Click here to send your comments to the city via this pre-formatted Audubon California page.
Scroll down to the bottom of this article for additional talking points.
An incredibly huge thanks to Audubon California for stepping up in a big way for ReWild Mission Bay by creating this page to quickly send a pre-formatted letter, which you can tinker with and edit as you see fit, to the City of San Diego regarding the draft EIR for the city’s Mission Bay wetland restoration proposal. Thursday, April 20th, is the FINAL day to submit your comments.
Let the city know you want clean water, expanded recreation opportunities and maximum wetland restoration at the Wildest level! Additional talking points and venues to submit your comments are available at this ReWild page, and scroll down to the bottom of this article for additional comments and talking points.
Two city meetings are also happening tomorrow, Thursday, April 20th, where we need your presence and support to call for maximum wetland restoration, and more.
- Attend and make remarks at the San Diego Parks and Recreation Board meeting from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Balboa Park Club Ballroom, located at 2135 Pan American Way. The city will present its De Anza Natural plan as an informational item to the board. You’ll want to comment on Item 201. You can attend the meeting in person, or attend virtually via this Zoom link.
- There’s another meeting tomorrow where you can make non-agenda public comments as the City of San Diego Environment Committee meets beginning at 6 p.m. on the 12th floor at City Hall. Nothing regarding Mission Bay is on the agenda, but it would be a help if you could make non-agenda comments at the beginning of the meeting in-person or via Zoom in support of ReWild Mission Bay and maximum wetland restoration.
Whether you attend one meeting or both, if you’re there in person, be sure to wear your ReWild Mission Bay shirt. Talking points are available at our ReWild Mission Bay page.
Thank you again for making your comments in support of clean water, expanded recreation opportunities, preservation of wetland habitat, increased shoreline resiliency, greater public access to Mission Bay Park, and unparalleled carbon sequestration for our city, region and planet. You’re making an impact.
Here are some additional talking points:
- The city’s final EIR for this project must prioritize water quality by adding a specific project objective to improve the water quality of the study area and the bay through natural, resilient infrastructure. Water quality is a crucial component of the 1994 Mission Bay Park Master Plan, and water quality can best be guaranteed by the kind of green infrastructure restored wetlands will provide.
- The city’s draft EIR for the De Anza plan is missing details on the foreseeable impacts from sea level rise. How can we, the city, or anyone be expected to determine the best land-use plan without knowing how climate change will affect our park?
- The city’s Climate Action Plan calls for 700 acres of restored tidal marsh by 2035, only the ReWild Mission Bay Wildest plan provides the most direct way to achieve this goal with maximum wetland restoration. Unfortunately, the draft EIR for the De Anza Natural plan fails to evaluate its proposals against the city’s own Climate Action Plan goals.
- The city’s proposal fails to analyze the recreational and cultural opportunities of connecting Mission Bay Park to a restored tidal ecosystem. Doing so would better balance and expand the park’s recreational offerings. All San Diegans, including our Kumeyaay neighbors and those in underserved communities, will benefit with access to a vibrant tidal marsh with expanded recreation opportunities like kayaking and paddle boarding.
- The ecological component is real, critical, and time is wasting. Kendall-Frost Marsh Preserve in Mission Bay provides the best Ridgway’s rail habitat anywhere in the city, yet these endangered birds (original species listed as part of the 1973 Endangered Species Act) will lose their habitat over the next several decades as sea levels rise and their habitat is inundated. Unless we begin the ReWilding process now, these and other threatened and endangered native species will be lost, when they could’ve readily been saved.
Photos by Craig Chaddock and Rebecca Schwartz-Lesberg
