Last Friday, legislation was introduced to expand the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge by approximately 5,658 acres. The expansion, proposed in the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge Expansion Act (H.R. 9826), would include adjacent baylands owned by the State of California and nonprofit Sonoma Land Trust, with parcels in the counties of Solano, Marin, and Sonoma. The legislation was introduced by U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), and U.S. Representatives John Garamendi (D-Solano), Jared Huffman (D-Del Norte) and Mike Thompson (D-Lake).
The Act would also direct the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to enter into cooperative agreements with state agencies, such as California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, to manage the federal National Wildlife Refuge and nearby state conservation lands within the San Pablo Bay watershed. As with all National Wildlife Refuges, the legislation ensures that federally owned land within the expanded San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge boundary remain open to the public for outdoor recreation, including hunting and fishing where permitted. The bill would not affect private land ownership or local land use decisions in any way and prohibits the use of eminent domain by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the National Wildlife Refuge. A map of the proposed boundary expansion is available here. Full text of the legislation is available here.
For more information, contact RCRC Senior Policy Advocate, Staci Heaton.