Sonoma Coast – Enviro Updates

California is about to see a sudden foot of sea level rise from El Niño. Here’s when it hits

September 2, 2026

Anthony Edwards, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Sea levels along the California coast are expected to rise by a foot as soon as late September, as El Niño-warmed tropical water pushes a slow-moving wave up the coast of North America.

The swell isn’t something seen crashing at a beach but a planetary-scale process known as a Kelvin wave that is triggered by changes in wind at the equator.

“It’s not a wave you can surf,” said Dillon Amaya, an assistant professor of marine science at North Carolina State University. “You’re not gonna be able to see it from your boat, but our instruments will see it as it passes by, like tide gauges.”

The coastally trapped Kelvin wave, as it’s called, originated along the equator and hit the South America coast before turning north at about 6 mph. It raised water levels about 9 to 14 inches (relative to 1993-2025 averages) along the coast of Central America in late August. That surge will hit Cabo in late September and eventually reach San Francisco the first or second week of October.

The Kelvin waves won’t build on each other. Rather, sea level heights and temperatures will remain elevated for weeks, gradually subsiding before the next wave hits.

Climate Change & Energy, Sonoma CoastEl Niño, marine heat wave, sea level rise

‘California’s coast is not for sale.’ State battles Trump plan to limit coastal oversight

August 11, 2026

Roseanna Xia, LOS ANGELES TIMES

In a striking demonstration of support, hundreds of fired-up Californians rallied in Santa Monica to speak out against the Trump administration’s attempt to wrest local control over the state’s treasured coastline.

The Golden State’s top environmental leaders, along with prominent elected officials, environmentalists, business coalitions, community activists, Indigenous groups and everyday citizens, packed a public hearing Monday before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Coastal Management, which has been tasked with conducting an unprecedented investigation that could ultimately strip California of its power to say no to federal projects.

Experts see the investigation — framed as a performance review of the state’s coastal management practices — as a thinly veiled attempt by Trump officials to open California’s coast to more offshore oil drilling, more rocket launches and possibly even floating nuclear reactors. If the federal government succeeds, many worry it could set the stage for similar actions in other coastal states.

Sonoma CoastCalifornia Coastal Commission, coastal development, CZMA, NOAA, offshore oil drilling

Possible super El Niño could threaten North Bay fishing fleets

August 10, 2026

Anna Armstrong and Susanne Rust, PRESS DEMOCRAT

North Coast commercial fishermen have spent the past several years weathering one crisis after another: a three-year salmon shutdown, repeated delays to the Dungeness crab season and millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Now, a strengthening El Niño could prove to be the industry’s latest challenge.

Scientists say the climate pattern, including warming waters in the eastern Pacific, has the potential to shift where marine species are found and contribute to harmful algal blooms that could disrupt California fisheries. While forecasters say it is too early to know exactly how Northern California will be affected, local fishers say they have already observed unusual conditions on the water.

“Fishermen are scientists,” said commercial fisherman Dick Ogg. “We are always monitoring current, water temperature, color and where we see changes. We look for change and variation as fishermen and we go fish on the edges of this change.”

Ogg said he has already experienced “odd conditions this year.”

Climate Change & Energy, Sonoma Coastalgal blooms, crab season, Dungeness crab, El Niño, fisheries, marine heat wave, marine upwelling, salmon

California returns stretch of Mendocino Coast to Indigenous tribes: ‘This is beyond huge’

July 4, 2026

Alex Wigglesworth, LOS ANGELES TIMES

California is returning a stretch of rugged Mendocino County coast to the Indigenous nations whose ancestors once stewarded its shores.

State transportation officials recently approved the transfer of Blues Beach and the surrounding bluffs to Kai Poma, a nonprofit founded by representatives of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Round Valley Indian Tribes and Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians.

The transfer of 136 acres just south of the community of Westport will mark the first time land managed by the California Department of Transportation has been returned to Indigenous tribes.

“This is beyond huge,” said J. Carlos Rivera, tribal chairman of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians. “It’s enormous from our tribal perspective that we are basically obtaining the land that our people once lived on before colonization.”

Sonoma CoastMendocino County, Pomo, tribes

Op-Ed: Re-wilding Point Reyes could restore Northern CA coast’s natural state

June 27, 2026

Ken Bouley and Helen-Teri Shore, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Bringing back beavers, sea otters and other native wildlife to Point Reyes National Seashore could be a critical step in restoring the incredible coastal landscape to a more natural state after decades of commercial dairy farming and grazing. Now that most ranching is being phased out in the popular park, we have the opportunity to rewild about 17,000 acres of the coastal bluffs, wetlands, prairies and forests to improve watersheds and habitat, expand public access and strengthen tribal co-management.

Reintroducing absent native wildlife is not simply about bringing back charismatic animals. It is about restoring ecological relationships that evolved over thousands of years and were disrupted by colonization, habitat loss and overexploitation.

At least seven animals that are likely to have roamed these lands in the past and could do so in the future include: sea otter, beaver, pronghorn, Humboldt marten, fisher, North American porcupine and Douglas ground squirrel. A recent report by Dr. Richard Lanman and Alexis Evripidou for Turtle Island Restoration Network is the first to examine the potential for re-wilding the national seashore.

Marin County is notably the only coastal county north of the Golden Gate Bridge without wild beavers. Their return could transform local watersheds. Beaver dams create wetlands that store water, reduce erosion, improve drought resilience, enhance biodiversity and benefit native fish, including threatened salmon populations. As California faces increasing climate extremes, beavers offer a practical, nature-based restoration tool. Beavers are already reinvigorating watersheds in Sonoma County.

Sonoma Coast, Wildlifebeavers, habitat restoration, Point Reyes National Seashore, sea otters, tule elk

The ocean off California keeps breaking heat records

May 5, 2026

Hayley Smith, TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

An extreme marine heat wave is simmering the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, and experts are warning that it could affect coastal weather and ecosystems for months.

The ocean heat wave started forming at the end of last year but has worsened in recent weeks, according to readings from the Scripps Pier in La Jolla, which has broken more than 25 daily temperature records this year. The surface water temperature on Wednesday was 68.5 degrees — 7.7 degrees above average for the date. The sea bottom was 67.6 degrees, the hottest April 15 in about 100 years of records.

The heat wave is deep, persistent and widespread, spanning from roughly San Francisco to the Mexican border. Those are “pretty significant indicators that this has both staying power and will have consequences for weeks or months or even seasons to come for Southern California,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California’s Agriculture and Natural Resources.

There are several factors driving the staggering heat, including a unyielding ridge of high pressure straddling Southern California and weaker-than-normal coastal winds, which typically drive upwelling along the coast. Upwelling is when cold, deep ocean water rises to the surface.

But human-caused climate change is undoubtedly pushing the temperatures to new records, Swain said, noting that it takes many times more energy to heat ocean water than it does to heat air. “From an ocean warmth perspective, we are now entering a pretty dramatic period” for this part of the world, he said.

Climate Change & Energy, Sonoma CoastEl Niño, kelp forest, marine heat wave

Estero solution moving forward

March 20, 2026

Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A new website that compiles community suggestions lists seven potential parking solutions to solve problem.

For some residents of Bodega Harbor, a quiet, high-end enclave of homes overlooking the Pacific, the opening of a nearby, 547-acre public preserve was not a reason to celebrate.

Following a four-month period of phased-in access over three days a week, the Estero Americano Coast Preserve, just south of Bodega Bay, fully opened in November 2025. For a brief spell, it operated under the radar. Then, following a flurry of media attention in January, “it went viral,” as Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins put it.

Suddenly, visitors from across the Bay Area and beyond thronged to the protected spot. That was a problem.

The stunning open space, owned and operated by the nonprofit Wildlands Conservancy, has no dedicated parking lot, forcing all those hikers and birdwatchers – nearly 1,200 on one sunny January Sunday – to park on Osprey Drive and other narrow byways close to Shorttail Gulch trailhead, the only way into the park.

Sonoma CoastEstero Americano Coast Preserve, parking, traffic