Sizing up progress on nature-based infrastructure
It wasn’t the appearance of a flashy, high-ranking California official at the podium, or the review of 35 years of efforts to protect the Bay’s watershed at the beginning of the May 2024 State of the Estuary conference that made me sit up in my red velvet auditorium seat. It was an awards ceremony for outstanding projects. … There to receive each small plaque from Friends of the Estuary were long lines of “collaborators.” As they snaked on and off the stage for a photo and handshake, the line of folk who had helped complete this or that project — from mapping the range of the salt marsh harvest mouse to involving students and teachers in watershed restoration — got longer and longer. … Though the region’s ability to collaborate with other agencies and scientists and managers to protect and restore the San Francisco Estuary has grown exponentially, over the years, these same folks are now tangling with a new challenge: how to make this work relevant to the Bay Area’s most “underserved” communities.