ShorelineMarina Highlights 2008 1028

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San Francisco Bay Area tiVater Trail Project Summary from Ann Buell, Project Manager, State Coastal Conservancy October, 2008 Description of the Water Trail. The San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail (Water Trail, or WT) project strives to create a network of launch and landing sites, or "trailheads," to allow people inhuman-powered boats and beachable sail craft (small, non-motorized boats) enjoy the historic, scenic, and environmental richness of San Francisco Bay through single and multiple-day trips on the Bay. Trailhead owners and managers would join the Water Trail network on a voluntary basis, as the Water Trail project has no regulatory powers. It has been designed to promote safe and responsible recreational use of the Bay, while protecting and increasing appreciation of its environmental resources through education and coordinated, strategic access. Currently there is no regional project or program dedicated to the safe and responsible use of the Bay by those who access its waters from the existing launch and landing sites. The Water Trail Act. The California legislature established the San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail by enacting the Water Trail Act, ("the WT Act") (AB~1296, see Appendix D) in 2005. In approving the WT Act, the legislature found that water-oriented recreational uses of San Francisco Bay are "of great benefit to the public welfare of the San Francisco Bay Area" and that "with loss of public open space, the public increasingly looks to the Bay, the region's largest open space, for recreational opportunities." This legislation culminated years of advocacy work by Bay Access, Incorporated, a nori-profit organization dedicated to the creation of the Water Trail as well as by other non- motorizedboating advocates. The WT Act points to the proven benefits of other water trails in the United States, citing their effective promotion ofwater-oriented recreation for citizens of all economic means, their influence on the renewal of industrial waterfronts, and their positive regional economic benefit. It finds that "water trails can inform the public about natural, cultural, and historic features and foster public stewardship of these resources." It also finds that San Francisco Bay is an aquatic habitat of international importance, emphasizing that it "provides critical habitat for 70 percent of the shore birds and 50 percent of the diving ducks on the Pacific Flyway..." as well as "for marine mammals, other aquatic species, and colonial nesting birds..." including many federally and state-listed species, such as the California clapper rail. The Water Trail is intended to link existing and future access points around the Bay, advancing the regional goals and state mandate of BCDC to foster public access and recreational use of the Bay. It is also meant to be implemented consistent with the goals of improving access consistent with the rights of private property owners, and without having a significant adverse impact on agricultural operations and environmentally sensitive areas and wildlife, including wetlands and other wildlife habitats, and considering navigational safety and homeland security concerns. Other specific objectives include the provision of diverse water-accessible overnight accommodations, including camping.