Lagoon Lifesaver-- April, 2001

BOLINAS LAGOON NEEDS YOUR HELP!!! NOW!!!

Since last summer the schedule for the Bolinas Lagoon Ecosystem Restoration Study has slipped by 8 months. Originally the Draft Feasibility Report and EIR/EIS were scheduled for release to the public last fall. Now, the document is not scheduled for release until this fall. We need to make up the lost time if we are to achieve authorization for a construction program commencing in 2004. These dates are important because of the rate at which the lagoon is filling with sediment and the entrance channel being constricted.

The delay results from the very nature of the project. Ours is the first ecosystem restoration effort undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) on a functioning tidal estuary. As such, new techniques are being developed to involve the public in decisions involving the remedial actions to be taken. A panel of habitat experts was convened and asked to review the construction options and identify actions potentially detrimental to the long-term health of the ecosystem. Those deliberations required several weeks of study and give-and-take. Now the Corps and Marin County Open Space District (OSD) are reviewing and analyzing the various alternatives before they make a final selection.

We have a chance to regain the time lost by accelerating the next phase (III) of the work, Pre-construction Engineering and Design. The acceleration will require Federal funding of $750,000 for fiscal year 2002 (FY '02), which is $450,000 more than the amount requested in the President's budget request to Congress.

YOU CAN HELP by writing to two senators and two congressmen, the ranking members of the House and Senate Subcommittees responsible for Energy and Water Development appropriations. Their names and addresses are included in this letter (mail, fax and e-mail). PLEASE WRITE TO VOICE YOUR SUPPORT, and copy Senator Barbara Boxer and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey.

Your letter can be as simple as:

Dear ---,

Please include $750,000 in the FY '02 appropriation for the Bolinas Lagoon Ecosystem Restoration, a project of the San Francisco District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Every day of delay in the restoration effort causes a worsening of the lagoon's health, and a subsequent increase in the complexity and ultimate cost of the restoration.

Thank you,

Signed.

Thanks to the previous support of State Senator John Burton and former Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni, Marin County Open Space District has funds available to meet the project needs for the next phase and beyond. Our new Assemblyman, Joe Nation, has committed his support until the County has funding for the entire program.

The current project schedule calls for release and public review of the Draft EIR/EIS in October of this year, followed by submission to Corps of Engineers Headquarters in the first quarter of 2002 and submission to Congress for authorization as a Project in mid-2002. If this schedule is kept, and federal funding is granted, we can still expect construction to commence in 2004. Public notice will be provided for all interested parties to participate in the EIR/EIS review process.

One of the benefits gained from the review by the panel of habitat experts of the planning data presented in last fall's public meetings in Stinson Beach and Bolinas was the decision to adopt a "phased adaptive management" approach to the construction stage of this project. This approach means that the impact on the habitat of a phase of construction will be evaluated before the next phase can begin. Construction will be timed so as not to interfere with periods of heavy migratory bird activity, seal pupping, bird breeding and nesting, fish spawning, etc. This scheduling will mean that construction will be implemented in small increments, rather than all at once, and the "phased adaptive management" approach will require that construction be spread over a period of several years.

I'd like to recognize and thank a pair or true LAGOON LIFESAVERS. Johanna Harman and Barrie Stebbings made a wonderfully informative film about Bolinas Lagoon and the Ecosystem Restoration, which they have made available for all of us to see and enjoy. The film is available in the Bolinas, Stinson Beach and Pt. Reyes Station libraries, and at the film rental stores in Bolinas and Stinson Beach. Thank you Johanna and Barrie!

There has been a most unusual visitor to Bolinas Lagoon this year. A Greater Sandplover has been spotted and identified by staff from Point Reyes Bird Observatory. This visitor is the first of its kind ever recorded in the western hemisphere, and another example of the important synergy that exists between Bolinas Lagoon and its neighbors, Audubon Canyon Ranch and Point Reyes Bird Observatory.

Let me close with a word of thanks and appreciation to all of you who support our work with your donations. All gifts to Bolinas Lagoon Foundation are put to work for the restoration effort, and are tax deductible.

Bucky Mace
For The Foundation