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.

Ripples, Reflections and Reading Recommendations

by Adrien Andre, Development Manager

Originally posted on December 3, 2008

A little over two years ago I discovered Save The Bay when searching for a way to get involved with restoring Bay Area open spaces I had spent so many weekends and vacations exploring and falling in love with. As the largest and most defining feature of our region, the Bay seemed like a good place to start. Little did I, self-proclaimed nature nerd, know how much I didn’t know about the Bay; or how one volunteer outing would alter the course of my life.

 

I signed up to volunteer at MLK Jr. Regional Shoreline out by the Oakland Airport, curious to see what our urban Bay shoreline actually looked like up-close. Upon arrival I discovered a shockingly wild and beautiful shoreline park nestled amongst the super-urban industrial area of Hegenberger Road. There I spent a satisfying Saturday morning working together with volunteers of all ages to pull giant piles of invasive weeds amidst the teenage native plants Save The Bay staff, volunteers and students had carefully grown and planted the previous winter.

First, I learned that water or runoff from almost half of the landmass of California (40%) flows into our Bay watershed, and that we have only 5% of our original Bay wetlands left. I also learned that wetlands are the “lungs” of the Bay and that over 500 species depend on the Bay’s health. Though many other Bay facts were shared that day, I was stuck on those first two numbers that seemed so unmatched, and completely struck by the beauty, the vulnerability, and the importance of the health of the Bay to our quality of life, economy and very own corner of the natural world.

Just three ladies from Berkeley started the movement to save our Bay in 1961. At that time our habitat rich, ocean-flowing Bay was studded with regularly flaming open garbage dumps and raw sewage flowed freely into it on a daily basis. The plans to fill and develop on top of its wetland shoreline and far into its shallow middle threatened to narrow it into a thin urban-flanked trickle. I felt deeply the threats to the Bay and it’s need for all of our support to restore the 100,000 acres of wetlands scientists tell us we need for it to maintain a healthy ecosystem.

Now, as Save The Bay’s Development Associate since September 2006 and primary member services contact, I am here to help others get involved with our work, to answer questions, to provide assistance with membership and donations, and to share information about our education, restoration and advocacy work.

The health of the Bay has come a long way since the 1960’s with the support of Save The Bay’s members and founders. I’m honored help carry forward the legacy they started and to work every day to ensure our member services are excellent and our membership base is healthy and growing.

Adrien’s Bay Must Reads:

The Ohlone Way, by Malcolm Margolin

Ecology, A Handbook, by Ernest Callenbach

A Natural History of California, Alan Schoenherr

Why I love the Palo Alto Baylands: It's a Feeding Frenzy!

by Alicia Moore, School Programs Manager

Originally posted on November 11, 2008

Save The Bay works with site partners at roughly 11 sites around the Bay to offer Canoes In Sloughs and Community-based Restoration outings to school groups, community and corporate groups, and members of the public. Each site is special, and offers endless gems, but one of my favorite sites is the Palo Alto Baylands.

The Palo Alto Baylands is one of our most tidally-dependent sites, as it is one of the shallowest and muddiest. But it is precisely this mud that makes Palo Alto one of my favorite sites: it is a treasure trove teeming with life. Within a handful of Bay mud, you can find up to 40,000 living organisms. Now, of course most of these organisms are microscopic (or else you’d have to have a pretty big hand), but all this life within the mud makes for a lot of life outside of the mud.

On any given day, you can go to the Palo Alto Baylands at a lower tide, and see mud flats imprinted with the tracks of avocets, black-necked stilts, great blue heron, western gulls, California gulls, curlews, godwits – the list goes on. Much of the time you will see these tracks ending at the bird that made them. This place is a jackpot for birders who come to feast their eyes on the birds that come to feast their beaks on the macroinvertebrates that come to feast their mouths and valves on the microinvertebrates that come to feast upon the algae, bacteria and detritus within the mud. That’s one big feast!

You can witness this feast as you help us restore this habitat, or you can head on down to the Baylands with a picnic to join this feeding frenzy yourself. Either way, don’t forget to bring your binoculars!

Connections and Connectivity

by Bree Candiloro, Nursery Manager

Originally posted on September 12, 2008

Connections. Connectivity. We need it; humans, plants and animals alike. Connectivity is in high demand for animals like mountain lions that need 200 square miles of appropriate habitat and connection to other populations of mountain lions so that they will remain healthy. Connection in terms of human touch is necessary to keep babies alive. Plants in the marsh need the tidal waters to connect their seeds to new areas for growth.

The wild plants and animals are just as much our neighbors as the people who live in the house next door. So what is our connection to them? We assume wild lands are out there somewhere—in the National Parks we visit once a year—and we don't really need to protect more. But we do. We desperately do. Our every breath is dependent on the health and properly working systems of the Earth.

Let's focus in on California systems. Fire. The fires that devastated much of California earlier this summer made us very aware of the increasing number, frequency and intensity of these natural disasters. Non-native invasive plants can quickly come into an area after a burn and increase the danger of another fire burning more rapidly and more intensely than the landscape has been accustomed to enduring for the hundreds to thousands of years before. These fires are changing the face of the California landscape.

Not all of us, but many people in California have lost a connection to the natural world and don't understand the important role wild plants, wild animals and wild protected open spaces play in our everyday lives. I go from my house, to BART, to my downtown Oakland office on the ninth floor. I work on the computer, go home, and never think about the water rushing through the tap or from where it originates. I never think about the farm from where the wheat used to make the bread in my sandwich was grown. And I also assume that I will forever be able to draw clean water from my tap and purchase bread wherever and whenever I need it. But the health of the system that provides the clean water and provides the soil for the farm is so intricately connected with my life in so many ways. Keeping these systems healthy means keeping myself healthy too.