Richardson Bay

Coordinates: 37°52′30″N 122°29′00″W / 37.87500°N 122.48333°W / 37.87500; -122.48333
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Richardson Bay
Primary inflows
Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio, Coyote Creek
Average depth20 ft (6.1 m)

Richardson Bay (originally Richardson's Bay) is a shallow,

William A. Richardson, early 19th century sea captain and builder in San Francisco. It contains both Strawberry Spit and Aramburu Island
.

In spite of its urbanized periphery, Richardson Bay supports extensive

mollusk populations and even marine mammals such as the harbor seal
.

Owing to its lack of depth and complicated channel structure, Richardson Bay is limited in boating uses to

town of Tiburon.[3]

History of the name

William Richardson

On August 22, 1822, an English

Mission Dolores on May 12, 1826 was the first great Spanish-Anglo Saxon wedding in North America.[4][5]

Richardson taught

Mission Santa Clara. Richardson received a 19,500-acre (79 km2) Mexican land grant in 1838, Rancho Saucelito, which is all of the land north of the Golden Gate extending from bay to ocean and ranging north to Mount Tamalpais The grant contained all the land southeast of Mount Tamalpais, and included Redwood Canyon and the lands now within Muir Woods National Monument. Richardson Bay was thus named in the honor of this energetic early settler
and builder.

The

John Thomas Reed
in 1834.

According to local sources [6][7] and period maps,[8] the Bay's original given name was possessive: Richardson's Bay. However, the United States Board on Geographic Names discourages the use of apostrophes in United States place names,[9] which is why the name appears as Richardson Bay in government databases[10] and maps.[11]

Geology

Richardson Bay is developed on surficial

igneous and metamorphic rock gathered together in the course of the tectonic evolution of the region from the Late Jurassic to the Middle Miocene. These assemblages of Franciscan rocks are referred to as tectonostratigraphic
terrains and two of them, the Central Belt and the Coastal Belt, are in fault contact near Richardson Bay.

Ecology

Black-necked stilt foraging in Richardson Bay mudflat
The outlet of Coyote Creek, which drains Tam Valley into upper Richardson's Bay

Richardson Bay is an important ecological area being managed by Audubon California as the Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary.

estuarine resources, marsh birdlife, mammalian species and marsh plants.[13]

Birds are abundant in Richardson Bay, with over one million migratory visitors each winter, many of whom utilizing the upper mudflats and Bothin Marsh associated with the area west of the

California clapper rail, a non-migratory endangered species.[2] Beginning in 2014, endangered black oystercatchers have been observed nesting on Aramburu Island.[14]

Common year around residents of the Richardson Bay Sanctuary include

scrub jay, American crow, chestnut-backed chickadee, bushtit, Bewick's wren, house sparrow, red-winged blackbird, house finch, California towhee and song sparrow.[15]

Fishery characteristics of Richardson Bay include a

rip rap. After the eggs hatch, the herring larvae consume plankton; before hatching the eggs are subject to predation by gulls at low tide and sturgeon
and other assorted estuarine fauna at higher tides.

Regarding the oyster beds, an experimental program is underway as of 2006, in which foreign oyster shells (biologically inert) are bagged and em-placed in underwater locations to serve as larval substrates, in order to assist the native oysters in propagating. Locally oysters are preyed upon by the bat ray and certain crabs.

The extensive

Haliplanella luciae.[4]

Mammals visiting Richardson Bay include the harbor seal, which hauls out on DeSilva Island and on the Tiburon shore near the Richardson Bay Audubon Sanctuary headquarters. The endangered salt marsh harvest mouse is also thought to be present.

Flora include

bunch grasses
.

On November 7, 2007, there was a large

organisms in the bay
.

Modern history

Lyford House built 1876
An aerial photograph of Richardson Bay, taken from the west, in September 2019

Through the latter 19th century and early 20th century, the land fronting on Richardson Bay was extensively subdivided into public and private ownership encompassing thousands of parcels. The cities of Tiburon, Mill Valley, Belvedere and Sausalito have enacted strong shoreline development policies to protect the perimeter of Richardson Bay, even though considerable development has occurred. The Audubon Society manages the whole Richardson Bay Sanctuary subject to governance by the Joint Powers Agency of the four peripheral cities.

One parcel deeded from Reed to Rosie Verall, who worked for the Reed family, is now the core of the Audubon Richardson Bay Sanctuary. Verall donated this land of approximately 13 acres (5.3 ha) to be held in permanent trust as a

National Audubon Society
for special functions and events.

As of 2019, the bay contains about one hundred people who live on boats one-quarter mile from the shore.[19]

Hydrology and boating data

Tiburon harbor looking toward San Francisco

Richardson bay joins San Francisco Bay where the water depth becomes 20 feet (6 m), demarcated by a highly irregular boundary connecting the southern end of the Sausalito Marina] with the southern tip of Belvedere, sometimes called Peninsula Point. At this line of demarcation the depth increases rapidly on the San Francisco Bay side, becoming 100 feet (30 m) in depth almost immediately. This portion of San Francisco Bay, also known as Raccoon Strait, possesses highly turbulent waters. Boating in Richardson Bay is limited to small sailing craft and kayaks due to limited draft available, and nearly 900 acres of the bay is closed for six months during the winter each year to provide protection for the ecological system, particularly migratory waterbirds.

Richardson Bay receives inflow from numerous seasonal small unnamed streams and three major streams: Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio which receives the surface runoff from the steep southeast slopes of Mount Tamalpais; Pickleweed Inlet; and Coyote Creek (Marin County), which receives the runoff from the slopes to the west of Richardson Bay. These streams empty into Richardson Bay from the northwest. Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio and Coyote Creek are intermittent in flow.[20]

Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary

The National Audubon Society operates a nature center in Tiburon that offers adult and children's nature programs, including summer camp, school science programs, birthday and family events, lectures, guided walks, environmental education workshops, Bay Shore Studies docent programs and volunteer projects. Recent efforts included renovation of the human-made islands Aramburu,[21] Pickleweed, and Unnamed[14] to enhance their value as bird refuges.

See also

References

  1. ^ E. Clement Chute Jr; Ailetta d'A. Belin (September 1983). Regulations Report for Richardson Bay Special Area Plan (Report). San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
  2. ^ a b c "Richard Bay Audubon Sanctuary & Ecology Center". Audubon Society. Archived from the original on 2007-11-16. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
  3. Marin County
    .
  4. ^ Robert Ryal Miller (1995). Captain Richardson, Mariner, Ranchero, and Founder of San Francisco. Berkeley, California: La Loma Press.
  5. ^ "Captain William Richardson". The Maritime Heritage Project. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
  6. ^ "A Safe Anchorage". Richardson's Bay Maritime Association. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
  7. ISBN 978-0-7385-5552-2
    .
  8. ^ "David Rumsey Historical Map Collection: Map of the region about San Francisco Bay showing the relation of the city of San Francisco to the San Andreas Rift, the fault of April 18, 1906 and the fault of October 21, 1868". New York: Julius Bien & Co. 1908. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
  9. ^ "BGN: Domestic Names FAQs". Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  10. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Richardson Bay
  11. ^ "ACME Mapper". Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  12. ^ Report, (1981) Harding Lawson Associates (HLA).
  13. ISBN 978-0-520-01185-4
    . Retrieved 2010-09-05.
  14. ^ a b "News and talk tops in overall local radio market". 10 March 2006.
  15. National Audubon Society
    (.
  16. ^ Richardson Bay Special Area Plan (PDF) (Report). San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. April 1984. p. 78. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
  17. ^ Jane Kay (2007-11-11). "Bay cleanup efforts expanding". Retrieved 2010-09-05.
  18. ^ J.P. Incardona; C.A. Vines (2009). Cosco Busan Oil Spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment. Data Report of Laboratory and Field Herring Injury Studies Performed 2008-2009 (PDF) (Report). California Department of Fish and Game. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
  19. ^ Kloc, Joe. "Lost at Sea: Poverty and paradise at the edge of America". Harper's Magazine. No. May 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  20. ^ C.Michael Hogan; Gary Deghi; et al. (1990). Environmental Impact Report for the Whalers Point Hotel Project on Richardson's Bay (Report). Earth Metrics Inc, Report 7980, Cal. St. Clearinghouse, County of Marin, California.
  21. ^ "Aramburu Island". Richardson Bay Audubon Center. 22 January 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Richardson Bay.
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