Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
neers map in which the wide waters of the bay had been confined to a
narrow channel in the name of progress. The women sent a flyer out to a
thousand neighbors and fellow citizens, emblazoned with the words, “Bay
or River?” The response was disbelief.
“[Most local citizens] thought the bay belonged to everybody,” one of
the women, the elegant Esther Gulick, recalled in a 1987 oral history.
“Then, when they found out that a good part of it along the edge belonged
to corporations like Sante Fe [railroad], they just couldn't believe it, and
they couldn't do enough . . . to help.”
The women proved adept at channeling citizens' outrage through a
new organization they founded called the Save San Francisco Bay Associa-
tion. That first flyer garnered about 2,500 memberships at $1 a piece—the
founders wanted saving the bay to be affordable. By 1970 they had 18,000
members and activist cells in the East Bay, on the peninsula, and in Marin.
Known today as Save the Bay, the group was one of the first citizens' orga-
nizations formed to save a body of water rather than a rare bird or pretty
canyon. With a lot of persuasion and considerable political clout, the
association soon legislated stewardship of the bay through the creation
of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission
(BCDC)—a first in regional governance.
Over the years, many other Bay Area residents have taken up that
torch, working to protect the wetlands, clean the water, cap the landfills,
and preserve the salmon. Today, more than 200 environmental groups
have their headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area; many focus in
Fishers on a shore of concrete riprap. (Max Eissler)
