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Our land use and development patterns—geared largely toward the automobile—have degraded the Estuary and its rivers and streams. Asphalt and concrete roads, driveways, parking lots, and stormwater pipes send rainwater and urban runoff shooting into the Estuary instead of allowing it to sink into the ground and be taken up and filtered by vegetation. Over the next three decades, the population of the twelve-county Estuary Partnership planning area is projected to increase by more than two million people. The development that could accompany this growth will result in yet more hardscape and impervious surfaces unless we build in a different way.
For years, instead of trying to avoid filling or destroying streams and wetlands, developers simply built homes and other buildings right on top of them. As a result, many of the streams that once flowed openly to the Estuary now enter it in pipes or concrete channels instead of the willow thickets and wetlands that used to be there. This hardened, disconnected, patchy landscape not only affects water and habitat quality, but also makes it difficult for people to understand the concept of watershed—and where theirs is. Unless people understand and care about their local landscape—their watershed—it is unlikely they will change behavior that is having a negative impact on the Estuary.
Better land use and watershed-based planning needs to start at the local government level—with city and county planners, city councils, county supervisors, and public works departments. Even with strong regulations in place for protecting wetlands and streams, planners and decision-makers still do not always think in terms of watersheds. Local agencies are sometimes reluctant to undertake watershed-scale planning and projects because to do so often requires coordinating with other jurisdictions. But failing to consider watershed complexity and to integrate planning efforts can result in activities or projects that have unintended or cumulative impacts on the Estuary.
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