This resolution emphasizing the importance of the Bolinas Lagoon was adopted by the California State Assembly on April 24, 1997

By the Honorable Kerry Mazzoni Sixth Assembly District; Relative to

BOLINAS LAGOON

WHEREAS, The Bolinas Lagoon, located in Northern California, is one of nature's most magnificent, fragile wonderlands and includes a tidal embayment; and

WHEREAS, Bolinas Lagoon provides a unique coastal environment for fish, water birds, and marine mammals that is unparalleled along the Northern California Coast, and is one of the finest examples of marine wildlife areas on the earth; and

WHEREAS, Bolinas Lagoon is a state and national treasure that has existed for more than 8,000 years; and

WHEREAS, Bolinas Lagoon is unique in that it adjoins or is part of the Point Reyes National Seashore, the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, Audubon Canyon Ranch, Tamalpais State Park, and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is located in an area where there are several essentially intact ecosystems that include both land and water, side-by-side within already protected areas; and

WHEREAS, Few other places can offer such a unique opportunity for so many species and habitat types to live and coexist in a natural lagoon; and

WHEREAS, The 1,000 acre Bolinas Lagoon preserve of the Audubon Canyon Ranch, which maintains a nesting colony of great and snowy egrets and great blue herons, fronts the Bolinas Lagoon and is dependent on the viability of the lagoon; and

WHEREAS, More than 20,000 visitors a year observe the egrets and heron feed their young and observe the young birds taking their first flights from the canyon side high above the lagoon; and

WHEREAS, The Bolinas Lagoon is also home to brown pelicans, harbor seals and their pups, and is a nationally important wintering area for water birds of the Pacific Flyway; and

WHEREAS, Stinson Beach abuts the lagoon to the delight and educational benefit of nearly 1,000,000 visitors a year; and

WHEREAS, The economic value of the lagoon as a continuing, viable ecological system is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars; and

WHEREAS, The Bolinas Lagoon is home to the magnificent Audubon Canyon Ranch that has been designated by the United States Department of the Interior as a National Natural Landmark; and

WHEREAS, he California Legislature is proud to recognize Bolinas Lagoon as a state and national treasure of extraordinary and irreplaceable beauty, economic value, and environmental diversity; and

RESOLVED BY THE ASSEMBLY AND SENATE OF CALIFORNIA, JOINTLY, That the Legislature of the State of California urges the President and Congress of the United States to appropriate federal funds to be used to preserve and protect the Bolinas Lagoon; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and the Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 12

Adopted in Assembly April 24, 1997