Subdivisions Averted 1: on display at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center. |
What would West Marin be like if there had not been heroic efforts to save it? It would probably be like the rest of the Bay Area. As you come over White's Hill from Fairfax, instead of traveling on two-lane Sir Francis Drake Blvd, you would be driving on a four-lane superhighway all the way to Limantour Beach. You'd want that superhighway to deal with the congested traffic, since there would be a lot more development and a quarter million people living in West Marin--as many as live in the entire county now. San Geronimo Valley would be built up to the ridges on both sides. The Coho Salmon
that run up Lagunitas Creek and its tributaries every fall and the California Freshwater Shrimp would be essentially extinct in this watershed.
According to the 1997 San Geronimo Valley Community Plan:
The Planned Community District for San Geronimo Valley was created in April 1961. Five months later, Coleman Associates working with the County Planning Department, a small group of residents and the Lagunitas Development Company presented a Master Plan adopted in August 1961. It envisioned 20,000 people and 5,000 homes that would cover the hillsides all the way up to and around Kent Lake. The land around Spirit Rock would house a Civic Center, fire station, shopping center, heliport and multi-family residential homes. A major freeway was to come through the Valley from San Anselmo with an interchange that crossed Roy's Redwoods into Nicasio.
Subdivisions Averted 2: on display at the Bear Valley Visitor Center. |
What really happened? Well for starters, none of the above. As you come over White's Hill from Fairfax, the feel of the landscape suddenly changes, with undeveloped views from ridgetop to ridgetop in San Geronimo Valley. Two-lane Sir Francis Drake Blvd narrows down to a slow twisty ribbon through Samuel P. Taylor State Park--an area extremely popular with bicyclists and recreationists. The Coho Salmon run up Lagunitas Creek is the most robust anywhere in the Bay Area. Point Reyes National Seashore allows public access to coexist with grazing and oyster leases on public land, and the proposed massive coastal developments have been squelched. There is little light, noise, air, and water pollution compared to the rest of the Bay Area.
In understanding the geography of a place, it helps to understand the history of the local environmental movement. Its successes and failures are not only a part of the landscape and culture, but also a part of the individuals and organizations that love and protect West Marin. They are also prologue to our continuing responsibility to carry forward the efforts of the past so that future generations benefit from them as well.
There are numerous books and articles on the subject, most notably "Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast" by L. Martin Griffin. This book is the "Storm Over Mono" of Marin and Sonoma Counties--required reading if you want to understand why these counties aren't in worse shape than they are. It is scary how close some of these environmental battles came to being lost. And the last part of the book about the Russian River is really sad--sad how the dams and gravel mines and development in Sonoma County have devastated this beautiful river.
As a kid growing up in over-urbanized Southern California, I loved my family's vacations to Northern California to visit my mom's relatives. There were green hills and forests and country roads--things foreign to my life at home. Little did I know then that much of the Bay Area would become more like LA. Little did I know during my visits to my Aunt's home in Sebastopol that so much of the landscape I was seeing was at risk of being turned into LA-like sprawl, where communities run together with no open space in between.
Wherever I've lived, I've always tried to imagine the place as it would have been without some of the biggest environmental impacts. In Los Angeles, of course, an undeveloped coastal plain with wild rivers extending from the mountains to the extensive sand dunes and marshes along the coast. In Torrance, where I grew up, 100 years ago would have been a pretty interesting time, as the city was born out of sand dunes, marshes, oil wells, and agriculture. In Yosemite I imagine Tuolumne Meadows, Tenaya Lake, and Lee Vining Canyon without Tioga Road--how nice would that be! In Lee Vining I imagine a dirt road instead of Highway 395. In the Ansel Adams Wilderness next to Yosemite National Park I imagine removing Waugh Dam and restoring Rush Creek Meadows. In San Luis Obispo I imagine no Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant--resulting, of course, in the undeveloped public coastline of Montana de Oro State Park extending all the way from Morro Bay to Avila Beach. Restoring the Colorado River Delta would have great benefits for the marine ecosystem in the Sea of Cortez. What about California's great Central Valley--well, don't even ask, it is too sad to talk about here, is too big a digression, and the devastation has been well-documented elsewhere.
So now as I stand on the ridges overlooking San Geronimo Valley, I can't help but do this here. What are the biggest impacts that my mind erases? The biggest visual impact appears as the golf course. I can't help but try to imagine what was there before the golf course--probably grassland and forest, with much more robust riparian areas and a much healthier Larson Creek.
Next comes the roads and all the development connected by them. This is huge--lots of noise and cars just erased with quiet forest. Without these two things, standing on a ridge above the valley would be a completely different experience--you wouldn't see or hear anything and the valley would appear pristine.
Or would it be? To get the Grizzly Bears roaming the valley and feasting on the Silver Salmon, there is one more large impact that must be erased. It is one of my favorite things to erase--a dam.
Kent Reservoir (improperly called a "lake") was created by Peter's Dam, built in 1953 and enlarged in 1982. I'm told it was built illegally, without the proper permits. This dam and Seeger Dam (forming Nicasio Reservoir) certainly are responsible for the bulk of the decline in salmon runs in the watershed. Without these dams, I wonder how much better the salmon would be doing.
Is this impact reversible? The water stored in these reservoirs is too necessary for Marin County. But is this impact mitigable? What if we moved Kent Dam upstream one tributary? Take down the current dam and put it back above the confluence of the tributary behind San Geronimo Ridge--put it just upstream of Big Carson Creek. This compromise would allow the salmon access to that pristine watershed. I can't help but wonder--would that one restoration action be more effective than all the current efforts combined that are occurring in the intensively-developed San Geronimo Valley? How much would it cost in the long run vs. what the water district is already spending on salmon--and how much more effective would it be? A study might show that this doesn't make any sense, but what if it shows that the idea has potential? If we never ask we'll never know.
Flights of fancy? Or creative cost-effective restoration ideas with real potential to restore functional ecosystems? These are all fun to fantasize about, and a few of them might actually make sense to explore further. Why stop at halting development (very important as we've seen above) when it might make equally good sense to reverse its effects? The key is to pick the low-hanging fruit--the opportunities where there is great benefit for the least cost, as well as the iconic ones that inspire us (such as Restore Hetch Hetchy). The end result will be a more sustainable culture and environment.
Tomales Bay levees at the mouth of Lagunitas Creek have already been breached, restoring important tidal wetlands. What else can we restore? Dream big!
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