Over the river and through the woods, into the water you can go, from 86 access points all around the Bay. Water sport and other outdoor adventure enthusiasts are celebrating the passing of AB 1296, the first bill to support and protect public, region-wide access to the largest natural resource in the area — the San Francisco Bay.
Map courtesy of Bay Access
Michelle R. Moday
Published: November, 2005
Over the river and through the woods, into the water you can go, from 86 access points all around the Bay. Water sport and other outdoor adventure enthusiasts are celebrating the passing of AB 1296, the first bill to support and protect public, region-wide access to the largest natural resource in the area — the San Francisco Bay.
The unanimously approved legislation, written by non-profit group Bay Access, introduced by Assemblywoman Loni Hancock and approved by Governor Schwarzenegger last month, establishes the San Francisco Bay Water Trail, along with an educational development plan.
It’s a known concept, says Penny Wells, President of Bay Access, citing the American Canoe Survey data of 450 water trails in the US. What the legislation does is create the trail and lets the BCDC (San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission) do the planning.
Planning includes GIS mapping, an inventory of sites, developing informational signage for safety, and working with site managers to mark the trail, and interpret area resources of natural, cultural and historic interest around the San Francisco and San Pablo Bays. This lends itself to making safe the 86 places where canoes, kayaks and other small crafts get in and out of the water, while giving the public increased access to Bay hiking trails and the natural wildlife in the area.
We have lots of wildlife here. You can go to the Mediterranean and you’ll not find the amount of wildlife that we have in the Bay. Wells says. What we have available out here is awesome and it’s basically untapped.
In essence, the BCDC (the first coastal management society in the US) is creating a comprehensive public resource with information about the local environment, including times to be mindful in places where birds nest and seal pupping occur.
Wells says it makes the public a steward of the region. When people use a place they own it; and when they own something, they take care of it.
Now, more people are taking an interest in their own backyard bay as source for personal recreation. Wells sees growing enthusiasm for sports such as sea kayaking because it creates community in urban areas. It was out of the sea kayaking community, twenty years ago, that Bay Access and the grassroots efforts for the Water Trail grew.
In the 1980s, some sea kayakers were kicked out of South Beach harbor. Wells says, then, the City’s waterfront access areas were hardening up with development & parking. And, at the time, public access could be defined as having visual access.
So, in 1985, this small club known then as the Bay Area Sea Kayakers Club formed Bay Access, with the vision for creating the San Francisco Bay Water Trail. The BCDC would back up this right of passage initiative with a statement: The public wants to get onto the water, not have just a place to look at it.
Wells says, That type of support is really meaningful. When some of the 86 points, which are linked to federal land, state land, county parks and private property, are off limits, people don’t necessarily feel it’s theirs. As the Bay Area grows and a local interest in maritime sports grows, it’s important to expand resources of knowledge.
It used to be that when you’d see a kayak on a car, it was someone you knew, Wells says. It’s not that way anymore. However, The water trail is not only for sea kayakers. It’s about windsurfers, dragon boats, which are more fun than a barrel of monkeys... we have wonderful cultural influence from the Pacific Rim… scullers, kite surfers, board surfers… a lot of people who now, and in the future, want to be able to use the Bay.
If there’s going to be extra activity out there [on the Bay], we want people to be extra safe, says Sabrina Arrayan, spokeswoman for the Coast Guard, District 11. Operators of small craft should take the extra steps to ensure their safety each time they plan to be out on the Bay. They can do this by making preparations ahead of time, by checking that they have proper safety and survival gear and equipment needed for their trip, leaving behind a float plan of their entire trip, continually checking weather conditions and always being aware of their general surroundings.
There are vessels on the water operating without radar, and there are sailboats being manned by a few people who do not know the rules of the road, so to speak. Part of the BCDC’s job is to educate the public on water safety. Also, the Harbor Safety Committee is working with Bay Access to increase the level of safety knowledge for those operating human-powered, water craft.
Tides and currents are significant and fun to play in, says Wells, (but) this is not a quiet, placid lake… On one summer afternoon conditions can go from life threatening under the bridge to calm and benign at China Camp.
The water is 55 degrees… There is no such thing as benign conditions in the SF Bay. Then Wells quotes the Bay Access motto when she says, ‘Dress for the swim.’
