Restoring wetlands is good for business

By David Lewis
Friday, October 26, 2007

San Francisco Bay defines our region, and the Bay Area's economy and quality of life depend on its health.

Though many residents take the bay for granted, it is a primary reason businesses and residents locate here and it is vital to our tourism economy. For the 16 million tourists who visit San Francisco annually, three of the top five destinations are on the bay.

The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau's strategic plan highlights the importance of environmental stewardship and the value of positioning our region as a "green" destination. Our eco-image should start with the bay.

But with 7 million people around its shores, the bay is a shadow of its former self. Starting around the Gold Rush, shallow parts of the bay were filled in and paved over, and marshes were diked and drained to make hay fields or salt evaporation ponds. The bay is one-third smaller because of those developments, and only 5 percent of its original wetlands remain.

Fortunately, the Bay's rapid destruction was halted by citizen efforts in the 1960s, which put a moratorium on landfill in the bay, forced treatment of raw sewage, and clamped down on industrial pollution. Now a new report by Save The Bay, titled "Greening the Bay," highlights the opportunity we have to improve the bay by restoring thousands of acres of shoreline to re-establish tidal wetlands that benefit people and wildlife.

Funding restoration

Wetlands support endangered species, protect our communities from flooding, filter pollutants, and provide urban open space and recreation. They also play a key role in the fight against global warming, converting substantial amounts of carbon dioxide into plant material.

Greening the Bay identifies more than 36,000 bay shoreline acres already acquired by state and federal agencies and protected for eventual restoration to tidal marsh. Over the next 50 years, that vast landscape could be restored for $1.4 billion, and 83 percent of local residents polled by EMC Research last year said they understand the benefits and are willing to pay $10 per year to restore bay wetlands on these sites.

PG&E CEO Peter Darbee, former U.S. EPA Administrator William K. Reilly and other business leaders have endorsed the report's recommendations for how to finance bay wetland restoration.

To provide a regional focus for bay wetland restoration and raise local funds from willing residents, Greening the Bay recommends a new bay special district that can propose specific taxes or assessments, broker private and charitable investment, leverage federal funds, and then make grants to wetland projects. Greater state support is also essential -- of the $13 billion in statewide resources bonds approved by California voters since 2000, only 1 percent has gone toward bay projects.

Path to recovery

Many businesses embracing Save The Bay's recommendations can see benefits from their office windows, as communities walled off from their shorelines for a hundred years reconnect to the bay. Wetland restoration is underway or imminent in Redwood City, Vallejo, Mountain View, Hayward, Novato and elsewhere.

The bay and its wetlands were once seen as a dump to be paved, until residents rose up to stop those practices. By embracing this next step, businesses and residents can ensure a healthier bay and a brighter future for the region.

David Lewis is executive director of Save The Bay. Joe D'Alessandro, executive director of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, co-wrote this opinion.

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