In 1998, Marin County was set to approve a development application for Lawson’s Landing (the long-established campground that occupies a sensitive dunes-wetland complex at the mouth of Tomales Bay) without any environmental review. EAC challenged that decision and pressed unremittingly for environmental safeguards during a complex County and State planning process that occupied the following 13 years. Finally, in 2011, the California Coastal Commission approved the Coastal Development Permit that legalized Lawson’s Landing. That permit required the Lawsons to return in the future with an amendment for the installation of a wastewater system. On October 9th (22 years later) this process finally came to a successful close.
We want to sincerely thank Catherine Caufield, EAC's former Executive Director, who launched this campaign, for her vigilance and engagement for us to Honor Thy Dunes! We are thankful to our supporters whose generosity made this happen. Keep reading to read Catherine's verbal testimony as we close this chapter to acknowledge the remarkable and irreplaceable habitats of the Tomales Dunes
EAC is honored to share Catherine Caufield’s written testimony (our former Executive Director) who, for 22 years remained vigilant and engaged to protect the irreplaceable habitats of the Tomales Dunes. Thank you Catherine!
Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is Catherine Caufield and I represent the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, which supports the staff recommendations. EAC was formed in 1971 and by 1975, we were calling for a sewage disposal system at Lawson's Landing. So we are delighted, to think that 45 short years later, our efforts will soon come to fruition, and that a wastewater system that protects Tomales Bay will be installed at this sensitive site.
As this long process comes to an end, I’d like to reflect—briefly--on the big picture. In a sense, this CDP amendment, dealing with only a few acres, is a minor matter. But looking not just at Area 6, but at the whole property, you see a spectacular, nearly one thousand acre coastal site, home to mobile dunes, dune scrub, dune prairie, and the richest collection of seasonal dune wetlands on the central coast—the Tomales Dunes and Wetland Complex. It is one of only four sites in the entire country with gegenwalle, sand ridges that form as mobile dunes migrate downwind and new wetlands are formed in their shadow. The beauty, dynamism and complexity of these wind-driven dunefields is breathtaking, made more so by an underground spring that creates a remarkable canyon that cuts through the dunes and is recut and reshaped in wet winters, the only dune canyon in central California.
This extraordinary site also supports at least nine listed species, as well as other locally important species. It provides crucial habitat for the dozens of bird species that depend on Tomales Bay. And despite the encroachment of the aggressive alien, European beachgrass, it is one of the few dune systems in California that still has a vital population of native dune grasses, including one recently discovered and still-undescribed native grass.
Until recently, this was the largest unprotected dune system on the central California coast, but the struggle to protect this area brought it to national attention, and its significance has been recognized by the federal government which paid $5.5 million for a 465 acre conservation easement. This is one of the greatest achievements of our long struggle to have the Tomales dunes and wetlands recognized and protected. The other is the 2011 CDP’s establishment of an expert panel to set standards for restoration and protection of ESHA throughout the property.
But I have also to acknowledge the ways in we have failed this place. The greatest injury to this site is the dramatic depletion of the mobile dunes over the past 50 years. First, the coastal dunes were deliberately, though legally, planted with the European Beach Grass to stop sand from cutting off access to the campgrounds. Thus sand from the coast can no longer blow into the inner mobile dune fields and replenish them.
Then, beginning in 1970, more than a million tons of sand were mined from the mobile dunes, far exceeding the permit allowances. The alien Beach Grass that subsequently invaded was supposed to have been removed, but has instead overrun the depleted dunes. The 2011 permit did not require removal of this invasive grass, so the mobile dunes are rapidly disappearing, their graceful geometries depleted by mining, starved of coastal sand and immobilized by clumps of European Beach Grass.
While the conservation easement protects part of the site, habitats and species outside it remain vulnerable, unprotected by the CDP, which allows coastal wetlands to be drained in order to provide campsites. And, even in this amendment, protected ESHA is fragmented by a remnant road system no longer used for its original purpose.
We believe it is important to acknowledge these failures, even as we recognize the bigger picture, the greatness of Tomales Dunes and our achievement in protecting much, if not all, of its richness.
We also want to acknowledge the owners’ long struggle to bring this important coastal site into compliance with the Coastal Act. And to express our appreciation for the thoughtful work that Stephanie Rexing and Jeannine Manna, along with their many predecessors, have done done on this issue. I really want to thank our attorney, Ralph Faust, who served the Coastal Commission for many years and is still serving the Coastal Act. And lastly, thank you, Commissioners, for your concern for this precious natural resource and for upholding the Coastal Act, which has protected it.
Tomales Dunes: Photograph by Elaine Straub
