Kim Steinhardt - The Edge: The Pressured Past and Precarious Future of Californias Coast

The Edge is an important reminder that life in nature can only survive if we accept our responsibility to be good stewards.

Leon Panetta, former congressman and chair of the Pew Oceans Commission

The Edge is an extremely readable and personal exploration of the history of Californias coast and the issues that face this extensive and diverse boundary with the ocean. Steinhardt and Griggs are true to the science of the coast while making it accessible to the casual reader.

Margaret Leinen, Director, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

This book captures the magic of the coast. It has an intimate blend of nature, science, politics, policy, culture, history, and adventure, and there is a well-informed urgency that gives readers more than just the information and heightened awareness they need to bring about real change to our ocean policies and practices: It is a personal call to action. Dive in!

Sam Farr, former congressman and ocean advocate

I loved this book. A paean to the California coast, weaving together science, history, and politics, from two of the most eminent, and personally invested, scholars on the subject. If you want to pull together the myriad impressions and questions of a drive or hike down the coast, if you want to understand it on all its many facetsread this book.

Andreas Merkl, President, Ocean Conservancy

Kim Steinhardt and Gary Griggs each have had a long love affair with the California coast. You can see it in their personal stories, and how they worry about the long-term effects of human interaction between land and water. This is a must read for anyone who shares their love for the coast and concern for its future.

John Laird, California Secretary for Natural Resources, and Chair of the California Ocean Protection Council

Kim Steinhardt and Gary Griggs skillfully weave together environmental science, history, politics and law with their personal experiences in a wonderful presentation of the incredible diversity, vitality and social significance of the California coast. A must-read for anyone concerned about protecting this incredible coastal experience for future generations.

Charles Lester, former executive director, California Coastal Commission

The Edge melds natural history and personal memories to reveal the shifting baselines of the California coast... and our role in maintaining its beauty.

Meg Caldwell, Packard Foundation Deputy Director for Oceans and former chair of the California Coastal Commission

Steinhardt and Griggs have created a delightful and insightful tour of Californias coastal edge, past, present, and future. They do a masterful job of weaving together the interconnections of the changing natural world over different time scales with the changing societal landscape and human interventions to modify the coastal edge as population grew and societal priorities changed. Their discussions of how those interventions were shaped by clashes between conservationists and those with strong economic motivations are infused with some of their own values. Their stories of the boom and bust cycles of many of our fisheries and of populations of marine mammals have many lessons for us today, not only for resource managers, but for everyone concerned with human rights. I recommend this book to all who are interested in one of the most beautiful coasts in the world.

Jerry R. Schubel, Ph.D., President and CEO, Aquarium of the Pacific

THE PRESSURED PAST AND
PRECARIOUS FUTURE OF
CALIFORNIAS COAST

KIM STEINHARDT
& GARY GRIGGS

THE EDGE

The Pressured Past and

Precarious Future of Californias Coast

copyright 2017 by Kim Steinhardt and Gary Griggs

All photos/images courtesy of the authors unless otherwise noted.

All rights reserved.

Published by Craven Street Books,

an imprint of Linden Publishing.

2006 South Mary, Fresno, California 93721

559-233-6633 / 800-345-4447

CravenStreetBooks.com

Craven Street Books and Colophon are trademarks
of Linden Publishing, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-61035-309-0

135798642

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file

We gratefully dedicate this book to the many individuals and groups who have made Californias shoreline the peoples coast, protecting it in the past, treasuring it now, and preserving it for the future.

John Kennedy once reminded us that our oceans are the salt in our veins. Having been born and raised on the central coast of California, the salt in my veins comes from the unique beauty of the Pacific coast.

The Edge is a dramatic portrait of the California coast and the challenge of protecting that coastline in the future.

The oceans are not only where life began, but where life itself is sustained. They are critical to our coastal communitiesto their economies, to tourism and recreation, to the livelihood of fishing families, to weather patterns and ocean currents, to our health, to the natural beauty of coastlines and beaches, to our very spirit.

And yet, as confirmed by ocean commissions and scientists, our oceans and our coastlines are threatened. Increasing pollution and deadzones, the loss of critical wetlands, depleted fisheries, the impact of climate change on rising oceans, changing currents and toxicity, and the continuing threat of offshore drilling all threaten the life of our coastal communities, the beauty of our oceans, and life itself.

The Edge is an important reminder that life in nature can only survive if we the living accept our responsibility to be good stewards. The legacy of the beauty of our coastline that was passed on to us must be protected for future generations. The Edge is a comprehensive portrait of the Pacific coast and why we are responsible for its future.

Leon E. Panetta

Former Congressman and Chair of the PEW Oceans Commission Author of legislation establishing Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

The California coast is an edge. It is a place where the largest ocean on the planet meets 1,100 miles of shoreline, creating a grand hub of several still-evolving worlds. It is geologically alive, zippered to North America by 800 miles of the San Andreas Fault. But it is also a social, political, cultural, spiritual, economic, and technological edge. It is an edge of history, where east has always met west, and where past meets future. It carries a legacy of threats and uncertainty along with new ideas and hopes.

It has always been a human edge, both for historic peoples finding their way around and across the Pacific Rim, and for the modern mix of people in the most populous of the United States, supporting the sixth-largest economy in the world. It is a vulnerable edge because its the edge of a continent. It is ground zero for the looming changes in climate and sea level that promise to impact us in ways that we havent ever experienced and perhaps never imagined.

The coast is iconic, the image of California to much of the rest of the world. It is a place millions of people call home, and a place that millions of others apparently would like to call home. It is also familiar and exotic, rugged and dangerous, dynamic and vital, ancient and new.