Greetings Friend,

I hope this email finds you and your family well.

I can’t believe I am actually writing this, but after a two year hiatus, the in-person field events are back for our annual Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival! I am excited about the schedule of events and our amazing line up of speakers and guides (thank you all for leading events this year!). I am also grateful for our Festival Committee's (David Wimpfheimer, Jerry Meral, Claire Seda, Alison Quoyeser, Ashley Eagle-Gibbs, Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook, Patty Wimpfheimer, and Jessica Taylor) hard work building the schedule and putting all the pieces together.

I can’t wait to get back outside to celebrate the spring migration April 21st through 24th with everyone...in person! Early bird tickets for EAC members will be on sale on Tuesday, March 1st and general public tickets will be available on March 8th. Don't miss out! Tickets sell out fast, and the number of available tickets per event has been reduced this year due to public health reasons.

Calls to Action!

It’s an incredibly busy time for public engagement, and I have a few action items in this email. I need your help in putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to write personal comments about your personal experiences to provide context and information to decision-makers.

The most important action item (due Monday 3/1) is for you to send in comments about the housing proposal. Unincorporated Marin County is facing one of the largest proposals for housing development in decades. The County has released early scoping plans to develop an enormous amount of housing in rural areas due to the housing allocation calculation by the state. It is essential that you submit comments by Monday, February 28th about the locations that the County is proposing, locations that are inappropriate for housing development should be excluded at this stage. This is not a drill. 

Thank you for your continued support of EAC. We are working diligently to protect and conserve the lands, waters, and biodiversity of West Marin. As a small grassroots organization, the support and engagement of our members makes all of our work possible. Thank you for all that you do!

In gratitude,

P.S. Save the Date! Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival Tickets on Sale March 1, 2022 for EAC Members. Early-bird registration code was mailed earlier this month. 
Learn More & Check Out the Schedule

MISSION

To protect and sustain the unique lands, waters, and biodiversity of West Marin. 
We achieve this goal through advocacy, education and engagement opportunities.

VISION

Our work strives to provide long-term protection and conservation of the unique ecosystems and rural communities of West Marin, and serves as a foundation of environmental protection for future generations.

Comments DUE: Monday, February 28th
3,500+ Homes Proposed in Unincorporated Marin
Morgan Patton

Housing is a balance of people and place that requires careful planning and community participation to ensure appropriate development that is not harmful to our environment, does not displace residents, and retains unincorporated villages' rural values. For decades, residents in unincorporated Marin County have worked to develop community plans that balance all of these needs.

Community engagement at this stage is critical. The County is in a scoping stage asking for public feedback on where new development could take place. In EAC's opinion, this is the wrong starting question. Starting with the focus on where housing should be developed and not how housing can be developed is far removed from community collaboration. Without the how, it’s just a numbers game not grounded in reality and could have several unintended consequences including environmental degradation, increased pollution (i.e. wastewater runoff and increases in greenhouse gas emissions), and create additional displacement issues that only further the housing crisis we have in unincorporated Marin County.

Watch the February 16, 2022 Online County Meeting
Read EAC's Action Alert and Advice on Commenting

Grab Your Brood & Have Hoot at the Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival

We are thrilled to have the Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival outdoor educational events back April 21 - 24, 2022! Join us to celebrate spring migrations along the Pacific Flyway in Marin, Sonoma and Contra Costa counties. There is something for everyone in your family, with trips and activities for a variety of ages and experience levels.

Point Reyes National Seashore is the main backdrop for our festival, where the Pacific Flyway, Pacific Ocean, and other influences provide an ideal location for birding and wildlife viewing. In fact, Point Reyes and the surrounding area has been named the National Audubon’s Society’s #1 birding hotspot for multiple years, where 54%+ of all North American bird species have been seen and recorded. 

Over the four-day festival attendees can choose from:

• 45+ educational field outings and classroom-based events focused on birds, wildlife, plants and marine life + hiking, kayaking, and field photography with award-winning naturalists, birders, and educators.

• Daily Virtual Keynote Meet & Greets for our Friends of the Festival

• Daily Early Evening Virtual Keynote Presentations

• Free Educational Display at the EAC Office

• Free Saturday Grassroots Nonprofit Fair on the lawn outside our office. 

• Free Sunday Family FUN Day, where families with children 5-16 are encouraged to join us in collaboration with Amigos Alados for activities including a visit and presentation from All About Owls with two rescued owl ambassadors; storytelling with Ane Carla Rovetta; a nature discovery walk in the wetlands; Zumba dance with special bird dance; binocular bootcamp and identification; show us your wing span activity; owl pellet dissection; bird study skin identification; and art activities like bird origami, mask making, and more!

Early Bird Ticket Sales on March 1st. EAC members have the chance to register a week in advance of the general public. Check your mailbox for our event postcard with your registration code. Not a member? Join or Renew. Public Ticket Sales on March 8th. 

Learn More...

Duxbury Docents are on the Reef!
Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook

After years of advocacy, coordination and planning, we have trained our first group of locally-based volunteers to serve as docents at Duxbury Reef! 

A wonderful new team of 11 local volunteers are now taking shifts on the reef at low tide to help educate the public about the marine life on the reef and how they can help protect the sensitive habitat at Duxbury Reef through their actions and understanding. Look for them when you visit Duxbury Reef. They’ll be wearing a tan cap with a Duxbury Docent logo featuring the intelligent octopus, reflective of our fabulous docents!

Duxbury Reef is the largest shale reef in California and one of the largest in North America - a true gem of coastal Marin. The Monterey shale that composes the reef is a soft rock, enabling many nooks and crannies for an abundant and diverse intertidal community to thrive. This habitat is home to an array of marine algae, plants, invertebrates and fish, clinging to the reef as the tide ebbs and flows.

Duxbury Reef State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA), a California Marine Protected Area, safeguards this habitat by limiting the “take” of nearly all marine species. The gentle slope of the reef makes exploring the tidepools on foot accessible to almost everyone and has become a popular destination for people seeking to explore this type of habitat. However, increasing visitation is taking its toll on the intertidal life of the reef.

Our docents were trained over five days by experts including Kathy Ann Miller (U.C. Berkeley), Rebecca Johnson (California Academy of Sciences), Joe Mueller (College of Marin), Kent Khtikian (Rocky Shore Intertidal Naturalist, California Academy of Sciences) and Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook (EAC). Their training manual was adapted from the Friends of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve who generously shared their manual with us.

The inspiration to develop a docent program at Duxbury Reef arose from the results of observation by Marin Marine Protected Area (MPA) Watch volunteers and community members. Data from the Marin MPA Watch community science program documented that public visitation has increased significantly over recent years, with a concurrent increase in disturbance and poaching of marine life. With the aim of protecting the reef ecology through education, EAC, Marin MPA Watch volunteer and local resident Kent Khtikian, and in collaboration with Marin County Parks and Open Space have developed this docent program at Agate Beach County Park and Duxbury Reef.

Learn More...

Tomales Bay: New Aquaculture
Lease Proposed
Ashley Eagle-Gibbs

EAC continues our advocacy for a healthy Tomales Bay by advocating for inclusive public participation and transparency around decisions being made for new aquaculture leases, sustainable fisheries, and the state aquaculture plan. 

San Andreas Shellfish submitted a revised application for a new lease on Tomales Bay that was made public in December 2021. This is the first new aquaculture lease on Tomales Bay in 25 years. 

At the December Fish and Game Commission meeting, we raised several concerns about the application and potential environmental impacts including: negative impacts to eelgrass, vessel navigation, shorebirds, recreational clamming, and marine mammals in and near the intertidal and subtidal areas.

The majority of this leasing area (34.33 acres) is intertidal habitat that is important shorebird habitat, and the 10-foot buffers proposed are not in compliance with California’s Eelgrass Mitigation Policy. Shorebird populations have declined by 66% in Tomales Bay since 1989, specifically Dunlin and Western Sandpipers have been impacted by aquaculture development (such as equipment installed in intertidal areas that creates disturbance). Expansion into additional intertidal areas may also reduce foraging opportunities for great egrets across the range of tidal cycles.

Prior to this lease being issued, the Fish and Game Commission needs to consider whether this lease is in the public interest. Over the last few years, we have advocated for a public discussion on the definition of what the public interest actually means in the context of new aquaculture leases. We do not support issuing new leases until the public interest criteria is clearly defined.

It’s critical that the public weigh in on this proposed development in Tomales Bay and provide comments on what the public interest criteria means for you at the March 24th Marine Resources Committee meeting.

So, what could the public interest criteria be?
Well, it’s honestly anything that the public has an interest in regarding the location of the proposed lease. We encourage you to write to the Fish and Game Commission letting them know what’s most important to you in Tomales Bay (fishing, kayaking, boating, wildlife watching, protecting eelgrass habitat, preserving shorebird habitat, protecting marine mammals, etc.) and how this lease (and other future leases) may benefit or harm these activities.

In light of the missing public interest criteria, EAC is deeply concerned about the San Andreas Shellfish application, which would significantly increase aquaculture production in Tomales Bay. It does not appear that this lease is in the public interest from our initial review.

Written comments are due by March 11th at 5pm or March 21st at noon for the supplemental comment deadline (email to fgc@fgc.ca.gov).

Review the October 2021 Lease Application

Advocating for Marine Sanctuaries
Ashley Eagle-Gibbs

Not only does EAC co-run a successful Marine Protected Area Watch (MPA Watch) community science program, but we also advocate for Marine Protected Areas and National Marine Sanctuaries. Safeguarding our coast and oceans is important to reduce biodiversity loss and build resilience in the face of a changing climate. Advocacy takes many forms, and how we engage to uplift the importance of marine ecosystem protection includes attending multiple public agency meetings, speaking and writing letters of support and highlighting issues, meeting with coalition partners throughout the state, and providing outreach and public education to raise awareness. 

What’s a Marine Protected Area (MPA)? MPAs are named, discrete geographic marine or estuarine areas designed to protect or conserve marine life and habitat. California has a network of 124 MPAs with different designations that regulate what people can or cannot take from those locations. 

What’s a National Marine Sanctuary (NMS)? NMS are protected waters that include habitats such as rocky reefs, kelp forests, deep-sea canyons, and underwater archaeological sites. NMS are part of a larger network called the National Marine Sanctuary System. The Sanctuary System consists of marine protected areas that encompass more than 600,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters from Washington State to the Florida Keys, and from Lake Huron to American Samoa. In California, we are fortunate to have four NMS including Cordell Bank, Greater Farallones, Monterey Bay, and Channel Islands. 

California MPA News: This year, California’s MPA network is undergoing a decadal management review. This means the first 10 years of MPA data is being reviewed in order to better inform future management. The review will serve as an update on the four pillars of the MPA Management Program: Outreach and Education, Research and Monitoring, Enforcement and Compliance, and Policy and Permitting. 

At the December Fish and Game Commission and California Coastal Commission meetings, we provided a brief update on our Marin MPA Watch program and joined partners in letters of support of MPAs. We are actively engaging with our coastal partners in the decadal review public process and working with our partners at the MPA Collaborative Network to continue to advocate and support the network of MPAs. 

NMS News: The first tribally-nominated NMS, Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, is currently under designation consideration. While this proposed NMS is outside of West Marin, our coastal ecosystem functions as a network. This sanctuary would protect against the threat of industrialization, offshore drilling, exploitation of resources, and contribute to our understanding of ecosystem changes through long-term monitoring and other research efforts.

Learn More about our Waters Programs

Past Copies of Print and Email Newsletters

Western Monarchs - Videos, Working Group Update, Resource Library 

Healthy Tomales Bay

Marin MPA Watch Volunteer Program

Protect the Pacific - Fight Against Offshore Oil and Gas

Safeguarding our Coast and Ocean Blog

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