San Francisco's Nineteenth-Century Egg Basket: The Farallons

Abstract

URING the past century and a half, man has laid a heavy hand on the birds and mammals of the Farallon Islands. By constructing habitations and navigational aids, he has altered the physical aspect of the largest, most accessible, and most southerly of the group, Southeast Farallon. Current environmental change in the Bay Area continues apace. The imperative that the only good wetland is a reclaimed one dies hard in California; San Francisco Bay's eastern shore will soon be graced by commercial buildings on filled tidelands around Emeryville, and interested parties continue to push for extending SanJose's airport into the tidal flats of the South Bay. However, paradoxically, human traces are being erased from the Farallon Islands. Measures are being implemented to make the Farallons, with the exception of the long-inhabited Southeast Island, a National Wilderness Area in accordance with the Wilderness Act of September 3, 1964.1 The move was precipitated by economy measures planned by the United States Coast Guard to automate the light and to withdraw its crew. For 115 years federal personnel have manned the marine terraces and rugged treeless peaks of Southeast Farallon, twenty-five miles west of the Golden Gate in the Pacific (Fig. 1). During the present century public access to the island has been restricted by the Light House Service and the Coast Guard, partly to prevent interference with the smooth running of the community stationed there, and partly to protect the wildlife of the island from undue disturbance. Since Southeast Farallon is close to the major metropolitan centers that ring San Francisco Bay, the varied marine fauna requires special care, both to allow rehabilitation of depleted populations and to further understanding and appreciation among the general public. With this end in mind the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, with the permission and cooperation of the Coast