Bill will boost access to the Bay for boaters

By Denis Cuff
Tuesday, September 27, 2005

California is blazing a new path to recreation on San Francisco Bay.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation that will create the San Francisco Bay water trail, a network of launching, landing and camping spots for kayakers, canoers and others in small, nonmotorized boats.

The goal is to increase boater access to the Bay, considered one of the premier kayaking spots in America.

"This is the next frontier of public access to the Bay," said Will Travis, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, a state agency.

Use of kayaks, sailboards, canoes and rowboats has taken off in the last decade. But many shoreline areas lack good launch spots, parking lots and bathrooms, Travis said.

Water trail backers want day-use facilities, as well as campsites and shoreline inns to make overnight trips around the Bay possible.

The bill gives the Bay commission until Jan. 1, 2008, to plan the trail for kayaks, canoes, sculls, sailboards and sailboats that can be carried on a car top and launched from a beach.

The state Coastal Conservancy will take the lead in developing launch places, bathrooms and parking spaces.

The bill doesn't include an appropriation for the trail, but anticipates state and federal grants will help pay for some projects.

Shoreline business or park developers also may be expected or required to make boater improvements as part of their projects, Travis said.

The water trail legislation by Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, sailed through the Legislature with little opposition.

But the bill generated concerns about having more boats on the Bay.

Some people worried paddlers would collide with cargo and tanker ships, or disrupt sensitive breeding and rearing areas for birds and seals.

David Dolberg, a Richmond kayaker, said he expects the trail planning to produce literature, signs and maps to steer paddlers into safe waters and avoid harm to wildlife.

"The trail provides us with a framework for putting together educational components," said Dolberg, a board member of Bay Access, a nonprofit group formed to promote the trail. "Getting the bill passed is really the beginning of the work."

Reach Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267 or dcuff@cctimes.com