Endangered Clapper Rails Will Die if SMART TRAIN Goes Through

Press Release
September 4, 2008



Environmental Activists will stage a freeway demonstration at the Merrydale 101 freeway crossing in San Rafael,
today from 8am to 9 am and from 4pm to 6 pm Sept. 4 and tomorrow Sept.5 at the same times.
Demonstrations will happen next week as well.

The purpose of the action is to call attention to the
Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit’s (SMART) failure to thoroughly address the harmful impacts to known populations of endangered species along the proposed train’s route through the Gallinas Creek wetland and marsh system. Environmentalist have documented and videotaped proof that the federally endangered California clapper rail both nests and feeds along the length of Gallinas Creek and has been filmed feeding next to the train bridge over the creek.

No meaningful mitigation to address this serious problem appears in the EIR for the SMART train. We believe that the construction work and passage of the train through this extremely sensitive area poses a grave threat to clapper rail populations, in this, the north bay’s largest concentration of California clapper rails.

Other serious threats to endangered species exist along the Eel River corridor of the train’s freight operations.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.gallinascreek.org/video.htm
http://www.eelriver.org/




The Mitigation That Will Kill

" Mitigation is a more business friendly alternative to strict environmental laws because it allows development to occur where environmental laws might prohibit development."-wikipedia

In the case of the mitigations described in S.M.A.R.T.'s final EIR for the environmentally sensitive area around Gallinas Creek and the land near the San Rafael Airport and McGinnis Park, mitigation is a deadly word.

Inhabiting the region adjacent to the rail road tracks in this area are endangered species, engaged in a life and death struggle for their habitat. Their habitat is threatened by the airport owners' proposal to build a 4 acre indoor soccer complex and the re-building of railroad track, building a new bike path and constant train travel and use of the bike trail.

This is home to the federally endangered California clapper rail. The rails have been making a painfully slow recovery in this area after being nearly devastated by 19th century hunting and 20th century land development. Wildlife biologists with Avocet Research Associates, a local firm, have detected clapper rail breeding territories along the entire length of Gallinas Creek on many occasions over the last several years. Marin Audubon has stated that the Gallinas Creek tidal marsh system is home to the North Bay's largest concentration of clapper rails.
I have spent over a year filming the clapper rails feeding and wandering the length of Gallinas Creek, over which the train and bikes will have to pass. I've filmed the birds within feet of the current railroad trestle. These videos can be viewed and downloaded at the website:
GallinasCreek.org
S.M.A.R.T.'s final EIR for special species mitigation, can be found at http://www.sctainfo.org/pdf/smart/final/05_mitigation_monitoring_plan.pdf


Barbara Salzman, of Marin Audubon, told me that the mitigation measures called for were vague. Barbara went on to say, "None of the measures will actually save the habitat or ensure its replacement somewhere else. No other location has been identified at which Rail habitat can be created to replace the habitat that will be lost, nor has any restoration plan been made available for public review. We are not sure there even is an actual mitigation plan."

This habitat will be permanently lost. The track along with the 12 -foot wide bike path will guarantee that. What remains of this sensitive location will be overwhelmed by noise, constant travel, speed and vibration. Other important wildlife species use this area for fly-overs, and feeding and nesting
To proceed with the train in light of these implications is irresponsible and environmentally unsound. Once an endangered species is irreparably harmed, there's no turning back. The S.M.A.R.T. mitigations amount to death by a thousand cuts for our endangered species. I've placed my life on the line numerous times in the past, as a Greenpeace photographer, trying to save endangered species. I find it paradoxical, that many environmentalists support the S.M.A.R.T. train without knowing the full extent of its harmful impacts.

In addition to the dangerous impacts on the clapper rails, the train's harmful effect on the environment reaches to the Eel River of northern California, where salmon runs will be threatened by the train and the gravel harvesting that it will encourage. In a July 14th Marin IJ editorial, mention is made of a S.M.A.R.T. poll suggesting that there is huge support for the new tax to fund the proposal. Why wasn't the poll question framed to ask the respondents if they would actually ride the train? Will the projected 5-6000 riders justify this much species destruction?

The environmental costs of S.M.A.R.T. are unacceptable. Sacrificing so much for such an ill studied result is, unforgivable.


John Parulis.

John is co-director of Friends of Gallinas Creek and a former documentary filmmaker serving with Greenpeace.


see also http://eelriver.org