Tomales Bay 'Call to Action'

Tomales Bay is the geographic heart of the portion of western Marin County that includes the watersheds of Lagunitas, Olema, and Walker creeks.

Fog over a coastal ridgeline. Photo by Richard Blair

There are hundreds of tributaries associated with the three largest creeksand, and the surrounding landscape can be viewed as a vast circulatory system, connecting all the plant, animal, and human inhabitants. Waters flow into Tomales Bay through wildlands, dairy ranches, forests, parks, and human communities. Its upper boundary is made up of coastal ridgelines – a rim of sorts measuring142 miles.

Within this natural boundary, every human inhabitant and visitor has a relationship with the Tomales Bay watershed, and all of our activities affect it. Much of the western and southern portions of the watershed are under public ownership, while most of the eastern and northern areas are privately owned agricultural lands. Fully 60% of our open space is privately owned; its future depends upon our continued support for evolving sustainable agriculture.

Although the Bay and watershed have retained much of their beauty, water quality, and wildlife abundance relatively intact into the early 21st century, there are present challenges to this ecosystem. All too many estuaries like Tomales Bay. valuable to people and wildlife alike, have been degraded or destroyed. Tomales Bay is protected by local, state, and federal laws and regulations. For the past three decades, the conservation movement in Marin County has gained increasing local and political support, as illustrated by the adoption of the Countywide Plan in the 1970s. However, there remain serious water quality, habitat, and management issues to be resolved in this watershed.

Development pressures and population expansion continue to threaten the rural and agricultural landscape of West Marin. Water quality and habitat concerns have been increasingly recognized within the Bay and watershed. One indication of water quality problems in the Bay has been the increase in closures on harvesting oysters, caused by high bacteria concentrations in heavy run-off from rainstorms. In 1986, the Regional Water Quality Control Board identified Tomales Bay as an "impaired waterbody." In response, concerned citizens, agencies, and organizations came together in a collaborative effort to improve the health of the Bay. This effort recognized the need to include people representing all points of view throughout the watershed.

TBWC held its first meeting in January 2000 and began working collectively on the Watershed Stewardship Plan adopted four years later. However, a plan is only as strong as the commitment of the people who carry it out, namely the residents of West Marin and the many people who visit the area to enjoy its beauty and recreational features. It is our hope that you will join us in supporting this extensive stewardship effort: responsible action is its own reward.

Watershed Council Formation

TBWC was formed in December 1999 by the Tomales Bay Advisory Committee and charged with addressing environmental problems affecting the Bay on a watershed scale:

• Improve the water quality of Tomales Bay and surrounding watershed.


• Protect and restore the entire watershed in a way that sustains human and natural resources.


• Produce and help implement the Watershed Stewardship Plan, unanimously adopted in 2004 as a means for preserving and protecting the water and land resources for sustainable uses by agriculture, aquaculture, business, environmental, recreation and residential interests.