Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
OWNERSHIP & GOVERNANCE
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The state was granted ownership of San Francisco Bay, as well as “swamp
and overflowed lands” throughout the estuary and delta, in the early 1850s.
Since then, the state has granted roughly half the lands in the Central and
South bays to local municipalities.
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State records of historic sales suggest that more than 200,000 acres of
baylands, floodplain, beach, and water lots in the Bay Area may have been
sold to other public and private landowners. No specific estimates of total
acreage in private ownership are available.
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Nine counties and 46 cities extend underwater into the bay.
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Agencies with regulatory authority to manage land and water uses of the
bay include the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commis-
sion and the State Lands Commission.
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Other agencies involved in bay shoreline land-use planning include the Cali-
fornia Coastal Conservancy and the Association of Bay Area Governments.
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The bay's environmental quality is protected and overseen by the San Fran-
cisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, the California Department
of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Ma-
rine Fisheries Service, among others.
some way on the health of the bay. Natural resource managers arriving
here from jobs in other parts of the country are always amazed at the for-
est of hands raised, number of speeches made, and degree of passion ex-
pressed at public meetings.
“The [Bay Area] contains a fortuitous assemblage of citizens with a
special culture and style of life, a special environmental awareness and ap-
preciation. There is a heady mixture of international cosmopolitanism, of
varied shorelines with the flavor of ships and water, of the free spirit of the
frontier, and of youthful and harmonious living,” wrote Rice Odell in a
1972 Conservation Foundation booklet about saving the bay. His words
are every bit as valid today.
Most people living in the 46 cities that ring the bay know a nearby place
for a bayside barbecue, a Sunday stroll through the marshes, an afternoon
fishing expedition, or a salty swim. Many run and pedal the trails now
