Dear Water Trail Community Member,
We are pleased to share several exciting updates about the San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail.
Website and Logo
The Water Trail website has been launched! Please take a look at http://sfbaywatertrail.org/. The website provides a wealth of information on non-motorized small boating in the Bay, including information on where to find or join local clubs, outfitters, and recreational programs. We will be adding additional pages and specific information about features of designated sites in the upcoming months, so check back often and please feel free to send in additional ideas and links! The website includes a comment form to make it easy to submit suggestions or observations made while out on the trail.
Our logo is making its debut with this update. We hope you like it! It incorporates many of the ideas you shared at the June Water Trail implementation meeting. It was designed by Studio L’Image and Campana Designs and we are very pleased with it.
Water Trail in the News
The August issue of Estuary News includes a nice article about the Water Trail with a focus on the Water Trail Accessibility Plan. The article highlights how the Accessibility Plan could be a model for other Water Trails across the country.
Water Trail Survey
We are pleased to release the results of the Water Trail survey! In April Water Trail staff distributed an email survey with questions regarding non-motorized small boat use in San Francisco Bay. We received over 500 responses! Listening to the needs of the public is important to us and the survey responses will help us as we implement the Water Trail program and develop website content. Read the Survey Result Report.
For questions about the survey, website, or other Water Trail outreach materials, please contact Galli Basson (contact details below).
Funding
At least four potential Water Trail sites or paddling areas in San Mateo, Alameda, and Solano Counties were invited by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to submit full proposals for settlement funds from the loss of recreational use caused by the Cosco-Busan oil spill. We provided support letters for those we knew about and are crossing our fingers that these sites and others we did not hear about receive funding! Awards should be announced by NFWF in November.
Events
Water Trail staff will join representatives of other regional trail systems (Bay Trail, Ridge Trail, Coastal Trail) at an evening lecture sponsored by the Committee for Green Foothills and Sempervirens Fund. The event will take place on October 23, 2012 from 7:00 – 8:30 pm in Portola Valley and will feature a talk by author John Muir Laws titled “Rediscovering Local Trails and Natural History: An Evening with John Muir Laws.” For more information about this free event and to RSVP, please visit the Committee for Green Foothills website.
Meetings
Our next Water Trail implementation meeting is scheduled for December 4, 2012, at the Coastal Conservancy office in Oakland. A reminder will be sent out when we get closer to the date.
