May 29, 2024 / Andrew Nofsinger

Acterra

Graphic Image or Map of Bioregion:

Focus:

Our roots go back to 1970 with a long history of environmental action including watershed protection and land stewardship. Today, Acterra focuses its efforts on the most urgent issue of our time: climate change.

Bioregion Description:

Per EPA: The San Francisco Bay Delta watershed covers more than 75,000 square miles and includes the largest estuary on the west coasts of North and South America. It also contains the only inland delta in the world. The watershed extends nearly 500 miles from the Cascade Range in the north to the Tehachapi Mountains in the south, and is bounded by the Sierra Mountain Range to the east and the Coast Range to the west. Nearly half of the surface water in California starts as rain or snow that falls within the watershed and flows downstream to the Pacific Ocean through the Golden Gate Strait. In addition, the watershed provides a primary source of drinking water for 25 million Californians, irrigation for 7000 square miles of agriculture, and includes important economic resources such as California’s water supply infrastructure, ports, deepwater shipping channels, major highway and railroad corridors, and energy lines. In the Delta specifically, declining water quality and increasing demand for limited water resources are the subject of intense review and planning to protect this valuable resource for the future. The watershed includes a diversity of fresh water, brackish water, and salt water aquatic habitats. Several endangered and threatened aquatic species are found here including delta smelt, steelhead, spring run Chinook salmon, winter run Chinook salmon, and others. Two-thirds of California’s salmon pass through these waters, and at least half of the state’s Pacific Flyway migratory water birds rely on the region’s wetlands.

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