Remembering Save The Bay Co-Founder Kay Kerr

Save The Bay is deeply saddened to share the news of the passing of one of our heroes. Last week our co-founder, Catherine "Kay" Kerr, died peacefully at her home in El Cerrito surrounded by her loving family. She was 99.

In 1960 Kay Kerr joined two other Berkeley housewives -- Sylvia McLaughlin and Esther Gulick -- over tea to discuss their worry about an Army Corps of Engineers’ map that had been printed in the Oakland Tribune showing that San Francisco Bay could end up being a narrow shipping channel by the year 2020 because of planned Bay fill. They were also concerned about the 40 burning garbage dumps ringing the shoreline. Together, they hatched a plan to save the Bay. These three women mobilized their community to help and as a result, formed the "Save San Francisco Bay Association” In 1961, helping to start the first modern grassroots environmental movement in the Bay Area.

Soon the group was thousands of members strong and eventually won a legislative moratorium against Bay fill; established the first coastal zone management agency in the country, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC); helped create the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge; halted shoreline dumping; and stopped the Peripheral Canal from draining more of the Bay’s fresh water from upstream.

Today, Save The Bay works tirelessly to carry on our founders’ legacy by protecting and restoring San Francisco Bay for the benefit of people, wildlife and future generations. Our work to reduce Bay pollution, stop inappropriate development and restore wetlands is inspired by Kay, Esther and Sylvia – who simply didn’t give up even when told their efforts would be impossible.

We are particularly moved by these words from Kay Kerr:

“When we started out in 1961, we thought all we had to do was to get a good law and the Bay would be saved. What we have learned is that the law itself must be saved, that this requires constant vigilance against those that would change or weaken it. What we have learned is that the Bay is never saved. It is, instead, always in the process of being saved. That is why we have been so heavily involved for all of these years, and why our successors will be involved far into the future.”

Kay Kerr – University of California Albright Lecture Series, 1988

Sylvia McLaughlin remembers her dear friend fondly:

Kay Kerr was a good friend and colleague.

For several years, Kay, Esther Gulick and I would meet at Kay’s home every Monday morning to discuss our strategy for saving the bay from being filled for shoreline development.

Kay did most of the writing as she had been a journalism major at Stanford. She would write statements on behalf of Save The Bay, which I would read at Council and legislative hearings. She was totally dedicated to our cause of keeping fill out of the Bay and beautifying the shoreline.

To honor Kay we are asking you to please share memories or comments about how she has inspired you to support Save The Bay in the comments section below.

San Jose Banning Bags = Huge Victory for the Bay

By Amy Ricard, Media Relations Manager

WE DID IT! On Tuesday, the San Jose City Council passed the toughest city ban on single-use plastic and paper bags anywhere in California, or anywhere in the country for that matter! This historic decision sets the stage for future bans throughout the Bay Area and the state. It also lets the plastics industry know their intimidation tactics will not prevent Bay Area jurisdictions from prioritizing the health of our communities, our waterways and San Francisco Bay.

Save The Bay held a press conference on Tuesday prior to the vote along with several members of the San Jose City Council, Californians Against Waste and tons of bag ban supporters across the region. After nearly 35 public comments in support of the ban, the City Council passed the ordinance 10-1 to resounding applause and celebration throughout the Chambers. All in all, it was a great day and a huge victory for the Bay.

Check out the media round-up below.

1. SJ to outlaw plastic supermarket bags in 2012 (ABC 7)

2. San Jose City Council approves plastic bag ban (CBS 5)

3. San Jose City Council Passes Plastic Bag (KTVU 2)

4. San Jose to outlaw plastic bags at checkouts (NBC 11)

5. San Jose bans plastic bags (SJ Mercury News)

6. San Jose OKs state's toughest ban on plastic bags (SF Chronicle)

7. Editorial: State should follow San Jose’s lead on plastic bag ban (SJ Mercury News)

8. City passes plastic bag ban (SJ Inside)

9. San Jose, Calif. Bans Plastic Shopping Bags - And Free Paper Ones (Treehugger)

10. San Jose Passes Landmark Plastic Bag Ban, Help Your City Go Next (Change.org)

Opposition to Cargill erupts in Redwood City

By Stephen Knight, Political Director

Cargill & DMB developed a very big headache at the Planning Commission meeting in Redwood City last Tuesday night. Redwood City asked for their residents' input on the proposed salt pond development, and that is exactly what they got - over three hours of it. The overflow crowd lined the walls, sat on the floors and spilled into the hallway, where a TV and portable speakers had to be set up to accommodate everyone. Not swayed by the developers' slick and expensive presentation, the podium was packed with opponents to the project throughout the night - vastly outnumbering development supporters.

From the neighborhood associations to the mobile home parks and the garden clubs, Redwood City residents made it clear that they're deeply concerned about this destructive development and will be fighting it at every step of the way.

You can watch the meeting here; public comments start with Joel Jensen’s great statement at 01:10 here.

Sadly, despite a September presentation by consultants emphasizing that CEQA was democracy in action, Redwood City actually suggested that “advocacy” would not be tolerated, and that “there shall be no debating the merits of the project.” Residents protested, their city attorney corrected them, and they put out edited slides crossing out the offending provisions.

What the slide seems to suggest is that unless you favor the project, Redwood City doesn’t want to hear from you.

That is unfortunately consistent with the 99-page "Notice of Preparation of Environmental Impact Report for proposed Saltworks Project" released by Redwood City which is reminiscent of the project that it purports to describe: fundamentally evasive about core environmental issues, numbingly large, and preferring to distract attention by emphasizing irrelevant details.

The NOP makes no mention of:

--> the SF Bay Water Board’s recent letter to Redwood City stating the salt ponds to be "an important biological resource” providing “foraging and nesting habitat for a variety of birds." (June 2010)

--> the US EPA’s recent statement that Cargill's Redwood City salt ponds are "critically important aquatic resources that warrant special attention and protection." (Jan. 2010)

The NOP is clearly trying to advance the developers' interest, not the public interest. City Councilmembers insisted in 2009 that the salt ponds be removed from Redwood City's General Plan process at the explicit request of DMB, and their promise that this EIR would evaluate a broad range of visions for the property is now clearly broken.

GO Giants! GO AWAY Cargill!

The Phillies weren’t the only out-of-towners that were dealt a blow yesterday. As Giants fans were filing into AT&T Park, just before the Giants/Phillies NLCS game on the beautiful Bay shoreline, a banner was flying over the stadium telling Cargill and their luxury developer, DMB Associates, not to pave our precious San Francisco Bay. Fans were reminded that while our very own SF Giants are fighting for the National League title, corporate "giants" from Minnesota and Arizona are scheming to pave over and develop the very Bay that defines our region.

Check out some pics from the flyover!

If the fact that Minnesota-based agribiz giant Cargill has the gall to try to build a city on the Bay enrages you as much as it does us, sign the petition and learn more at DontPaveMyBay.org.

Plastic pollution plagues SF Bay

By Amy Ricard, Media Relations Manager

Have you ever wondered what happens to those pesky plastic bags or polystyrene foam (Styrofoam) containers that blow out of trash cans and float aimlessly along city streets and through neighborhoods?

Eventually, this plastic pollution finds its way to storm drains, creeks, bays and oceans. Once in the water plastic bags and Styrofoam becomes toxic food for unsuspecting wildlife or flows to join the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating island of trash in the North Pacific Ocean, twice the size of Texas, where studies have found that plastic particles are more abundant than plankton. Plastic litter also smothers our precious wetlands, poisons water quality and degrades our quality of life.

Each year Save The Bay (San Francisco) releases a list of Bay Trash Hot Spots, highlighting the massive and growing problem of trash pollution in San Francisco Bay. The 2010 Hot Spots showcase 225 shoreline areas and creeks all around the Bay polluted with plastic bags, fast food containers and more. The staggering number of hot spots underscores the severity of this problem and the imperative for Bay Area cities to take the lead in eliminating trash from our waterways.

Plastic bags and Styrofoam are some of the most pervasive and costly types of marine pollution. In fact, both items are consistently among the most frequent items of litter picked up by volunteers during Coastal Cleanup Day each year; and Save The Bay estimates that more than one million plastic bags wind up in the Bay each year. Plastic bags and polystyrene do not biodegrade; instead, they break into smaller pieces and are ingested by wildlife.

Amazingly, Californians use approximately 19 billion plastic bags every year. But here is the kicker: the average use time of a plastic bag is only 12 minutes!

It's time to really do something about plastic litter and pollution. The reality is less than one half of one percent of polystyrene food packaging is recycled in California. And for the past 15 years, California has made a concerted effort to promote plastic bag recycling, but despite this, less than five percent are actually recycled and there is little market for “down-cycled” plastic film. What's more, recycling firms report extensive costs from trying to recycle plastic bags because they jam processing machines and cause work stoppages.

Public education campaigns and cleanups are great ways to raise awareness about the problem, but to really reduce plastic pollution, cities and counties must prioritize legislation that ends the distribution of these commonly littered items, prompting consumers to switch en masse to reusable bags and other Bay-friendly food packaging alternatives.

Not surprisingly, the multi-billion dollar plastics industry has dispatched lobbyists to California and other states to block efforts to reduce plastic bag or polystyrene use. Like the tobacco industry, which launched campaigns to stop smoking bans, the plastic bag industry has sued or is threatening to sue cities across the country.

Even so, Washington, D.C. successfully passed a single-use bag fee that has reduced bag use throughout the city despite the bag industry strongly lobbying against it and several cities in the Bay Area have effectively banned Styrofoam. And even though the plastics industry pulled out all the stops to defeat California's statewide bag bill – AB1998 – San Jose, the largest city in the Bay Area, is on the brink of passing landmark legislation to ban plastic and paper bags (with some exceptions), which will make a hugely positive impact on the health of the Bay.

The nation is at a tipping point as more and more cities move toward eliminating plastic pollution and California is on the forefront of the movement. The Golden State has come closer than any other to passing statewide legislation to ban plastic bags and nearly 50 municipalities across the state – 19 in the Bay Area alone – have banned some form of polystyrene food packaging. It is time for the rest of the nation to follow California's lead and crack down on the plastic pollution plaguing our waterways.

P.S. In the meantime, let's do what we can to prevent plastic trash! We can:

--> Reduce our impact by making the switch to reusable bags and Bay-friendly food packaging options.

--> Advocate for policies and regulations that significantly reduce plastic trash flowing to our waterways.

--> Volunteer to clean up and restore shorelines and creeks.

Save The Bay's Trash Contest: Fun with Garbage

By Stephen Knight, Political Director

If you are reading this, you already know that trash is a serious pollution threat to people and wildlife in San Francisco Bay. This year, Save The Bay's annual Bay Trash Hot Spots lists 225 creeks and shoreline areas identified by the cities themselves as having high levels of plastic bags, cigarette butts, fast food containers, old tires and more. Trash is a dangerous pollutant that harms wildlife, spoils water quality, threatens public health, and smothers sensitive wetland habitat.

In short, trash is a drag.

But we wanted to have some fun with trash this year. So we’re having a trash cleanup contest! Save The Bay is asking you to vote for one of seven selected Bay Trash Hot Spots for us to "adopt" and clean up in 2011. The contest sites were chosen based on several criteria, including proximity to heavily-used areas and major transportation corridors, habitat for endangered species, and Clean Water Act violations – and geographic distribution around the Bay Area.

So please vote for your favorite trash hot spot at www.saveSFbay.org/baytrash. And tell your friends – you don’t want your favorite spot to lose, right?

The contest sites are:

1. Damon Slough – if you drive 880, you know this spot. It is a mess, in part because it flows next to the Oakland Coliseum and Oracle Arena parking lots. I’m not blaming the Raider Nation – unless the can control the wind.

2. The Hayward Regional Shoreline, near where we are working to at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve to restore critical habitat for wildlife – not for garbage.

3. Fremont’s Mission Creek flows through the city’s Central Park, a major recreational area.

4. If you are tired of seeing San Jose’s Coyote Creek on our Bay Trash Hot Spot list, then vote for this spot and we’ll help clean it up.

5. The Guadalupe Slough Baylands are located within sensitive marsh habitat directly adjacent to the Bay. Bay critters do NOT like trash!

6. Redwood Creek flows through downtown Redwood City and accumulates trash from commercial and residential corridors. The creek is next to Bair Island, part of the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge which is being restored to tidal wetlands. Plastic and tidal wetlands do not mix!

7. Colma Creek flows through a variety of urban areas in South San Francisco and San Mateo County, including major commercial zones, high-traffic areas, and pedestrian corridors. Picking up trash all along the way.

While we try to have some fun with trash this year, Save The Bay is committed to working with cities to help stop trash at its source – by passing bans or fees on commonly littered items such as plastic bags, Styrofoam and cigarette butts, and installing storm drains devices to stop trash from flowing to the Bay and ocean. The most common litter items picked up in California last year included cigarette butts, food wrappers and containers and plastic bags. In fact, Save The Bay estimates that more than one million plastic bags pollute the Bay each year. Yuck.

The 225 hot spots come from new Water Board regulations require cities to eliminate hundreds of trash hot spots around the Bay. Cities in Santa Clara County identified 74 trash hot spots, with Alameda County cities picking 69 trash hot spots to call their own. There are 49 hot spots in Contra Costa County, and cities in San Mateo County submitted 31 hot spots to the Water Board. Fairfield, Suisun City and Vallejo are the three cities in Solano County that must comply with the Water Board's provisions – these three cities selected a total of 10 trash hot spots.

We are excited that our Bay Trash Hot Spots event has grown over the years and is now the cities themselves (who never liked our calling out sites in their community, and who can blame them) that are identifying these trash-filled spots. So please, vote today and stand with Save The Bay against trash.

Dead End Ahead for Cargill

By Josh Sonnenfeld, Campaign Manager

Sign the petition to stop Cargill and help us meet the goal to get 5,000 signatures by spreading the word to your friends!

Things keep getting worse and worse for Cargill and their Arizona-based luxury homes developer in their attempt to fill in 1,436 acres of San Francisco Bay salt ponds.

Not only have more than 140 elected officials from around the region come out against the project, but so have the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News. An editorial in today’s San Mateo Daily Journal describing Cargill’s “overambitious plan” warns of “a long and contentious road ahead” if they continue on their current path.

This follows recent statements from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Water Board, and the EPA – three of the agencies Cargill would need permits from for their project to be approved – noting the importance of protecting and restoring the Redwood City salt ponds.

And today Save the Bay is proud to announce our new website – DontPaveMyBay.org – to ratchet up the pressure on Cargill and the Redwood City Council. While the support of elected officials, newspapers, and strong statements from regulatory agencies are big boosts to our work – we know that to beat America’s largest private company, we need everyone in the Bay Area on board. Will you help us?

NOW is the time for you to stand up to stop Cargill from paving our Bay! We need 5,000 signatures by August 16 to show Redwood City Council there is widespread opposition to Cargill's proposed development and convince them to stop this project in its tracks. Please sign the petition and spread the word at www.DontPaveMyBay.org! Please promote this on your Facebook and Twitter pages also.

Cargill’s development is 17 times bigger than any other bay fill project approved in the past 50 years. It is, by far, the largest proposal on the San Francisco Bay since the introduction of environmental regulations in the early ‘60s. Now is the time for the entire region to show that our bay is not for filling – but for the health and enjoyment of all.

Virtual Saltworks -- See the Cargill salt ponds' past, present and possible future

By Amy Ricard, Communications Associate

A couple of months ago, Save The Bay was approached by Karin Tuxen Bettman, a wetland scientist and Redwood City resident concerned about Cargill's plan to pave over and develop over 1,400 acres of former salt ponds – an area that once belonged to the Bay and a huge swath of Bay shoreline that can and should be restored to wetlands. Knowing the immeasurable benefits of wetlands and tidal marsh in maintaining a healthy Bay ecosystem, as well as in protecting communities from the threat of sea level rise, Bettman decided it was time to get involved.

Bettman currently works at Google helping non-profit organizations use Google Earth to achieve specific goals and convey messages, so her involvement with this project was a perfect fit. Over the course of several weeks, she worked with Save The Bay to develop a website that would take users on a virtual tour of the site, underscoring its history as tidal marsh in addition to the importance of the habitat it currently provides for wildlife and the myriad ways restoring the site would benefit both the Bay and the region.

Bettman's project – Virtual Saltworks – launched a couple of weeks ago and has since been featured in an article published in Bay Nature and the Bay Citizen.

Check out Virtual Saltworks and learn more about the history of the Cargill site and how you can get involved in the fight to save this critical piece of the Bay.

Wood doing good

This is a guest post written by Nate Ivy, Coordinator of the Service-Learning Waste Reduction Project (SLWRP) -- a joint venture between StopWaste.org and the Alameda County Office of Education. Students at Wood Middle School recently organized their 2nd Annual Beach Clean-Up as part of their participation in the program. These same kids have also participated in Save The Bay field trips to learn more about their watershed and the ways in which their actions impact the health of the Bay.

Enjoy the post!

Wood Middle School 2nd Annual Beach Clean-Up

Wednesday, 26 May 2010

At first glance, Crown Memorial Beach in Alameda appears to be a clean, pleasant retreat highlighted by sweeping views of San Francisco. Unlike many other public shorelines along the San Francisco Bay, Crown Beach does not appear on a list of Trash Hot Spots. However, students from Wood Middle School in Alameda discovered that looks can be deceiving as they participated in their 2nd annual microscopic beach clean-up.

Designed by science teacher Jeannette Frechou, the microscopic clean-up focuses on small bits of plastic that birds and other animals often confuse for bite sized bits of food. A close examination of the high tide line reveals a smorgasbord of multicolored plastics that easily float on the surface of the water.

"People are jerks! Who would do something like this?" one student declares.

In fact, students found many bits of debris from products they themselves use. Data tracking sheets reported the collection of plastic forks, bottle caps, salsa packets, and even a small plastic army man.

"We all do it," replies another. "It's not like people come and throw this on the beach... every piece of litter that falls on the ground or out of our car door gets washed down to the beach. We all have to be more careful." As if to emphasize the source of litter, a storm drain outlet peeks out of the receeding tide- connected to a storm drain one block from school labeled, "No Dumping! Drains to Bay."

This year, students have been working to do more than just be more careful with litter they produce, they have been studying choices that help to eliminate waste before it is produced. Staff and students from Wood Middle School have engaged in a partnership with the Alameda County Office of Education and Save The Bay to address marine debris through a grant provided by NOAA.

Earlier this year, students wrote letters to the editor addressing the challenge of candy wrappers entering the ecosystem at Halloween. In a study of healthy eating, students observed that healthier food choices usually use less packaging and benefit both human and environmental health. In just 60 seconds, one participant picked up 13 soda bottle caps along the tideline highlighting the challenges to our health and our environment.

Frechou helped students make further connections at the beach as she pointed out a tar ball, likely a legacy of the Cosco Busan oil spill of 2007. "Plastic is made from oil. We use a huge amount of oil to transport so many of the things we buy from all around the world. To help avoid spills in the future, we need to use less oil and less plastic."

Ms. VerDuin, another participating teacher from Wood, plans to use the beach clean up activity as a starting point for a discussion on marine debris, oceanic currents, the Pacific Garbage patch and the impact of plastic on wildlife. "There is a disturbing series of photos from Chris Jordan taken at Midway Atoll that shows birds killed by bits of plastic just like the ones we are cleaning up today. The clean-up activity will really help students connect to this global problem."

Click here to see the original post, complete with photos!

In with the new, out with the old

By Darcie Goodman Collins, Ph.D., Habitat Restoration Director

As Save The Bay's Habitat Restoration Director, I am extremely proud of my team and the 3400 + volunteers who conquered a rainy winter for a successful planting season!

Since the start of our planting season, which begins as soon as the rains come – this year it was September – community members and school groups have assisted Save The Bay in transplanting 25,532 native salt marsh plants at our numerous sites around the Bay.

At Save The Bay, we involve volunteers in every step of the restoration process. They help us collect seeds from native salt marsh plants such as gumplant, salt grass, sea lavender and California Poppies at least one year before they are ready to be planted. Volunteers help us grow all of our plants in our two native plant nurseries, and then finish the job by actually getting the plants into the ground.

Although these plants are local and have adapted to living in the marsh ecosystem, a rainy year such as this one is a blessing for wetland restoration. Ample rain and moist soils help give the newly planted vegetation an extra boost in their new marsh home. And this year, the wet conditions have expedited our ability to meet and exceed our goal to plant 25,000 native seedlings around the Bay!

So what do we do now? With a successful planting season completed, our staff and volunteers are busy making sure our newly planted seedlings are thriving in their new environment. This includes removing invasive plants to reduce competition and in drier seasons, may even involve some hand watering.

General maintenance of our sites coupled with science-based restoration techniques developed by Save The Bay experts over the past 11 years has resulted in over 100 acres of restored and enhanced tidal marsh around the Bay.

Save The Bay’s restoration efforts focus specifically on the important, yet narrow, “transition zone” which is a strip of vegetation (usually less than 30 feet wide) between two types of habitat. In this case, the transition zones we restore border the salt marsh and the upland system. A healthy transition zone is vital for the overall well-being of the marsh because it provides refuge for wildlife during flood events, a food source for marsh species, and also acts as natural buffers to protect the surrounding lands from sea level rise.

I could talk all day about Save The Bay's Community-based Restoration program and the importance of our work in maintaining a healthy Bay eco-system. But for now, if you are interested, please visit our website for more information.

Cargill developer "myths" debunked

By Stephen Knight, Political Director

Recent blog and Twitter posts by Cargill's Redwood City developer DMB state, "there’s been a lot of misinformation and half-truths being circulated out there."

No kidding.

Openly concerned about the attention being paid to their unprecedented plans to build a new city in the Bay, the increasingly desperate developer is clumsily attempting to erase many simple and inconvenient facts by claiming that they are "myths."

But the evidence is overwhelmingly to the contrary.

Did Cargill not tell their Arizona-based development partner these basic facts about their Bay property? You be the judge:

--> Astonishingly, Cargill’s developer claims it is a "myth" that the site "was diked off from tidal action to create salt evaporation ponds." This property is former tidal marsh, diked off from the Bay to make salt. Is there another way to make a salt pond? Just look at this 1943 aerial photograph.

--> DMB says it is a "myth" that site is located within a FEMA flood plain. Apparently they have not seen Redwood City's General Plan. (Redwood City General Plan Map, page BE-54).

--> Cargill's developer refuses to admit that the Redwood City salt ponds are the largest unprotected stretch of restorable bay shoreline because, they say, the site "is privately owned by Cargill." Yet the fact that these salt ponds remain in private ownership defines why they need protection from development.

--> DMB asserts that the current zoning for the site "anticipates future development proposals." In fact, Redwood City's General Plan states of the Cargill salt ponds: "Due to the sensitive nature of these open space areas, it should be assumed that they will remain as open space forever." These salt ponds have never been zoned for housing.

--> Cargill's developer also calls a "myth" the fact that state and federal laws prohibit filling wetlands when alternatives are available. But nobody contests that fact. The US EPA recently called these salt ponds "a critically important aquatic resource that warrant special attention" (EPA letter, Jan. 5, 2010). And Cargill has filed documents with the US Army Corps calling the site "waters of the US" protected by the Clean Water Act.

--> Cargill is running ads on TV and in newspapers telling the Bay Area public that this site is "a century-old industrial facility." Does this look like an industrial facility to you?

--> The developer threatens that the only choice is to approve their massive development, otherwise Cargill will continue making salt. Nobody is telling them not to keep making salt; it is their legal right to do so. But Cargill has already made clear that salt harvesting is no longer economically viable in Redwood City (Paul Shepherd, Cargill Land Manager, letter to Redwood City residents, 2006).

Just as Redwood City voters prevented Bair Island from being developed a generation ago, Cargill’s development must be stopped so that – like Bair Island – it can be added to the Don Edwards SF Bay National Wildlife Refuge and restored to tidal wetlands to benefit people and wildlife.

For more photos and documentation behind the real facts, please visit our Flickr site.

Sowing the Seeds of Change

By Trisha Allen, Education Coordinator and Natalie LaVan, Restoration Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator

When I say service, you say learning: service-learning, service-learning! Three cheers for the 21st Annual National Service Learning Conference.

A few short weeks ago, thousands of youth, teachers, and service-learning practitioners from around the globe gathered at the San Jose Convention Center to get inspired, share ideas, and gain tools for engaging young people in community-service projects across disciplines. The diverse representation of exhibits, workshops, thought sessions, and projects showcased during the three-day conference underscored just what a powerful teaching method service-learning can be.

And just what is service learning, you ask? To put it simply, service-learning is education in action! And the secret to successful service-learning projects lies in a few critical and common ingredients, namely: meaningful reflection, diversity, youth voice, and partnerships. Service-learning builds community and spans cultural and national boundaries and develops young people.

On the second day of the conference, Save The Bay got the chance to show participants how it’s done! About 35 individuals from all corners of the U.S. descended upon the Palo Alto Baylands for a Community-based Restoration Program. With representatives of all backgrounds – from places like Texas, New York, Tennessee and Illinois (just to name a few) – we were able to plant almost 100 native seedlings along the Bay. What's more, the group was able to learn about the key elements of a successful service-learning program and our precious Bay.

Click here for more information and resources about service-learning and the National Youth Leadership Council.

Or better yet, make Save The Bay’s Community-based Restoration Program your next service-learning project. This program engages young people in reinvigorating their communities, learning about wetland ecology and issues affecting the health of the Bay, and literally sowing those seeds of change.

Are you an educator? If so, find out how to this program aligns with curriculum standards and connects to many areas of study.

Save The Bay Moves To Drupal

By Eric Broder, Online Outreach Specialist

Hello world, my name is Eric Broder and I'm the new Online Outreach Specialist at Save The Bay. I'm excited to be using my web skills to promote a clean and healthy San Francisco Bay. For the last four months I've been working with the communications team and a great technology consulting firm, Jackson River, to upgrade Save The Bay's website, and the new site just launched! Please check it out at saveSFbay.org.

Our website is powered by Drupal - a free and open source content management system and the hottest website framework in the world today. Drupal provides a cutting-edge foundation for a broad range of online activities, and it allows us to easily update and manage our website.

My favorite thing about Drupal is that it's open source. That means the source code on which Drupal runs is essentially in the public domain, giving us much more freedom than a closed proprietary system. This openness leads to remarkable levels of collaboration and innovation. Developers all around the world build new features that anyone can use. Google has a great blog post about openness that sums it up well - "open systems win". At the same time, Drupal provides a highly secure website and has a long history of strong and stable protection against security threats. And the Drupal community stops new threats as they arise.

Which brings me to my second favorite thing about Drupal. Barack Obama uses Drupal for the official website of the U.S. government, whitehouse.gov. (Those of you who know me, know that I'm a big Obama fan). Dries Buytaert, the original creator of Drupal, puts this into context:

First of all, I think Drupal is a perfect match for President Barack Obama's push for an open and transparent government -- Drupal provides a great mix of traditional web content management features and social features that enable open communication and participation…....Second, this is a clear sign that governments realize that Open Source does not pose additional risks compared to proprietary software, and furthermore, that by moving away from proprietary software, they are not being locked into a particular technology, and that they can benefit from the innovation that is the result of thousands of developers collaborating on Drupal.

In addition to using Drupal to manage our web content, we also started using the Salesforce relationship management system for nonprofits for our back-end database needs. Salesforce and Drupal integrate with each other, helping us run our organization more efficiently behind the scenes.

The bottom line is that this major technology upgrade allows us to put more of our time and resources towards our important work to protect and restore San Francisco Bay. Hands down our website is the best place for you to learn about our priority work, get important Bay updates, connect with our community of 25,000 Bay lovers, and support us through giving, volunteering and advocacy.

Please check out the site today and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

"Ignite the Night" at the W

By Amy Ricard, Communications Associate

If you live on Earth, you may have heard about Earth Hour, a special event tomorrow evening whereby everyone worldwide will turn off the lights to raise awareness about climate change. In the words of the organizers:

On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people around the world will come together to call for action on climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. The movement symbolizes that by working together, each of us can make a positive impact in this fight, protecting our future and that of future generations.

So who says standing up to climate change can't be fun? Save The Bay invites you to switch off your lights and head to the W Hotel in San Francisco to celebrate Earth Hour with a cocktail in your hand. From 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. the W Hotel will power down while you drink up, and will donate a portion of their proceeds to Save The Bay.

This is truly a win-win situation. You can delight in some delectable eats and libations while essentially participating in an environmental double-dip – protecting the Earth and the Bay!

Check out the details below. And we hope to see you there!

Mid-Pen Chapter of Charity League teams up with Save The Bay

This post was submitted by Lindsay Farino of Menlo Park, CA, a member of the Mid-Peninsula Chapter of NCL, along with her daughter Julia Farino, a freshman at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, CA.

On Saturday, November 14, a large group of volunteers from The Mid-Peninsula Chapter of the National Charity League (NCL) worked together with the Save the Bay organization to learn about wetlands and plant close to 200 native plants in the Palo Alto Baylands. Mothers and daughters worked alongside one other to help restore the wetlands with blue-eyed grass and marsh-coyote brush saplings. Save the Bay staff member Jill Jacobson explained that the NCL volunteers’ planting in the wetland transition zones, "creates shelter and habitat for animals when water is high in the wetlands."

Save the Bay staffer Megan Kelso said, "Having local volunteer groups like the National Charity League come out to the wetlands creates a sense of stewardship for the participants." She emphasized to the group of mothers and daughters that Save the Bay was founded by women. It is important to remember the three East Bay women, Kay Kerr, Sylvia McLaughlin and Esther Gulick, who founded the Save the San Francisco Bay Association in 1961, to stop the destruction of the bay that they loved so much. Their first volunteer effort mobilized thousands of members to stop the City of Berkeley's plan to double in size by filling in the shallow Bay off-shore.

The NCL teenagers responded enthusiastically to the educational activities that took place prior to planting the wetlands. Emma Peyton, an 8th Grade NCL member from Redwood City said, “I like doing this because I am doing some good for the community.” Menlo Park 8th-grader Nora Lewis added, “Doing NCL (itself) gets me closer to my Mom. It gets us to bond together.” The National Charity League (NCL) teaches young women to be confident that they can make a difference in their own communities both as young women and throughout their adult lives.

The Mid-Peninsula Chapter of the National Charity League is made up of mothers and teenage daughters from Menlo Park, Atherton, Redwood City, Woodside, Portola Valley, Belmont and San Carlos. The purpose of NCL is to initiate and promote charitable endeavors in which mothers and daughters work together. Other philanthropies currently supported by the NCL Mid-Peninsula Chapter include the Friends of the Menlo Park Library, My New Red Shoes, Shelter Network’s Haven House and Redwood Family House, American Cancer Society (including the Menlo Park Discovery Shop), Family & Children Services, Art in Action and Rebuilding Together Peninsula. For more information, visit www.nclmidpen.org.

Bay Area leaders step up to save salt ponds

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

Regional opposition to Cargill’s plan to build a new city of up to 30,000 people on 1,436 acres of restorable salt ponds continues to grow dramatically.

Last week more than 90 elected officials from all nine Bay Area counties submitted a letter to the City Council of Redwood City urging them to reject a massive development on Bay salt ponds proposed by Cargill Inc., declaring, "The era of filling San Francisco Bay is over."

You can read about this significant swell of support from Bay Area leaders in the SF Chronicle and the SJ Mercury News.

Dozens of mayors and city council members, county supervisors, and state legislators strongly oppose the project, agreeing that "salt ponds are not land to be paved – they are part of San Francisco Bay to be restored to tidal marsh for wildlife habitat, natural flood protection for our communities, cleaner water, and recreation areas for everyone to enjoy."

In addition to this latest batch of elected officials to come out against the proposed development, the Menlo Park City Council voted to formally oppose the project citing the urgent need to protect and restore San Francisco Bay.

And Peter Drekmeier, former mayor of Palo Alto has said, "It is not 1960, and the Bay is not the place for housing. This is not smart growth like Redwood City's award-winning downtown projects. That's why the City Council should just say 'no' to Cargill now."

The bottom line: we all have a stake in what happens to our Bay. We must come together as a region to stop Cargill from paving over and destroying our great natural resource. If you have not yet signed our petition opposing this project yourself, please sign it today. You can also urge your own state legislators to sign the opposition letter by clicking here.

The Luck of the Bay Saver! Save The Bay Educator and Girl Scouts See Rare, Endangered Mouse

by Jill Jacobson

What does a Bay Area resident have to do to find the luck-bringing creature, the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse? For years, I have read the tales of ecologists spotting these tiny creatures in the wee hours of the night and imagined it happening to me. Up until this past Saturday, the only mouse I had ever spotted was the one stuffed in an exhibit at the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve. As one must conclude, I was skeptical and wary of the possibility that I may one day be lucky enough to see one of these elusive creatures.



My luck has changed! Finally after five years leading over 450 educational programs in the San Francisco tidal marshes for Save The Bay, I have successfully spotted a Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse! I am honored to be one of the first with Save The Bay to see this rare and tiny creature that is endemic to the San Francisco Bay.

The mouse was first spotted by a few Girl Scouts this past Saturday at 11:42 a.m. during a Save the Bay Girl Scouts volunteer planting day at the Palo Alto Baylands. One of the girls tugged on my sleeve and said "Jill, there is a mouse in the water, over here! Look!" The other girls were exclaiming all at once "How cuuuuttttee!" Sure enough, there was the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse swimming at the water's edge. Cautiously, I signaled to the girls to step back to observe the mouse silently from a distance so as not to scare it away.

What makes spotting the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse so lucky?
To start with, this creature is incredibly tiny, said to fit on the tip of your thumb and weigh about as much as a nickel or quarter. In addition to being small in size, this creature is endemic to the San Francisco Bay wetlands. With only 10 percent of the Bay wetlands remaining, the population of the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse has declined over the past century, putting it on the endangered species list with a population under 2000. Finally, this mouse is nocturnal, making it nearly impossible to see the mouse under the sunlight.

So, why did we spot this mouse?
This mouse lives primarily in the pickleweed, a low zone tidal marsh plant that is often submerged under the brackish water during high tide. During the high tide, the mouse usually finds shelter in the mid zone plant species, like alkali heath or gumplant. During extreme high tide events, like this past Saturday, this mouse must find shelter in the higher zone plant species which sometimes do not exist, due to the development of roads, trails and parking lots. Over the past few years, Save The Bay has been working in partnership with the Palo Alto Baylands to restore these high or “transition” zone plant species to provide shelter and habitat for species like the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse.

What does a Bay Area resident have to do to see a Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse?
Become a Bay Saver and join Save The Bay as a volunteer to protect and restore the habitat for the Salt Marsh Harvest and the hundreds of other animals that call our wetlands home! We cannot guarantee you will be lucky enough to spot this creature, but we can guarantee you will see wildlife and have a great day out on the beautiful San Francisco Bay!

Eden Landing - it's for the birds

By Megan Kelso, Restoration Field Educator

As part of the South Bay Salt Ponds Restoration Project, Save The Bay is working to restore more than 600 acres of tidal wetlands at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in Hayward. This effort, part of Save The Bay’s partnership with the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), will involve thousands of volunteers in hands-on restoration and stewardship projects to improve habitat.

To give you a bit of history, Save The Bay worked for decades to secure public ownership of the salt production ponds in South San Francisco Bay, which was accomplished in 2003. Since 2006, Save The Bay has been restoring and enhancing habitat at Eden Landing, helping to advance the largest wetland restoration project in the history of the Bay. The goal of the project is to replenish the Bay ecosystem, provide recreation opportunities for residents who historically have been walled off from the Bay shoreline and increase valuable habitat for endangered waterfowl, shorebirds and fish.

We are currently working along a levee that borders a former salt pond that has recently been opened back up to tidal action. Planting native seedlings here creates habitat for the thousands of birds that use this haven for feeding and nesting during the winter. On any given day one can see great egrets, godwits, sanderlings, willets, black-necked stilts and long-billed curlews.

Eden Landing is a birder's paradise, especially since millions of migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway stop to refuel in the wetlands of San Francisco Bay before continuing their long journey. Accessing this site before was tricky, but in the last few months Eden Landing has opened up public trails, so residents and Bay enthusiasts can now stroll along the shoreline and check out the wildlife.

And what's more, Save the Bay is expanding its project site to include a new section of the recently breached levee. Our first plantings went in at the end of last year, which means we are now actively working to restore and enhance 30 acres of habitat at this site. And this is good news because, well, more habitat is for the birds.

Click here to learn more about our Community-based Restoration program.

The W is for Wetlands

By Megan Kelso, Restoration Field Educator

The W Hotel has its eye on sustainability. And saving the Bay is part of that process.


The San Francisco hotel is working to become LEED certified and as part of that certification, they have volunteered with Save the Bay several times, getting their hands dirty by restoring wetland and upland habitat.

A couple of weeks ago, we hosted our first restoration program of the New Year with W employees. About 50 of us headed out to Eden Landing Ecological Reserve along the Hayward shoreline where the volunteers planted and caged nearly 300 gum plants (Grindelia stricta) and picked up three big bags of trash!

Their work has been instrumental in helping us improve habitat at this site, reach our goal to plant 25,000 native seedlings this winter and restore 100,000 acres of healthy wetlands around the Bay.

To learn more about how your employee team or community group can volunteer with Save The Bay, go to www.saveSFbay.org/community.

Jumping on the "ban-wagon"

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

If the flurry of recent media attention is any indication, it is looking like 2010 may turn out to be the year we put an end to plastic bags. While DC residents are busy adjusting to a new five cent fee on plastic bags, several other cities have indicated they might be moving in the same direction. In fact, state legislators in Maryland and Virginia are pushing for a fee on plastic bags and border town Brownsville, TX just recently passed a plastic bag ban that will go into effect by 2011.

From Florida to DC to a handful of cities here in the Bay Area, more and more cities are jumping on the "ban-wagon," so to speak, by working to end the free distribution of plastic – and often paper – bags within their jurisdictions.

Even Walmart is getting in on the fun. Three stores in Northern California recently began pilot programs to encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags by charging 15 cents for a reusable bag, rather than handing out free plastic bags.

Have we reached a tipping point? Perhaps the San Jose Mercury News said it best when they editorialized: "This is the way movements begin. Somebody had to be the first to ban smoking in restaurants. Who questions the wisdom of that now? It will be the same with plastic bags a generation from now."

We hope so.