Skaggs transfer inches forward

The San Pablo Bay Wildlife Refuge may soon grow by 3,200 acres, following the House of Representatives’ passage Thursday of a proposal by Sixth District Rep. Lynn Woolsey – and a small boost from the Sonoma City Council.
Woolsey’s proposal, support for which squeaked through the council May 7 by a 3–2 vote, was included as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization Bill and would clear the way for transferring the island from the Navy to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with the Navy footing the bill for current and future toxics cleanup. The proposal also allows the Navy to accept $8 million from Caltrans for building removal and levee repairs.
In April and early May, co-sponsors Rep. Mike Thompson and Rep. George Miller took their case for support to various cities – including Sonoma, where naval personnel in Skaggs’ heyday would send their kids to local schools and spend their paychecks in local shops.
Mayor Pro Tem Ken Brown placed the item on the council’s agenda at Thompson’s behest, noting that former Sonoma Mayor Dick Ashford was also an early supporter of the effort.
“To have a significant amount of toxic material removed from a wetlands that borders the City of Sonoma is of great importance,” Brown said. “There is [also] the element of ecotourism, that is a growing part of the ever-evolving tourist element that keeps Sonoma in the black.”
Councilmember Steve Barbose, who – along with Brown and colleague Stanley Cohen – voted in favor of the proposal, agreed.
“I think that our bay and our wetlands are a tremendous habitat and natural resource that needs to be preserved, and in this case remediated,” Barbose said.
Cohen couched his own support in purely political terms: that of gaining Thompson’s support in return for a pending issue at the Sonoma County Water Agency.
“I took the advantage of a political move that has nothing to do with the City of Sonoma, and has therefore an indirect effect in assisting the water agency,” he said.
On the opposite side of the line were Mayor Joanne Sanders and Counclmember August Sebastiani, both of whom voted against supporting the transfer – with Sanders unsuccessfully attempting to table the matter.
“It just didn’t have anything to do with the city, and I just didn’t feel comfortable weighing in on that,” Sanders said.
“There is, in the community, opposition to the council’s practice of passing measures on national issues,” Sebastiani said, citing immigration, the Iraq war and the Patriot Act. “Council does a lot of lobbying from the dais, and I don’t like that – I’m a councilmember, not a lobbyist.”
Skaggs Island Naval Reservation was decommissioned in 1993, but more than 100 crumbling structures scattered over 60 acres remain a target for vandals – and the potential for costly environmental cleanup. The San Pablo Bay Wildlife Refuge, an important feeding and rest area for migrating Pacific Flyway birds, includes more than 10,000 acres of wetlands and is the largest such refuge in the Bay Area.
“The restoration of Skaggs Island will be the crown jewel of North Bay wetlands restoration efforts, and will provide habitat for over 20 state and federal threatened or endangered species,” Woolsey said in a statement released Thursday. “There is still more work to do, but I remain hopeful that after more than a decade, we can finally make this project a reality.”