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New Campaign Pushes Marsh Expansion

When the Habitat Goals Report debuted last spring with its recommendations for how to restore the health of the Bay over the next century, the Bay Area Audubon Council (consisting of eight local chapters of the Audubon Society ) was inspired - so inspired that it wants to see the Bay's 40,000 acres of tidal wetlands grow to 105,000 acres within the next 20 years instead of the 100 years suggested in the Goals Report. The Council also wants to restore 40,000 acres of seasonal wetlands and riparian habitat, ambitious goals that may soon become a reality.

After convincing the Society's state organization to match their funding for the project and to move a media consultant from Sacramento to the Bay Area, local Audubon reps pitched the project to the national office, which eagerly endorsed it. In December, they visited the White House and got a commitment from the President's Council on Environmental Quality for federal funding beginning in fiscal year 2002. The $100 million that Audubon will ask for, says Mike Sellors with the fledgling "Baylands Campaign," will be funneled through the S.F. Bay Joint Venture, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, and Cal Fish & Game for restoration projects. In the meantime, the campaign will work to educate the public - as well as state legislators - about the high values of tidal marsh restoration.

One of the keys to Audubon's lobbying success was the fact that a staff person for the Council had been involved in planning the Everglades restoration. "He told us we were light years ahead of where they were when they began," says Sellors. Sellors also attributes the interest in Washington to the "sound science of the Habitat Goals Project and the fact that Bay Area congressional representatives are starting to think about ecosystem restoration at the regional scale." He adds, "We're being thought of as the Everglades of the West. People seem to like that."

Contact: Mike Sellors (415)388-2055

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