POST gets $1 million gift for purchase of Bair Island

Bair Island, 1,626 acres of former wetlands, is $1 million closer to being part of the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, following a gift from the Rudolph E. Peterson Trust, which is designated for permanent protection of wetlands in the South Bay.

The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), which took out loans to buy Bair Island last year for $15 million, is engaged in a major fund-raising effort to pay off the loans so it can turn the largest, easily restorable wetland in South San Francisco Bay over to the wildlife refuge.

Then, dikes can be breached, and more than 3,000 acres of barren baylands east of Whipple Avenue in Redwood City can be restored to tidal action for fish, wildlife, and several endangered species. Compatible recreation will be permitted.

With the gift from the Peterson trust, POST has raised $4.1 million of the $5 million in private funds it is seeking to leverage a requested $10 million appropriation from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. This year's Interior Department budget includes $2 million toward the federal share of the purchase. POST and local Congressional representatives will be pushing for more in the next fiscal year.

The Peterson trust was formed in 1990 by the late Rudolph "Pete" Peterson of Palo Alto following the death of his wife, Betsy. "Pete and Betsy were avid birders and spent their life working to preserve wildlife habitat," said former Palo Alto Councilwoman Emily Renzel, a family friend and trustee of the estate. "They would be very pleased to know that their legacy is preserving such a magnificent site as Bair Island.

POST, a non-profit land trust based in Menlo Park, has protected more than 35,000 acres on the Peninsula since its founding 21 years ago.

For information call Daphne Stewart, POST campaign director, at 854-7696, Ext. 17.