Golden Gate Bird Alliance is an American 501(c)(3) non-profit environmental organization engaged in bird conservation and environmental awareness. Headquartered in the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California, Golden Gate Bird Alliance was formed in 1917 and incorporated into the National Audubon Society in 1948. With 3,586 members and supporters, Golden Gate Bird Alliance spans Northern California, with a particular focus on San Francisco County, West Alameda County, and West Contra Costa County.
History
Grassroots Origins Golden Gate Bird Alliance started out as a group of birdwatchers from U.C. Berkeley who had taken Harold Bryant's nature study class in 1917. Led by founding president Carlos Lastreto, these students formed the Audubon Association of the Pacific with the aim to study, enjoy, and protect birds. The name was chosen in honor of John James Audubon, an ornithologist who painted and cataloged bird species in his book The Birds of America.
The early activities of the Golden Gate Bird Alliance included monthly field trips and speakers on topics in ornithology and natural history. These programs have continued and developed alongside the organization. Encouraging citizen science, they supported bird censuses in Golden Gate Park by numerous parties including the California Academy of Sciences and the Boy Scouts.
Early Conservation Efforts The newly formed Audubon Association of the Pacific encountered their first conservation issue in 1919. Due to an increase in automobile ownership, the flourishing oil shipment industry tankers were dumping contaminated ballast water off the coast near the Farallon Islands, a breeding ground for both seabirds and mammals along the Pacific Coast. In 1919, Carlos Lastreto and a colleague from the California Academy of Sciences met with officials from Standard Oil, Union Oil, and Associated Oil to discuss cessation of this pollution, and convinced them to begin recycling the waste oil at onshore facilities instead. This was among the first efforts by Golden Gate Bird Alliance to combat oil spills in the Bay Area.
From as early as 1918, the Audubon Association of the Pacific opposed the draining of the Klamath lakes for irrigation and land clearing purposes. Instead, they proposed that the land be given to the government for protection and conservation. This region would eventually become the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
Beginning in 1928, the Audubon Association of the joined with Southern California Audubon members in a campaign to choose a state bird. Founding president Carlos Lastreto hosted a weekly 15-minute radio show about birds on KGO radio, while other members recruited schools, garden clubs, and chambers of commerce to join the contest. in 1931, the victor was the California quail with 61,559 votes, beating the western bluebird with 18,966, Bullock's oriole with 11,876, and Anna's hummingbird with 10,968.
Following a collision between the liner President Coolidge and the oil tanker Frank H. Buck off of Point Bonita in 1937, volunteers from the Association documented 188 dead sea birds between Cliff House and Mussel Rock.
Joining National Audubon In the wake of World War II Golden Gate Bird Alliance grew significantly. In 1948, they joined National Audubon Society and a year later the Audubon Association of the Pacific became the Golden Gate Audubon Society.
1950s – 1960s Golden Gate Bird Alliance raised money to help build the Rotary Nature Center at Lake Merritt in 1952.
In 1956, Golden Gate Bird Alliance worked with other local Audubon chapters as well as the Sierra Club to create a new salt marsh sanctuary spanning . This would later on become a part of the Don Edwards S.F. National Wildlife Refuge.
1970s Golden Gate Bird Alliance joined the Sierra Club and Save the Bay Association in sponsoring the Point Pinole Committee for the purpose of supporting the acquisition of Point Pinole as a public parkland. Purchased from Bethlehem Steel in 1971, with a $100,000 contribution from Golden Gate Bird Alliance, Point Pinole was designated for preservation and open space.
In 1971, two Standard Oil tankers collided, spilling over 800,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay. Golden Gate Bird Alliance joined the clean-up efforts alongside other volunteers and workers, as well as convened a meeting between Standard Oil and other Bay Area Audubon chapters. This disaster resulted in the inception of the International Bird Rescue, an organization that has led rescue efforts in the wake of hundreds of oil spills worldwide.
The unauthorized filling of the bay for the Emeryville Harbor was met with resistance from Golden Gate Bird Alliance. They proposed that, as mitigation, acreage in the Emeryville Crescent be dedicated to bird habitat. By the end of 1975, the City of Emeryville designated most of the Crescent as open space. Following this, in 1978, when the Emeryville Crescent's tidal marshes were threatened, Golden Gate Bird Alliance stepped forward and saved the marsh from destruction.
Water from Mono Lake's tributaries was diverted by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to provide for the expanding Los Angeles in 1941. Over the next several decades, Mono Lake's water levels severely dropped and salinity drastically increased. The resulting degradation of the natural habitat had dire consequences for Mono Lake's ecology, and in 1978, the dispute entered the courtroom. Golden Gate Bird Alliance was the first to back the lawsuit, and former Vice President George Peyton called on National Audubon and other chapters to support the Mono Lake Committee in its legal battle to protect the lake. With Peyton coordinating the series of lawsuits, Golden Gate Bird Alliance members raised over $100,000 for legal expenses through Birdathons, raffles, and other events. The conclusion of the legal battle was a historical victory for conservationists. In 1983, it was decided that the state was obligated to protect areas such as Mono Lake, and Los Angeles was given resources to meet their water needs in an environmentally conscious way. By 1994, the state implemented a plan to stabilize Mono Lake's water level and restore the wetlands and waterways feeding the lake.
1980s Concerned that development plans would destroy habitats for federally endangered red-legged frogs and Alameda whipsnakes, Golden Gate Bird Alliance, alongside Save Open Space – Gateway Valley, worked against the 1987 proposed project in Gateway Valley, Alameda. Forcing the developers, Pacific New Wave, to give up, the project was given to a new developer in 1996, Orinda Gateway LLC. A settlement between the concerned parties in 2006 resulted in an 80% reduction in the development, preserving approximately 1,000 acres as part of the East Bay Regional Parks District.
Golden Gate Bird Alliance played an important and active role in assuring that the California Parks and Wildlife initiative had enough signatures to have a place on the ballot in 1987. More than 300 hours of volunteer time was logged by Golden Gate Bird Alliance members gathering signatures. A contribution of $1,500 was made to ensure that the North Bay Wetlands were specifically included in the land acquisition plans.
Golden Gate Bird Alliance, alongside other organizations, funded research and testimony for the 1987 California State Water Resources Control Board's (SWRCB) Bay/Delta Hearings; hearings that would determine the fate of the bay and how much water would be diverted from it. In 1991, Golden Gate Bird Alliance sued the SWRCB for their decision to ignore the freshwater flows issue, threatening marshes of Suisun Bay and all associated wildlife. In December 1994, the results were announced; joint state-federal Principles for Agreement would protect the Bay/Delta's natural resources, providing reliable water flows to farms and cities that relied on Delta diversions.
In 1989 the City of Alameda approved a new ferry terminal and route through the eelgrass. Golden Gate Bird Alliance sued the city over a refusal to produce an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on the potential impacts of the ferry on the eelgrass and endangered Least Tern. Prior to the trial, the city capitulated, withdrawing the project pending further study.
1990s An ongoing project in the 1990s, Golden Gate Bird Alliance's Dan Murphy took initiative to protect the bank swallow colony at Fort Funston. Efforts ranged from preventing people from setting off fireworks right under the colony on the 4th of July, to fencing off that part of San Francisco's Ocean Beach located right under the colony. In 2000, Golden Gate Bird Alliance intervened with a lawsuit addressing an ongoing issue: dog walking. A continuous point of contention between dog owners and conservationists in San Francisco, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area released its proposed rules in 2016. These rules, conceding to both sides, were set to be finalized in 2017, after 14 years of debates.
In 1991, a Golden Gate Bird Alliance Conservation Committee member attended a press conference regarding the proposal to turn 3,000 cubic yards of earth at the north entrance of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park into a parking space for horse trailers. During the East Bay Regional Park District's Board of Director's meeting, the Golden Gate Bird Alliance representative recounted their personal birding experiences and emphasized the importance of the area with regards to ecological preservation. Alongside other key testimonies, the proposal was discarded, and the woodland hillside remained intact.
As a response to a Golden Gate Bird Alliance Action Alert mailed to a select list of activist members in 1992, over 100 letters were delivered to the S.F. Bay Conservation and Development Commission opposing the widening of Interstate 80 next to the Emeryville Crescent. As a direct result of the letters, the Commission ordered the California Department of Transportation to: 1) put no fill in the Bay between Ashby Split and Emeryville, 2) reduce the proposed shoulder width next to the Crescent so as to preserve as much upland habitat as possible (and to remove all ice plants and replace it with native vegetation), 3) create 4,500 square feet of new adjacent upland habitat, and 4) use sound water quality measures in order to reduce the amount of polluted runoff entering the marsh from the Interstate 80.
In 1992, Golden Gate Bird Alliance provided $25,000 to buy the Marin Islands in San Pablo Bay, now part of the S.F. National Wildlife Refuge. These islands are critically important egret and heron breeding grounds and rookeries.
In 1995, Golden Gate Bird Alliance, alongside 11 other environmental organizations, challenged California Governor Wilson's attempt to significantly weaken the California Endangered Species Act. His proposals would have empowered landowners regarding decisions about habitat interference regardless of endangered species or plants. Species left unprotected by the National Endangered Species Act, which were only protected in California, would have their protection reassessed under much more stringent conditions. The challenge resulted in a success for conservationists, preserving the integrity of the California Endangered Species Act.
In 1996, Golden Gate Bird Alliance pushed for the creation of Crissy Field Marsh in San Francisco's Presidio, previously a military fortification which had been decommissioned and transferred to the National Park Service in 1994. Originally the site of a vast wetland that extended almost to Fort Mason, Golden Gate Bird Alliance sought to restore some of this marshland. Nowadays this marshland teems with ducks, herons, and other wildlife.
In 1999, Golden Gate Bird Alliance sought to create enough habitat in city parks to reestablish California quail populations. Gathering hundreds of volunteers, over 4,500 native plants were hand planted in Presidio.
2000s