Locals aired frustrations during a Bolinas Lagoon Advisory Council meeting last Friday over two unsightly eucalyptus trees that have fallen in recent years on the western edge of the lagoon. Though scientists brought in from the county said the trees are not harming the ecosystem, and the prospects for the removal of the two fallen trees, which would cost $40,000, remain dim, some council members worried about the potential impacts—environmental and aesthetic—were more to fall in the future, prompting the body to propose a community meeting to explore the removal of standing trees.
The arboreal debate also revealed tensions within the council, which is comprised of locals and representatives from nonprofits and county and federal agencies. The council has existed for over four decades, but underwent a name change and took on a revised mission three years ago. Some members feel sidelined by the county’s Open Space District, which relied more heavily on the council in the early days, when the district had little staff. Now the district employs a vast team of scientists, and it is undertaking expensive restoration projects.
On Friday, council member Lesly Robison said at the last meeting, late last year, that “We were basically told that we were lay people and they were the scientists… But if that’s the way we’re thought of, then why are we sitting here? We’re not paid. We don’t need to be paid. Ours is a love of the lagoon.”
The trees
Just under a decade ago, a eucalyptus tree along Olema-Bolinas Road fell into the lagoon. Around the same time, some locals observed sediment building up nearby. Given the general accumulation of sediment in the lagoon in recent decades, which has spurred fears that the mouth could close up, some worried the trees would further add to the lagoon’s load. (Scientists have largely attributed the build-up in the lagoon to marine
sediment.) The fact that eucalyptus trees have been criticized in the scientific community as a source of toxins in streams only added to the concerns.
The plan that largely guides the lagoon’s management, the 2008 Bolinas Lagoon Ecosystem Restoration Project, sometimes referred to as the Locally Preferred Plan, says that “introduced tree species” that fall into the lagoon should typically be removed, because they can act as sediment traps. But it makes the caveat that trees offer benefits too, and that “a more comprehensive evaluation of the ecological costs and benefits” may be needed in some cases.
The fallen trees do not appear to be trapping sediment, said Laurel Collins, a geomorphologist who reviewed aerial photographs from the last decade and made a recent site visit. She said one tree had fallen in 2006 or 2007, but that between 2007 and 2013, there was no significant increase in sedimentation.
As far back as 1987, however, two delta-like formations began to appear at culverts located on either side of where the fallen trees now lie. In 2012, she said, the deltas grew more pronounced. Locals may have attributed those changes to the tree, but she believes the culverts are the real culprits.
The sediment around the deltas is not the kind you’d expect from trees, said Peter Baye, an ecologist who has worked on lagoon issues for years. Mr. Baye also said the toxic effects of eucalyptuses come from heavy loads of leaf litter from live trees, which leach compounds that can affect fish. That typically happens in streams with standing pools; the lagoon, which is subjected to tides, is different.
“You can’t concentrate potential volatile toxins in a tidal estuary that drains and submerges twice a day,” Mr. Baye said.
A county staff report also noted the potential for impacts to saltmarsh and wildlife habitat from dragging trees out of the lagoon. It concluded, “Restoration projects that the [district] is currently implementing or considering (Kent Island restoration, invasive Spartina eradication, and north end wetlands restoration), are yielding or will yield multiple, substantial benefits for the lagoon. The same cannot be said of removing the two eucalyptus trees.”
Still, council members voiced aesthetic concerns and wondered if there might indeed be impacts if five or 10 trees fell in. Rudi Ferris, a representative from the Bolinas Rod and Boat Club, feels the county isn’t managing the lagoon. “We don’t want to see eucalyptus trees laying on the mud right up to the entryway of our town. I don’t think [asking for their removal] is unreasonable in the slightest,” he said.
Although it does not appear any action will be taken on the fallen trees, Linda Dahl, the general manager of the county parks department, said the Open Space District is willing to look into removing live eucalyptus, which she characterized as “brittle,” along the lagoon, for safety reasons. But she emphasized that many trees are on personal property, and that the county would not act without holding a community meeting first. (In other places in Marin, she noted, people have “roped themselves to trees,” though Mr. Ferris responded that a contingent of eukes on the Big Mesa were recently removed without fanfare.)
The council
The discussion ventured beyond the trees themselves, to the purpose of the council itself. The Bolinas Lagoon Technical Advisory Committee was formed in 1972; early on, when the Open Space District barely employed anyone, the committee weighed in heavily, said Ralph Camiccia, a representative from Bolinas who has been on the council for 30 years. In 2012, the name was changed, and it was made clearer that the group should advise on policy, not routine management.
But when the county says the trees aren’t important, said Ms. Robinson, it feels like a slight. “Our priorities are these damn trees that go into the lagoon, plain and simple,” she said, adding, “If you don’t listen to the itty bitty things, why bother?”
The timing of the tree discussion itself seemed to reflect the tensions. The chair of the council, Ed Ueber, was upset that the county cancelled a February special meeting he called to discuss the tree issue. He believes only the council’s chair should be able to cancel such a meeting. (Ms. Dahl said that one of the scientists the department wanted present couldn’t make the February date.)
At the end of the meeting, Ms. Dahl acknowledged that times have changed. Over the years, both the district’s budget and scientific knowledge have grown substantially. But she said the district’s mission was to listen to locals and scientists and then come to conclusions.
“There’s no agenda to squeeze out locals but…I think you’re right,” she said. “When [the former general manager] was running the place by himself, he had no staff and he relied on people with a shovel and a boat, and it’s really different now.”