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Spotting seals at Drake's Esteroeac is taking action:
Restoring Chicken Ranch Beach
Open Space Initiative
Point Reyes Mesa Bluff Easment Program
Drake’s Estero
The Battle against Suburbanization
Restoring
Chicken Ranch Beach
Chicken Ranch Beach in Inverness is a much-loved community swimming
beach, a valuable ecological resource, and the subject of a historic
legal battle waged throughout the 1960s and 70s that established
the public’s right to access to California’s beaches
and shores.
Over the past 30 years, however, natural and man-made changes
have altered the beach and its mosaic of coastal, tidal and riparian
wetlands. As a result, there are problems with the health of the
wetlands, the drainage of the creek and floodplain, the integrity
of the beach, and the cleanliness of the water. EAC believes that
now is the time to try and solve these problems. We commissioned
hydrological consultants to develop a Scoping Document that outlines
the steps needed to develop a comprehensive restoration plan that
would: create a functioning, self-perpetuating wetland; maintain
an accessible swimming beach; maintain and, if possible, improve
the property drainage to reduce the need for channel dredging;
and address water quality problems.
The report provides background on the evolution and current condition
of Chicken Ranch Beach, as well as offering several restoration
alternatives and outlining the steps needed to make restoration
a reality, including data collection, modeling, financing, and
obtaining needed permits.
Working with EAC, the Tomales Bay Watershed Council has established
a Chicken Ranch Beach working group that includes neighbors, scientists,
government agencies, and local community members. This group will
take the plan to the next stage, developing and implementing a
restoration plan that has the support of all interested parties.
All West Marin residents are welcome to take part in this process.
If you would like to be notified of meeting times, contact the
Watershed Council at 663-9092.
See more information on the natural
history of Chicken Ranch Beach.
Download Chicken
Ranch Beach Restoration scoping plan. (PDF 1.5MB)
Open Space
Initiative
Marin County has no dedicated fund which can be used for land
conservation, habitat restoration, operation and maintenance of
open space lands, or park creation or maintenance. In early 2005,
EAC, with 7 partner organizations, asked the Marin County Board
of Supervisors to commission a study that would evaluate various
methods to generate local revenues, including taxes, assessment
districts, and community facilities districts, that could be used
for park and open space acquisition, facilities, and management.
In early 2006, the Board of Supervisors asked Trust for Public
Lands to conduct such a study.
To see our original letter requesting the study click
here.
Point Reyes Mesa
Bluff Easment Program:
Homeowners Protecting the Giacomini Wetland
In cooperation with property-owners on the Point Reyes Mesa bluff
and the National Park Service, EAC is developing a program by
which property-owners can donate conservation easements on the
bluff portion of their properties to the National Park Service.
These properties overlook Tomasini Creek and the Giacomini wetland
at the south end of Tomales Bay, which is owned by the National
Park Service.
Drake’s
Estero
Drake’s Estero in the Point Reyes National Seashore is
an extremely valuable recreational and biological resource and
is unique in that it is the only estero along the entire West
Coast designated as a wilderness area. Every other estero has
been compromised by development and commercial use. The Estero
and its watershed is already home to several endangered plants
and animals, contains one of the most populous harbor seal haul-outs
on the Central California coast, and serves as an important bird
habitat and stop-over on the Pacific Flyway. It could and should
be further protected and enhanced by the long-planned designation
as wilderness, which requires removal of the 1050 acres commercial
oyster operations from the midst of a National Park in 2012 when
the existing lease expires.
EAC has joined with other organizations concerned with protecting
America’s wilderness areas to oppose plans to overturn wilderness
protection for Drake’s Estero.
Click here
for letter from EAC and 14 other groups opposing stripping Drake’s
Estero of wilderness protection.
The Battle
against Suburbanization
EAC is concerned with impacts on West Marin's natural environment
and native wildlife and not with the aesthetics of the man-made
environment. But there are gray areas, and many of them involve
threats to West Marin's rural character. Is rural character an
environmental value? Not exactly, but there are many ways in which
preserving West Marin's rural character, by minimizing grading
and paving, for example, promotes environmental values. EAC has
been urging the County to reconsider some of its planning requirements
in light of their environmental impact in rural areas.
Ways you can help preserve rural character:
- Minimize grading and paved surfaces.
- Avoid concentrating water.
- Minimize outdoor lighting.
- Minimize fencing.
- Don’t build big houses.
- Landscape with native plants.
- Be aware of cumulative impacts.
For more information, read
“Rural Character and the Enivronment,”
EAC Newsletter Cover Story, Fall 2001
OTHER LINKS
Federally protected lands in West Marin:
Golden
Gate National Recreation Area
Gulf
of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
Muir Woods
National Monument
Point
Reyes National Seashore
For information on State and County parks in West Marin:
California
State Parks website
Marin
County Parks and Open Space website
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