This decision comes after several years of struggle. For years, SPAWN has collected scientific data indicating the importance of protecting creekside habitat to ensure the survival of endangered coho salmon. Through public hearings, scientific reports, forums, newsletters, communication through the media, and legal analysis provided by our attorneys, SPAWN has informed the Marin Board of Supervisors again and again that their approval of individual developments was threatening coho survival, and was illegal because the County had failed to do the proper environmental cumulative impact analysis needed to make such decisions.
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Unfortunately over the years, the Supervisors have been unwilling to act on the scientific data or the analysis of our attorneys. But when the County hired one of the leading environmental law firms specializing in California law to advise them on the County-Wide Plan revision, the Supervisors apparently got one point loud and clear--that passage of the plan was open to legal challenge due to the lack of proper environmental study and analysis of cumulative impacts on streams and wetlands.
And now we have entered a new era. The Supervisors have approved an historic agreement to conduct a proper study that SPAWN has helped craft. Furthermore, they have agreed to take a "time-out" on development in the creekside habitat of the San Geronimo Valley for two years while the study is completed. This study should ensure that development decisions of the future, here in California's most important watershed for critically endangered coho salmon, will be informed by the best available science to protect and restore these endangered species of Marin.
If we succeed in this endeavor for the salmon, we will also be protecting our children who play in these same creeks, protecting ourselves from floods, protecting the rural character of our community, and protecting precious pieces of the fabric of life. The necessary ingredients for a healthy salmon run are the same as those for a healthy human community.
We are also hopeful that these recent steps mark the beginning of a new relationship between the environmental community and the Board of Supervisors to work together to recover our beloved endangered coho salmon.
But this is only the beginning of a difficult process. There is a tremendous amount of work to do, including reforming our current development policies to protect remaining critical habitat and ecosystem functions, while we simultaneously try to repair the mistakes of the past that have led to the current endangered statuses of so many of our aquatic species including the coho salmon, freshwater shrimp, steelhead trout, red-legged frogs, and others.
If we succeed, the fruits of this labor will be enjoyed and celebrated by the people of California for many generations to come. We will be working as hard as possible to assure that we do succeed.
For more information: www.spawnusa.org
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TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2008