Save The Bay Blog

"This is enlightened self-interest and insurance against a disaster or sea level rise that could happen tomorrow. " - Carl Guardino, Silicon Valley Leadership Group

Last Thursday saw a major gathering of South Bay business, political, civic, and environmental leaders to celebrate a significant accomplishment in Bay Area regional infrastructure – extending BART to San Jose – and to kick off a new regional campaign. Save The Bay is delighted that the focus of that new effort is… San Francisco Bay.

“Feinstein, business leaders, say new levees urgently needed to keep Silicon Valley above water,” declared the headline on the Associated Press story on April 12. “Business leaders and US Senator Dianne Feinstein launched a $1 billion, 10-year fundraising goal on Thursday that is aimed at preventing some of Silicon Valley’s leading technology companies from going underwater — literally,” AP reported.

Save The Bay has been engaged in this conversation for a decade, and we moved it forward significantly in 2007 with “Greening the Bay.” In that report, we detailed the case and the costs for SF Bay restoration. And the report led to the creation of the SF Bay Restoration Authority in 2008, a public agency focused on funding the same wetland restoration priorities that concern Senator Feinstein and South Bay business leaders.

Senator Feinstein has repeatedly declared that her goal is to see this work completed in her lifetime. And you can imagine our enthusiasm when Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s president and CEO Carl Guardino stated this week: “Our investment, which will be deep, isn’t charity. This is enlightened self-interest and insurance against a disaster or sea level rise that could happen tomorrow. We have to address it now while there’s time and when it costs less.”

Please make sure you are on our mail and email lists so you can be a part of this important regional effort.

- Stephen Knight, Political Director

As Silicon Valley looks for solutions to sea level rise, Google scales back its proposed bridge project over Stevens Creek in Mountain View. At Hunter’s Point, NASA scientists are developing a modern alchemy of turning wastewater into biofuel. And hands-on environmental education improves test scores at inner-city schools. Learn more about Save The Bay’s Restoration Education programs here.

Forbes.com 4/14/2012
Silicon Valley Joins the Maldives on Threat List for Sea Level Rise
According to the AP, “Business leaders and Sen. Dianne Feinstein launched a $1 billion, 10-year fundraising goal on Thursday that is aimed at preventing some of Silicon Valley’s leading technology companies from going underwater—literally.”
Read more >>

Mountain View Voice 4/16/2012
Google scales back bridge project
After prodding from conservationists, Mountain View-based Google is redesigning its bridge project over Stevens Creek, one of the most hotly contested infrastructure projects in recent memory.
Read more >>

SF Appeal 4/17/2012
NASA Scientists Toil At Hunter’s Point, Trying To Turn Wastewater To Biofuels
NASA scientists working at a San Francisco sewage treatment plant in Hunter’s Point believe they’ve developed a way to use wastewater to make biofuels.
Read more >>

The Almanac 4/17/2012
County seeks public comment on plastic-bag ban
With the support of most city and town governments in San Mateo County, the Department of Environmental Health Services is asking the public to comment on the scope of a proposed county-wide ordinance that would ban the use by retailers of single-use plastic bags at checkout counters.
Read more >>

Los Angeles Times 4/16/2012
At an urban L.A. school, nature grows — and test scores too
At Leo Politi Elementary, workers ripped out concrete and planted native flora. The plants attracted insects, which attracted birds, which attracted students, who, fascinated by the nature unfolding before them, learned so much that their science test scores rose sixfold.
Read more >>
Learn more about Save The Bay’s Restoration Education program >>

Restored wetlands provide wildlife habitat and protect communities from sea level rise caused by climate change. Listen below to the personal impact of sea level rise on the South Bay community of Alviso. Healthy tidal marshes also provide habitat for sensitive species including river otters, which are now returning to Bay Area creeks. And around the Bay, restoration projects are reclaiming open spaces, from the Richmond shoreline to Candlestick Point.

Latino USA on National Public Radio 4/13/2012
SAVING ALVISO
Chuey Cazares has lived all of his 21 years in Alviso, California, a tiny hamlet, perched at the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay. His close, extended Latino family has lived in this town for generations. Now sea level rise and storm surges brought on by climate change, threaten to inundate Alviso. Plans to save the town from flooding are underway, but the solution may be bitter sweet for Chuey and his family.
Listen here >>

San Francisco Chronicle 4/15/2012
River otters rebounding with hospitable habitat
It’s wild times in the watershed. The most happy-go-lucky denizen of Bay Area creeks is back, after a hiatus of at least three decades: the river otter.
Read more >>

Bay Nature 4/5/2012
Reclaiming the Richmond Shoreline
Travel along Richmond Parkway and you’ll witness a parade of progress and decay, nature and commerce. Evidence of industry past and present shares fence lines with blighted lots, tract housing, new developments–and plenty of open space. To the west are marshland, shoreline, and San Francisco Bay. To the east is urban North Richmond. Here in the space in between, residents of a working-class subdivision called Parchester Village fought for decades to keep a neighboring marsh undeveloped.
Read more >>

San Francisco Chronicle 4/15/2012
Fixing up Candlestick Point Recreation Area
Growing up, Reneka Jones capped off 49ers games with family barbecues in Candlestick Point State Recreation Area. She celebrated birthdays there, too, and fished and skipped stones across the waves.
Read more >>

David Lewis quoted on the Huffington Post: “Returning the bay’s shores to a wetland state would not only be a boon for wildlife, but provide a natural safeguard against future flooding.” The story was picked up by the Associated Press and even appeared in the Washington Post. And Portola Valley voted this week to restrict polystyrene and plastic bags. Meanwhile, a new study highlights the impact of climate change on California’s water supply.

Huffington Post 4/12/2012
Silicon Valley Under Water? Officials Launch Push To Keep Area Above Water
Business leaders and Sen. Dianne Feinstein launched a $1 billion, 10-year fundraising goal on Thursday that is aimed at preventing some of Silicon Valley’s leading technology companies from going underwater – literally.
Read more >>

The Almanac 4/12/2012
Portola Valley: Council says yes to two green initiatives
The Portola Valley Town Council last night (Wednesday, April 11) agreed to adopt a San Mateo County environmental ordinance that regulates Styofoam food containers, and support another now in the works that would restrict the use of single-use plastic bags at checkout stands.
Read more >>

KQED News 4/5/2012
New Reports Highlight Climate Challenges to State Water Supplies
California is both highly prepared and highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change on its water systems, according to two recent studies.
Read more >>

The fin of a Bat Ray in the Bay.

A tip of a fin poked out from the water. “Look at that!” I exclaim, looking up from the quadrat, where I was busily measuring plant heights during a day of monitoring at one of our restoration sites.

“Look at what?” my field partner replies.
“That,” I say, “Look at that,” I now say again excitedly as the other fin pokes out of the water.

“Oh… a bat ray,” he says as he spots it, letting his clipboard drop for a moment. This time, we both look away from our monitoring for a moment.  We watch as the bat ray glides along the shoreline, inadvertently exposing one fin out of the water while the other moved the bay mud beneath in search for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The Myliobatis californica, otherwise known as the bat ray, is readily found in the San Francisco Bay. Traveling solitarily or in groups, bat rays can live in a wide range of salinities and can be found in the ocean, as well as the bay. Known to dig holes in the mud looking for their prey, which they create by suctioning their body on and off the sandy or muddy bottom, bat rays eat molluscs, crustaceans and small fish.  Chomping down things like whole crabs, shell and all, it spits out the hard parts, leaving only the fleshy inside for its eating.

Female bat rays are larger than male bat rays and can have a wingspan of up to 6 feet and weigh up to 200 pounds. Females get pregnant annually in the spring or summer and are pregnant for 9-12 months, with pups, or baby bat rays emerging from the mother live. A relative to sting rays, they too have a stinger or spine but are not known to sting unless in self-defense. Interestingly, pups emerge from their mothers with a built in sheath over their spine, which falls off shortly after birth.

Bat rays are known to jump out of the water and skim along the surface. I have yet to see this myself but fingers crossed, will someday. There are many spots that bat rays can be seen from the shoreline and Save the Bay’s restoration sites. Bat rays can be seen most easily by us along the shoreline at low tide. One good spot to look for them in Oakland is at the bridge that crosses over the outlet of New Marsh in the Martin Luther King Shoreline (check out our map). I can’t guarantee that you will see them here, but if you are patient, it is very possible, and it is definitely worth the wait.

Next time you volunteer with us, you might see a bat ray for yourself — www.savesfbay.org/volunteer.

- Crescent Calimpong, Restoration Specialist