Achievements
Restoring Native Habitats & Species

Closing the Sand Quarry in Tomales Dunes
Protecting Salmon Creeks
Gaining International Recognition for Tomales Bay

Closing the sand quarry in Tomales Dunes

Permit violations uncovered by EAC forced the early closure of the Lawson’s Landing sand quarry. To read more about the Quarry closing, click here.

Protecting salmon creeks:

We have succeeded in stopping or altering many developments proposed for Stream Conservation Areas throughout West Marin. For more information, contact EAC at eac@svn.net. Details of these projects are posted while they are “live issues.” Once a case is closed, we remove it from our website.

Gaining International recognition for Tomales Bay

The US Department of the Interior and the International Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands (commonly known as the Ramsar Convention after the Iranian city in which it was signed) have accepted EAC’s nomination of Tomales Bay as a Wetland of International Importance. There are only 18 other Ramsar sites in the United States, and only one other in California, Bolinas Lagoon. To qualify, Tomales Bay had to meet rigorous standards. Among its notable characteristics: it supports more than 50 species of waterbirds, numbering more than 20,000 individuals; it is visited by more than 1% of the world’s populations of black brant, dunlin, and western sandpiper and is home to 10% of California’s coho salmon; it is a major spawning ground for Pacific herring; and it supports 13 threatened or endangered species.

EAC board member and former president, Jules Evens provided the scientific data for the nomination, which the Interior Department said was the most compelling Ramsar nomination it has ever received. The nomination was seconded by Ed Ueber, Manager of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, and Don Neubacher, Superintendent of the Seashore, which are the two entities that "manage" Tomales Bay. We also had the support of Senator Barbara Boxer, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, Supervisor Steve Kinsey, and many other individuals and community groups, including the Tomales Bay Watershed Council. Edgar Wayburn, who led the effort to have Bolinas Lagoon named a Ramsar site, advised and encouraged us. In naming Tomales Bay a Ramsar site, the United States has made a commitment to the international community to protect its ecological character.

Ramsar Nomination 4/2/02
Ramsar Convention website
Tomales Bay Biodiversity Inventory
Read Tomales Bay, Autumn, written by former US poet laureate Robert Hass to celebrate the recognition of Tomales Bay as a wetland of international importance.

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