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Photograph by Robert Scheer

David Allison has been watching birds at the sanctuary for 10 years. He says ducks have been scarce in the past few years, but others are plentiful.

Marshian Life

Groups want NASA to restore its wetlands

By Steve Enders

Amid all the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area, there are still a few places where nature is allowed to take its course. One of those places is the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is a broken ring of wetlands, marshes and sloughs around the shores of the bay. It is also home to the Bay Trail, which, if some special interest groups get their way, will eventually circle the entire bay.

According to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study on the refuge, since the mid-1800s the number of acres of wetlands has diminished significantly in the Bay Area.

The San Francisco Bay Refuge was established by Congress in 1972. Since then, legislators have given the Fish and Wildlife Service authority to add more than 20,000 acres to the original 18,000-acre refuge.

The refuge is home to many creatures, from seals to birds to mice, many of which are on the Environmental Protection Agency's endangered species list.

These species can be found all over the refuge, including areas lying adjacent to Moffett Field in an area where the ring of the refuge remains broken by salt evaporation pools and by a finger of federal property.

The land is mostly owned by the Cargill Salt Corporation--which bought the land from Leslie Salt--where evaporation pools are separated by dikes from the rest of the bay.

Since the issue of air cargo companies possibly leasing Moffett Field sparked community debate over the future of the former naval base, the ball has been lobbed into the people's side of the court to determine what they'd like to see happen there.

According to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service map, the salt ponds and the federal property are exactly where it wants to expand the refuge.

Other options being entertained by NASA include development of a commercial space products center; expanding the Ames Technology Commercialization Center; building an astrobiological institute; creating an air and space center; using the land as a film studio; and creating a research and development campus and light industrial park.

Groups such as the Alliance for a New Moffett Field and the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge want the 400-acre parcel of federal airfield and NASA property to be restored to its natural, marshy state. This option is also on NASA's possibility list.

Dave King of the alliance said the government would incorporate the areas with pressure from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wildlife officials say the situation is not that simple.

According to Dick Moore of the U.S. Fish and wildlife service, only when the government declares the areas on its property to be excess can the service apply to take over the land as part of the refuge. He says it happens often, especially since the government is in downsizing mode.

"We'd be first on the list," Moore said. "The plan is to fill out the 20,000-acre addition to the refuge, but it's a long-term process."

Each time more land becomes available, the service must petition Congress to get money to buy the land directly from the landowner. Moore said that each year, anywhere from $3 million to $5 million is available to the service to buy land.

Redwood City's Bair Island area, near Redwood Creek, covers about 1,000 acres and is currently in the process of being added to the refuge, he said. That area was also privately owned, but not by Cargill Salt.

So how far off is a possible addition of South Bay land?

According to Cargill Salt, it'll probably be a long time. Cargill, a multinational corporation, has no plans to discontinue production of salt in those evaporation pools in the South Bay or anywhere else around the Bay Area on land that it owns. The pools are in use now and will continue to be used.

According to Sandy Olliges, NASA's-Ames's environmental specialist, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service already operates and manages a small portion of wetlands on NASA property.

In addition, Olliges said, NASA is working with groups on the Bay Trail, and is giving an easement of land across its northwest corner to become a part of the Bay Trail. The land will be connected to the Stevens Creek Nature Study area, she said.

"We want to create a template, so that when more land becomes available, we'll know what to do and have something to work from," Olliges said.

She also said that currently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service isn't really interested in acquiring more land from NASA. Furthermore, she says, there are no plans to turn more land over to the service in the near future.

Overall, the land occupied by NASA and the Navy is small. But, in the grand scheme of wetland restoration, environmentalists and nature lovers are quick to say that every acre added to existing space can make a significant difference.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 7, 1998.
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