A Conservation Saga
by Claire Peaslee

An eight-year-old fairly obsessed with reptiles has a lifetime thrill, holding a live garter snake. A pilgrim inhales the deep green aroma of redwoods. A young person from the inner city begins a fresh relationship with the Earth. Tourists from New Zealand and New York City marvel at egrets and herons rearing chicks in an idyllic setting.

These are some of the ways we experience Bolinas Lagoon Preserve of Audubon Canyon Ranch today. Given the immediacy of such contact with nature, and the soulful impact of steep forests, thriving marshes, and rhythmic tidal wetlands, it's easy to forget how seriously threatened all of this was less than four decades ago. If it hadn't been for timely actions on the part of ACR's founders, the scene at Bolinas Lagoon might be radically different today.

Imagine, for instance: from the hillside overlook on the way up the trail, you gaze westward across a forest of power lines and a six-lane freeway, built on landfill on the erstwhile tidal flats. Beyond that, speedboats zoom around the lagoon in channels dredged from the shallow waters. On the edge of Kent Island, you see a huge marina with berths for 1500 boats and a large hotel-restaurant complex.

Exit ramps lead traffic from the shoreline freeway to feeder roads that climb Bolinas Ridge to a four-lane parkway running along the crest. The former ranch lands surrounding you have been subdivided and built up with housing and commercial and recreational facilities.

Far-fetched? It seems so today, but in 1961 the threat was so imminent that Marin Audubon Society, spurred on by the vision of president L. Martin (Marty) Griffin and passionate leadership of then vice-president William S. (Stan) Picher, took unprecedented action to thwart these development plans - and in so doing helped catapult the San Francisco Bay Area into full-fledged environmental awareness.

Birth of a Preserve

Dateline April 12, 1961. With $100 in its treasury, the Marin Audubon Society board voted unanimously in favor of the $337,000 purchase of the so-called Canyon Ranch on Bolinas Lagoon. Since the mid-1950s, this land with its magnificent heronry had been held by speculators, their interests fanned by a 1959 state plan to construct a freeway along the lagoon shore. In 1961, the holders of Canyon Ranch prepared to subdivide and sell 20-acre parcels for development.

Marin Audubon saw a different future for Canyon Ranch. With the outright purchase of 507 upland acres, a lease agreement for 368 acres of lagoon tidelands (to be protected as feeding grounds for the herons and egrets), and ten acres of Kent Island already deeded, the group planned to create a 885-acre wildlife sanctuary. In early 1962, inspired by chapter president Aileen Pierson, the Golden Gate Audubon Society joined forces with Marin Audubon Society to incorporate an independent nonprofit - Audubon Canyon Ranch.

October 26, 1962. Representatives of the new ACR coalition presented a large check, the first payment on 375 acres of the new preserve, to Tevis Land and Livestock Company. The company agreed to give the group 132 acres, known today as Garden Club Canyon.

The band of conservationists published a flyer on the plight of "Canyon Ranch" and began raising funds for the land purchase. By late 1962, the first ACR volunteers began cleaning up the milking barn and outbuildings, assessing the lovely old farmhouses, and clearing away rusted equipment and old fencing. They soon opened this wildlife jewel to the public, which responded with enthusiastic support. Education and research efforts began. In two years time, innumerable friends helped ACR raise an incredible $287,000. A substantial memorial gift from the Schwarz family was received, and in 1964, the original parcel was completely paid for.

Yet the lagoon ecosystem was still in danger from development pressure.

Saving the Wetlands

January 27, 1967. Bolinas Harbor District, a special taxing district created by the state, canceled ACR's lease to 350 acres of tidelands on the north end of Bolinas Lagoon. The District had adopted a master plan, drawn up by Mill Valley architect Norman T. Gilroy, calling for a 1500-berth marina, massive dredging, and tourist facilities including a hotel and restaurant. The district intended to condemn 110-acre Kent Island, the focal point of the Gilroy Plan.

Audubon Canyon Ranch viewed these development plans as dire threats to the integrity of Bolinas Lagoon Preserve ecosystem: the heronry needed the lagoon's rich food resources. Determined, ACR and the two founding Audubon Society chapters enlisted the help of the Nature Conservancy and deployed a brilliant strategy for derailing the Gilroy Plan.

February 15, 1967. "A Coup for Conservationists" read the San Francisco Chronicle headline! The coalition of environmental groups, having secretly purchased Kent Island with the help of a Nature Conservancy loan, made a gift of the island to the County of Marin. This surprised most County supervisors, many of whom favored the Gilroy Plan; they gratefully accepted the gift and moved on to their next agenda item. A day later, close reading of the deed revealed a condition: that Kent Island be protected forever as a county nature preserve.

Media coverage was enthusiastic, and so was popular support to help repay the loan. Marin Conservation League immediately donated $8,000 to the Save Kent Island campaign, and this was the catalyst: people everywhere began contributing. A one-room country school sent a pint jar full of pennies. In just 18 months, the $85,000 loan repayment was raised. Many thought the lagoon was saved from development - but was it?

There followed a dogged struggle to fully disarm Bolinas Harbor District, which wanted to carry out its development plans elsewhere in the lagoon. The political battle pitted ACR, Marin Conservation League, concerned citizens, and the Marin County Board of Supervisors (now enthused about managing a wildlife preserve in Bolinas Lagoon) against a powerful lobby recruited by the Harbor District. The battle ended only after a local referendum and state legislation that eliminated the Harbor District, making possible the transfer of Bolinas Lagoon to Marin County as a nature preserve.

As the fragrance of flowering buckeyes fills the canyon in spring, thousands of visitors enjoy Bolinas Lagoon Preserve. Volunteers in education and research over the years grow a warm tradition of people actively supporting ACR . Birders and environmentalists take heart from the story of Audubon Canyon Ranch - a continuing campaign on behalf of a gorgeous coastal ecosystem and its nesting herons and egrets.

Audubon Canyon Ranch has grown to include Bouverie Preserve in Sonoma County's Valley of the Moon, Cypress Grove Preserve on Tomales Bay, and numerous small holdings totalling 2,000 acres, as well as a thriving docent-led education program and a research effort devoted to conservation and well-informed land management. ACR has helped spearhead conservation efforts elsewhere in the region, currently on behalf of the east shore of Tomales Bay, where lands are proposed for national park purchase. Bolinas Lagoon, too, remains a concern, as its lifespan may be shortened by human-caused sedimentation.

Given the early history of Bolinas Lagoon Preserve, its very existence may seem miraculous today, but the reality is that hard work and generous financial support on the part of a great many ACR friends produced a beautiful natural legacy that we can all enjoy.