LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

San Francisco Chronicle

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Monday, December 20, 2004

Casino would hurt wildlife

Editor -- Chip Johnson's column, "The Battle for casinos in East Bay" (Dec. 13), raises the excellent question of whether the Bay Area is the right place to build multiple casinos. It points out that most people come to the Bay Area to enjoy culture and the environment, including "the allure of Muir Woods or Mount Diablo."

The Bay Area's glorious natural environment is also a primary reason many residents live here -- from the beaches of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area to the wetlands and uplands that ring the bay and provide habitat for a great diversity of wildlife.

Development pressures on natural areas are extreme in the Bay Area. Yet residents have invested significant resources in protecting and restoring the last vestiges of these native habitats, for the benefit of both the wildlife and the people who live here.

The proposed Oakland casino would be built adjacent to the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline Park, site of Arrowhead Marsh and a successfully restored 72-acre wetland. This wetland complex hosts some of the most significant populations of shorebirds and waterfowl in the central bay. It is also habitat for the federally endangered California clapper rail, a bird that is found only in San Francisco Bay salt marshes.

This wetland jewel is also enjoyed by some 300,000 visitors each year, including thousands of people for whom this park offers a rare opportunity to connect with nature.

A casino threatens to degrade what has been so carefully protected here. Night lighting from the casino could interrupt natural wildlife activity, impact bird reproduction and make it easier for predators to prey on native wildlife. And skyrocketing traffic would reduce the nature experience people seek at this park.

A casino is the antithesis of all this precious wetland represents, and the costs of building it are too dear to bear.

ELIZABETH MURDOCK

Executive director

Golden Gate Audubon

Berkeley