Why is it so important for the bay to be saved? Geography changes all the time — what’s so bad about it this time?

The first thing to establish is that, by this point, the bay physically looked awful. Bay water in this period was fouled by oil slicks, shipping waste, trash dumped and burned at waterfront garbage centres, and largely untreated sewage. Rae Alexandra writes that, “at low tide, the stench emanating from the water wafted from Mill Valley to Oakland." At night, Gulick could see trash being dumped in the shallows and set on fire. The underlying toxic legacy from 1860s–1880s hydraulic gold mining (mercury-laden Sierra sediment washed into the Bay and Delta) persists in Bay mud even today. Moreover, the Bay supports fisheries, tourism, recreation, and transportation that make up the region’s distinctive quality of life.

In a 1988 speech given at UC Berkeley’s Rausser College of Natural Resources, Gulick describes how “as the human and automobile population of the Bay increases, it becomes more important than ever to have recreational opportunities close at hand, particularly to serve the residents of the more intensely developed areas closest to the edge of the Bay.” This sentiment reflects recent research on ‘blue spaces’ — lakes, rivers, sea — and their effect on human health. A 2017 major systematic review examined 35 quantitative studies of rivers, lakes, coasts, and other outdoor blue spaces. They found that the balance of evidence showed positive associations between greater blue-space exposure and mental health and well-being; physical activity; and other general-health outcomes (Gascon et al). One source even noted that “compared with exercising indoors, exercising in natural environments was associated with greater feelings of revitalization and positive engagement, decreases in tension, confusion, anger, and depression, and increased energy… participants reported greater enjoyment and satisfaction with outdoor activity and declared a greater intent to repeat the activity at a later date” (Coon et al).

Even if the ecological impacts don’t matter to you — which, to be clear, it should — it’s clear that healing these environments is essential for improving the physical and mental health of the community.

With that said, the Bay also is essential because it’s a functioning estuary—a place where freshwater and saltwater mix, supporting wildlife, filtering pollution, buffering floods, and sustaining the region’s economy and identity. This will be elaborated on further in the next chapter.