded.

The Big Lagoon `restoration' is an unusual one. Studies have shown that because of current sedimentation conditions, it is not possible to restore the lagoon to its condition before European settlement. Instead the outcome will be a wetland/floodplain. 

One critical detail still needs to be resolved. The San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), owner of the Green Gulch Farm adjacent to the restoration area, has a water right, unused since 1989, to divert 15.3 million gallons from Redwood Creek every year. The project documents note that "as part of the project, SFZC will make an agreement to have the right abandoned, or else [the National Park Service] will acquire the right."

The guarantee of this water to nourish the creek and wetland is critical to the restoration. It has been part of the discussions of this project almost from the beginning, but an agreement still needs to be concluded.

There are several other loose ends.

• We have asked the county to design the bridge to be as narrow as possible to help the restoration gain acceptance in the local community.
• GGNRA needs to make a clear commitment to restore the western pond turtle, previously extirpated from the area.
• Emergency-vehicle access needs to be re-routed higher and extended to the front of the beach so that it will not dead-end in a marsh. This access is important for two reasons. Rangers must have access to the beach for enforcement. Also, when there are oil spills - every few years, unfortunately - Muir Beach gets heavy deposits, and so there is a need to bring in heavy equipment; we want that equipment to have road access so that it doesn't tear up sensitive wetlands.

WhatYouCanDo

Write to:

GGNRA Superintendent Brian O'Neill
Fort Mason, Building 201
San Francisco, CA 94123
GOGA_planning@nps.gov

and

Zen Center Green Gulch
c/o Jeremy Levie
1601 Shoreline Highway
Muir Beach, CA 94965
jjlevie@yahoo.com

Thank them for the cooperation between GGNRA and Green Gulch to bring about the Big Lagoon Restoration, and ask them to finalize the transfer of Green Gulch's right to annually withdraw 15.3 million gallons from Redwood Creek as soon as possible.

Gordon Bennett, conservation chair, Sierra Club Marin Group