Saving San Francisco Bay may not have been enough. Policies curtailing extensive filling and other development of the edges of the Bay could still inadvertently leave the region with damaged or contaminated habitats which weaken the environmental fabric of its central feature. A new blueprint for a "shared vision" of improved ecosystems around the Bay, the San Francisco Estuary Baylands Ecosystem Goals, seeks to address this problem.
If the goals are realized, many parts of the Bay would be changed. Salt ponds in both the north and south bay would become managed saline ponds or tidal marsh. While farming and grazing might continue in some areas, they would do so as management options for land intended to harbor waterbirds. Tidal marsh would completely border the Suisun Marsh and the Contra Costa shoreline.
Identified as a need by the San Francisco Estuary Project in 1993, the Goals Project began in 1995. Its report is now moving from draft to final version. It was created by over 100 participants, representing federal, state and local agencies, academia, and the private sector, organized into five focus teams; a Resource Managers Group, made up of representatives from state and federal resource agencies, oversaw the project. The groups were augmented by a hydrogeomorphic advisory team, and a science review group.
The project focused on San Francisco "baylands", those lands near the Bay which are subject to tidal action, from the lowest tidal flats to the uplands reached by only the highest of tides. The baylands ecosystem includes adjacent areas from the deep bay water to non-tidal uplands and tributary streams. In conjunction with the Goals Project, the San Francisco Estuary Institute developed a detailed documentation of historical and current habitats, the Bay Area EcoAtlas. The EcoAtlas, available online at SFEI's website (http://www.sfei.org), allows users to understand and visualize habitat distribution and use throughout time.
The Resource Managers Group decided to base goals on species needs; data were readily available on many of the species and habitats, and the group agreed that goals which protected many types of plants and animals would produce other environmentally desirable results. From almost 400 species of fish and wildlife, 120 key species were selected to represent the complex ecosystem. Two dozen habitats were identified, some of them defined for the first time for the project. Project groups assembled qualitative and quantitative data on species and habitats, and prepared initial habitat recommendations followed by habitat goals.
Underlying the final goals is the tenet that no further loss of wetlands should occur in the ecosystem of the baylands. The report presents a general vision and site-specific recommendations to move the region toward a target sometime before the end of the next century.
All of the recommendations were based on a common set of ecological design principles. Key concepts state that restoration should:
Habitat restoration and enhancement is dependent on a number of factors. Climate components, such as sea level, wind, temperature and rainfall, control the availability of sediment, and the supply, salinity and evaporation rate of water. Topography also controls distribution of sediment and water by directing tidal flow and rainfall runoff or penetration. Land use affects habitat both directly and indirectly, through manmade structures, pollution, fragmentation of habitat, introduction or overharvest of certain species, and disturbance of wildlife.
Design and management considerations include techniques necessary to maintain habitats which are not naturally self-sustaining. Managed habitats, such as ponds managed for waterfowl or shorebirds, are usually substitutes for historical habitats. Management may help vary water level and supply, or control vegetation through mowing or grazing. Monitoring is essential to determine if a habitat needs management or is self-sustaining.
Implementation of the goals is both crucial and complicated. Among the technical and policy considerations are:
After the goals are adopted, they will be adopted by other agencies or used in a number of ways. San Francisco Bay Joint Venture's implementation strategy incorporating material from the project will be released in Fall 1998. The Joint Venture is a public-private partnership begun in 1996 to promote the acquisition, restoration and enhancement of Bay Area wetlands and associated habitats. It is one of 15 similar groups operating under the auspices of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing recovery plans for tidal marshes in Central and Northern California, and for the Pacific Coast population of the western snowy plover. The plans will probably include recommendations similar to those in the Goals Project. Soon after 2000, U.S. Fish and Wildlife is also scheduled to begin preparing a Comprehensive Conservation Plan for the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
A regional wetlands planning process is scheduled to begin in Fall 1998, aimed at protecting, enhancing, restoring and creating wetlands in the Bay-Delta estuary. The scope is being developed by the Regional Water Quality Control Board and U.S. EPA. Among other efforts, it will consider a coordinated way to implement the Goals Project recommendations.
"The [ecosystem] goals are long-term recommendations that will take decades to implement," concludes the report. It recommends periodic evaluation and revision of the goals, using a process which may be established in the regional wetlands plan. That plan is the next step down the road toward fully saving San Francisco Bay.
Leslie Stewart
For more information:
Peggy Olofson, Project Manager, San Francisco Bay Area Wetlands Ecosystem Goals Project, c/o San Francisco Estuary Project, 510-622-2454. Report online: www.sfei.org/sfbaygoals