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This year marks sixty years of saving the Bay. We will celebrate, honor and share stories from our history throughout the year. We invite you to join us and share your own stories of your own connection to the Bay on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter #MyBayStory. This story was written in our co-founder Sylvia McLaughlin’s words from a series of interviews with her. Originally published on September 9, 2013. Kay, Esther, and I sat in Kay’s living room in the Berkeley Hills, nervous, yet hopeful. We heard a car pulling into the driveway and I said to my friends, “Here …

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has dropped its appeal of our lawsuit victory restoring Clean Water Act protections to the Redwood City Salt Ponds. The move came a week after 57 Bay Area elected officials and organizations asked the Biden Administration to withdraw the Trump EPA’s appeal of a federal court order upholding those legal protections. “We’re thrilled that the Biden Administration is agreeing to uphold the law and restore protections for San Francisco Bay wetlands. Climate change makes this even more urgent,” said Save The Bay Executive Director David Lewis. “It’s an early indication of what a difference the …

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In October 2020, Save The Bay, three co-plaintiffs, and Attorney General Becerra won our lawsuit ​and restored protections to the Redwood City Salt Ponds under the Clean Water Act. President Trump’s EPA appealed the ruling, but with a new Administration entering the White House we hope to see this action reversed. This week, Congresswoman Jackie Speier wrote to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), and seven other members of the Bay Area Congressional delegation, asking the agency to drop that lawsuit appeal. 47 local Bay Area elected officials and organizations also asked …

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Urban greening plays a critical role in how we protect communities from climate change. Unfortunately, the long-predicted impacts of climate change are no longer just predictions. Over the past few years, climate change has already cause increased urban heat and worsened air quality, which impacts human health. And soon cities around the Bay will experience more frequent flooding caused by sea-level rise and erratic weather patterns. Preventing the worst of these impacts on our communities requires us to think differently about how our cities are designed and one of the best ways to make cities more resilient in the face …

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One of our Instagram followers asked, “How do we choose our transition zone restoration sites?” This is a relatively simple question with a bit of history. The short answer is that we go where we have partner relationships and funding, but as we’ve been active in advocacy and habitat restoration work for many decades, our work has evolved. Save The Bay is lucky to have longstanding relationships with partner organizations like the East Bay Regional Park District and City of Palo Alto, where we’ve maintained native plant nurseries and restoration sites since the early 2000s. These sites are accessible, beautiful, …

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The Bel Marin Keys Unit V Project in the San Francisco Bay Estuary has reached an exciting restoration milestone: over 10,000 native perennial plants have been outplanted this winter. This benchmark was made possible by the combined efforts of Save The Bay, Novato Baylands Stewards, AmeriCorps, the Conservation Corps North Bay, and dedicated volunteers. These 10,000 plants, including creeping wild rye, salt grass, and baltic rush, will contribute to restoring this vital wetland. The Bel Marin Keys site, under the California Coastal Conservancy and partnering with the Novato Baylands Stewards, includes over 44 acres of seasonal wetlands and alkali wet …

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Tell San Jose City Council to Prepare for Climate Change The San Jose City Council is considering their priorities for 2021 and we need your help to make sure climate resilience is at the top of their list. Take Action → Urban greening is an effective strategy for adapting to climate change and enhancing quality of life that cities can implement now. Integrating nature-based infrastructure into city settings has numerous benefits. Rain gardens, bioswales, trees, and planter boxes all help mitigate flood risks from storms and sea level rise, absorbing and filtering water to return to the ocean pollutant-free. Increasing …

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Tell San Jose City Council to Prepare for Climate Change The San Jose City Council is considering their priorities for 2021 and we need your help to make sure climate resilience is at the top of their list. Take Action → Last year, the signs of our rapidly warming climate manifested in ways impossible for anyone to ignore. Bay Area residents were subjected to weeks of smoky skies, poor air quality, and intense heat, and soon increased flooding from storms and sea level rise will become the new norm. Americans are ready to tackle the climate crisis head on, and …

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As this challenging year comes to a close, all of us at Save The Bay wish you a happy, healthy, and restorative holiday season.

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After the first rains this Fall, we spread a seed mix across our 44 acre restoration site at Bel Marin Keys, in Novato, CA. This seed mix consisted of locally collected, native, annual seeds that had been collected and cleaned over the last 3 years by our staff and partners in this project. The plants in the seed mix have qualities that specifically compete with the non-native weeds that will come up on the site, making it easier for our perennial wetland plants to successfully establish at the restoration site. Preparing the seed mixture! Some of the seeds in this …

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