Input Needed on Future of San Francisco Bay Estuary

San Pablo Bay with Mount Tamalpais

The San Francisco Estuary Partnership has opened public comment on 25 actions being assessed to promote a healthy, vibrant, resilient and thriving San Francisco Estuary by 2050. 

Watch the Blueprint video overview to learn more about the process. Submit comments through the online form or email them to blueprint@sfestuary.orgThe deadline to submit comments is Friday, Jan. 7. Additionally, there will be a virtual public input session on Tuesday, Jan. 11 from 1 to 3 p.m. Register for the Zoom meeting here.

The partnership is updating an Estuary Blueprint covering the watersheds that drain to the Estuary, which includes the San Francisco Bay, or lower Estuary, and the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta, or upper Estuary. 

The Blueprint addresses the Bay and Delta as one interconnected ecological system and seeks to promote actions over the next five years for a healthy estuary by mid century. Input is now being sought before the Blueprint is revised and finalized.

"As we're confronting climate change happening right here and now, it has never been clearer that if we want our human and wildlife communities to thrive, we must work together, collaboratively and urgently, toward a resilient San Francisco Estuary," said Caitlin Sweeney, director of the San Francisco Estuary Partnership. 

The Estuary Blueprint is a collaborative, non-regulatory regional plan. It was originally created in 1993 and has undergone several revisions, the most recent in 2016.

The Estuary Blueprint has four primary goals:

  • Sustain and improve the Estuary’s living resources, including habitats and wildlife
  • Improve the quality and quantity of the Estuary’s waters
  • Increase the resilience of our human and wildlife communities to climate change
  • Champion the Estuary by encouraging stewardship and appreciation of this special area.

Over the past 18 months the Estuary Partnership has engaged with more than 80 organizations and agencies, and many more individuals, in the update process. Staff have held over 100 group meetings and many more one-on-one meetings and consultations, and have given more than 20 presentations to agencies and organizations throughout the Estuary, resulting in the 25 actions for the next Estuary Blueprint.

For more information on the existing 2016 Estuary Blueprint, visit: https://www.sfestuary.org/ccmp/.  For questions on the Draft Estuary Blueprint, please contact Project Coordinator Darcie Luce at darcie.luce@sfestuary.org or (415) 778-6673.

The Estuary Partnership is part of the National Estuary Program under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is hosted by ABAG and works to increase the health and resiliency of the San Francisco Estuary.