Projects:

San Francisco Bay Area:

San Francisco
� Hunters Point Shipyard
�Shipyard Waterfront Park
� Yosemite Slough
� Treasure Island
� Presidio
Alameda
�Alameda Naval Air Station
�FISC Annex
East Bay Housing
Oakland
�Chinatown
Vallejo
�Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Contra Costa County
� Concord Naval Weapons Station
Suisun Bay
� Mothball Fleet

National:

Military & the Environment
RABS

International:

Philippines
Okinawa
Hidden Casualties of War

Program Areas:

Environment
Economics
Justice
Education
Public Partnership
War & the Environment

Project: Mare Island Naval Shipyard

Advocacy and Support for Environmental Restoration

Mare Island Historical Image

Arc Ecology has worked on Mare Island Naval Shipyard restoration issues since 1994. For more than a decade Arc Ecology staff scientists provided support to the Mare Island Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) and greater Mare Island community-based organizations by providing detailed scientific analyses of environmental cleanup and restoration documentation provided by the Navy.

Every year, thousands of people come to Mare Island for the San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival, a grassroots event celebrating the environmental richness of the San Pablo Bay and its wildlife habitat. Since it's inception in 1996, the Flyway Festival has focused on bringing Bay Area residents to experience the annual migration of waterfowl through the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the California Department of Fish and Game?s State Wildlife Area and privately owned property not normally open to the public.

The Flyway Festival was originally founded to inform the public about the tremendous natural resources in need of protection in the 50,000 acre San Pablo Bay Delta, known as the San Pablo Baylands. It was also founded to serve as a gauge of public interest in a year-round permanent environmental education center for the nearly 2 million people who live in the "north shore" of San Francisco Bay, who don't currently have access to such a facility in that region of the Bay Area. When Arc Ecology took the Flyway Festival under its wing in 2001 it set out a goal to expand the Festival to a component of an ongoing, year-round environmental education program through which school-based curriculum is linked to the annual Festival leading to the strengthening of ongoing conservation efforts in the nearby communities. Arc Ecology is a proud sponsor of the San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival celebrating its 11th season in February 2007. We invite you to visit www.sfbayflywayfestival.com for an overview of the Festival and a schedule of its 2007 programs.

The San Francisco and San Pablo Bays are known to be sites of hemispheric importance for shorebirds. Numerous endangered or threatened species depend on the tidal marshes along the San Pablo Bay, and various fish species spawn in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river systems, and must travel through the San Pablo Bay to access these drainages.

The San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1974 to conserve and protect bay wetlands to preserve the habitat for waterfowl, shorebirds and endangered species. The rapid urban development in the Bay Area's fastest growing counties adjacent to the Bay's "north shore", is putting added stress on this sensitive habitat. This growth will likely negatively impact the Refuge and the adjacent Napa-Sonoma Marshes State Wildlife Area through increases in non-point source pollution and increased demand for fresh water supplies. In addition, there is concern that the environmental cleanup and reuse activities at Mare Island Shipyard may leave significant amounts of contamination, that, combined with increased residential, commercial and industrial uses at the former base site, will add direct stress to the Refuge and State Wildlife Area and the San Pablo Bay.

Public education is critical in addressing this issue, but it is still difficult for the area's nearly 2 million residents to learn about some of the most unique public lands in the Bay Area. The San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge has developed an environmental education program, but is insufficient to meet the needs of the nearby communities of Vallejo, American Canyon, Benicia, Crockett, Petaluma and beyond.

From time to time, Arc Ecology has also supported the communities of the "north shore" of San Pablo Bay in their desire to reuse portions of the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard for public purposes. Arc Ecology supported the regional communities' efforts to prevent the location of a proposed Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) tanker terminal and 1500 megawatt power plant on Mare Island in 2003. Arc Ecology has provided sponsorship of the Daffodil Tea, an annual event held on Mare Island to increase the public's awareness of the restoration and preservation needs of St. Peter's Chapel, the Navy's oldest chapel and home to the largest collection of Tiffany stained-glass windows in the West, since 2004.

The obvious need of these communities and the entire region of the "north shore" of San Pablo Bay, point to the strong demand for the type of programs that Arc Ecology provides.

Comments on Cleanup & Redevelopment

Arc Ecology routinely submits comments on the cleanup and reuse plans and activities at Mare Island as part of the public comment process. Past comment letter are on file at Arc Ecology. Recent comments are available online: