Look around Marin County from nearly any vantage point and what do you see, but beautiful open, green hills and valleys without any roads, homes or buildings of any kind. This is pure Open Space, people, and one of the things Marin is famous for. Being a no-growth county with only 25% of the natural land built upon, we are one of the few places in the country that is close to several metropolitan areas, yet with a feeling of being out in the country.

There was a time when the cure for almost any illness was to go into nature, to sit by the sea or relax in the country.  Fortunately, Marin County serves the health of its residents with access to some of the most pristine, varied open space of any county in California.  This bounty of land has long distinguished Marin as a uniquely beautiful place to live and had attracted nature lovers and athletes of all stripes for decades.

For this, Marin residents can thank the foresight of environmentalists who began protecting the county’s natural beauty as early as the 1930’s and voters who, in 1972, approved the creation of Marin County Open Space District (MCOSD).  Since then, MCOSD has helped preserve more than 14,000 acres-33 preserves-including habitat links for native animals and sensitive wetlands.  Operating alone and through fund-raising partnerships, the district has either bought land outright or purchased conservation easements-under which the land is privately held, but protected from development.  The acreage ranges from marshlands to oak woodlands and redwood groves to rolling meadows, much of it once coveted or slated for development, and inhabited by a surprising hold of creatures, including a few on the endangered species list.

While 14,000 acres may sound like a lot, it’s barely half of the total MCOSD had targeted to acquire.  “We aim to protect natural habitat and lands for their own intrinsic value,” says Ron Miska, MCOSD’s assistant general manager.  “Our mission is to maintain Marin’s natural beauty by preserving lands of countywide significance, lands that separate towns from on another.”

In partnership with other organizations, the MCOSD had provided such open space preserves as Old St. Hilary’s, above the town of Tiburon, named for its vintage 1888 Catholic chapel it surrounds.  This 117 acre area also has trails and fire roads offering spectacular views of the Golden Gate, Richmond-San Rafael and San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridges.  Two bond measures, in 1993 and 1997, allowed the property’s two parcels to be purchased at a price of $6.8 million-the most expensive purchase ever make by the district.  Miska points out that the district wasn’t alone in the desire to preserve it: “There was tremendous community support.”

Perhaps no landscaped feature is more beloved in Marin than redwoods.  Roy Redwoods, in the San Geronimo Valley, has an eclectic history that aptly mirrors Marin’s.  This 377 acre preserve, off  Nicasio Valley Road, served as the setting for the George Lucas’s Ewok Adventure, was once  home to a loosely knot commute, and is now regularly used as a wedding site.

Of all the natural habitats the MCOSD has helped to flourish in the country, wetlands are among the most treasured.  California has lost more than 90 percent of its original wetlands, according to the Sierra Club. Bothin Marsh is a quiet inlet adjacent to Strawberry’s Harbor Point, at the mouth of the Richardson Bay.  Living along its banks and in the lush tule reeds are two endangered creatures: the California clapper rail and the salt marsh harvest mouse.  “Wetlands serve an important function in the situations like floods,” says Jean Starkweather, chair of the Parks and Open Space Committee for the Marin Conservation League, which partners with MCOSD,  “They act as a natural sponge.”

MCOSD is also working to restore its coastal preserve, the sediment-heavy Bolinas Lagoon, a protected estuary along Highway 1 near Stinson Beach.  Before it was set aside for preservation in 1988, it almost became a 1,400-slip marina.  But in 1998, the lagoon was named a Wetland of International Importance by the United States Fish and Wildlife Services.  Preservation for the sake of a beautiful natural habitat is popular with most of Marin’s population, but not all.  Gordon Bennett-chair of the Marin Sierra Club-says many fear preservation equals a removal of such land from public access.  “There are competing views of what appropriate uses are,” he says, “Some folks feel they should be reserved for ball fields and dog parks;  others feel those activities are for city parks and think open space should be for more passive activities, like hiking and bird-watching.”

Passive activities are what MCOSD has in mind for its preserves.  Often its lands don’t have amenities such as trailhead parking, restrooms, or water fountains because the goal is to deliberately keep wear and tear on the land to a minimum.  Yet each preserve contains trails, and the district’s volunteers and rangers are often called on to lead hikes.

The MCOSD gets 94 percent of its funds from “less than 1 percent of annual county property tax revenues,” says Miska.  Of this nearly $1.8 million, the budget allows only $450,000 for new land acquisition.  “When we were first created, we allocated most of our funds for acquisition of properties.  But now we use more money for management and maintenance of the properties we own,” says Miska.  “The lands we’d like to acquire are multimillion-dollar properties.  You can’t make a land-owner an offer without money to back it up.”

In 1996, the district suffered a blow when a tax measure to augment its acquisition funds was overturned.  Since no new government funds are on the horizon, and private donations equal only 3 percent of the MCOSD budget, future securing of the more than 15,000 acres on the district’s “wish list” will depend on creative fund-raising and teamwork with agencies such as the Nature Conservancy and the Coastal Conservancy, and open-space committees formed by towns like Fairfax and San Anselmo.  Marin County Supervisor Charles McGlashan has called attention to this situation for years.  “In my view, it’s critical to preserve and protect habitat here.  Even in Marin, with its ample open space, we’re suffering a steady loss of biodiversity,” he says.

“The MCOSD, along with the Trust for Public Land, will soon be analyzing what the right funding mechanism would be to acquire more open space and manage it more effectively,” McGlashan adds.  “We’ll also be looking at development with an eye toward improving the health and well-being of habitat without giving up economic vitality.”

Undeveloped property in Marin, particularly because there is so little of it appropriate for large-scale retail or housing projects, is more at a premium than ever, which gives the district and other preservation groups reason for concern.

The Sierra Club’s Starkweather is worried about these unprotected open spaces.  “Our committee keeps an eye on places that ought to be preserved, or that people think are preserved but aren’t,” She says.  “For instance, the part of Bald Hill seen from the Miracle Mile (in San Anselmo) is not preserved, and it’s owned by a non-U.S. company.  Who knows what could happen?”

Other lands in contention are the 1,200 acres of the Silveira Ranch and lands owned by St. Vincent’s School for Boys, both on un-incorporated county land and within San Rafael’s sphere of influence.  “These properties have been debated (over) for years,” says Alec Heinds, head of the Community Development Department for Marin County.  “Our countywide plan, which went through 22 public hearings with no consensus, includes several options for them, from development of up to 500 homes to agricultural options such as vineyards or orchards.”

The outcry against development has been strong, but some feel there needs to be a middle ground.  Bill McCubbin, CEO of Orion Partners, a Mill Valley  “Marin’s communities survive on locally generated tax revenues; that’s what pays for schools, streets, police, fire protection, and the like,” he says.  “The penalty for lack of new development is lack of revenue.”  real estate development firm, fears preserving too much land could jeopardize the country’s economy.

County Supervisor McGlashan believes there’s a way to resolve this dilemma.  “We need to work ‘smart,’ not hard, on the economic development,” he says.  “We’re working to come up with solutions on building affordable housing and developing our infill locations; possibly this will take the pressure off the temptation to develop our open space.”  In his view, “the Marin County Open Space District is critical to the long-term health of our county.”

For more information on the Marin County Open Space District, go to www.marinopenspace.org.

In the recently released DVD What Could Have Happened Here, local historian Bran Fanning talks about Angel Island.  “It was such an attractive property,” he recounts, “that in the early 1960’s there were plans to make it like Coney Island with hotels, conference centers, and amusement rides that on weekends would attract between 10,000 and 15,000 people a day.”

Coney Island West never happened.  However, P.T. Barnum would be challenged to match the fascinating history Angel Island witnessed over the years.  The one-square-mile landmass-sitting one mile from the tip of the Tiburon Peninsula-has been an Indian settlement (Miwok artifacts found on the island are dated at more than 1,000 years old), a cattle ranch (thanks to an 1939 land grant, later deemed bogus), a Civil War outpost, a Spanish-American War detention camp, an immigration station, a site for inducting and discharging U.S. soldiers (during both World War I and World War II), a prisoner of war camp (both German and Japanese POWs), a Nike missile base, and finally, since 1963, an inviting California State Park with plenty of open space to adventure.

“I don’t know why people don’t come here more often,” says Skip Henderson, executive director of the Angel Island Association, a private group concerned with preserving the island’s 120 historic buildings and introducing visitors to its exciting past.  “When it’s bright and sunny, the scenic views and lush forests are attractive.  Then on foggy, overcast days, it’s the history that intrigues people.”

Regarding that history, what many consider a dark period for Angel Island started in 1910 and lasted until 1940.  That’s when an immigration station, located on the island’s northeast corner, was operated in a manner often compared with New York’s Ellis Island.  “But it was different in one important aspect,” Writes John Soennichsen in Miwoks to Missiles, A History of Angel Island.  “Most of the immigrants arriving at San Francisco were Asian, not European.”  And many, as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, found entering the a trying if not impossible task.  After embarrassing physical exams and excruciating interrogations, thousands either were deported back to their homelands or faced delays of months, even years, before being approved for entry to “Gum San,” or Gold Mountain, the nickname for America used by many Chinese.

A recently published children’s book, Kai’s Journey to Gold Mountain by San Francisco author Katrina Saltonstall Currier, is based on the life of Albert “Kai” Wong, who, after spending six weeks on Angel Island, successfully entered in 1934.  Many others who were detained wrote their own stories, carving poems into the walls of the barracks to convey the suffering they endured during their long interments.  “After experiencing such loneliness and sorrow,” readsone by an unknown author, “why not just return home and plow the fields?”  Currently, the Angel Island Immigration Station is undergoing a $15 million restoration and will open to the public in early 2007.

Meanwhile, a very open commemoration can frequently be seen in weekend puffs of smoke followed by cannon blasts, in honor of Angel Island’s connection to the American Civil War.  “People find it strange there was a West Coast fortification here during the Civil war,” says park supervisor Roy McNamee, “but there were offshore sightings of Confederate ships and the fear was they’d make a run for the gold held in San Francisco banks.”  So in 1863, camp Reynolds-Cannons, officer quarters, barracks, parade grounds, mule barn, and all was established on Angel Island’s western shores, facing the Golden Gate.  And much of it is still there, a bit worn down but still easy to imagine as a place where the bluecoats marched with muskets on their shoulders.

Angel Island’s involvement with the military would continue, on and off, for nearly 100 years.  In the 1890’s, Camp Reynolds was reactivated in preparation for the Spanish-American War, and in 1910 Fort McDowell, on the island’s eastern shore, was expanded with a 600-person barracks, a mess hall serving 12,000 meals a day, and a three-story hospital.  “Fort McDowell became the largest army processing center on the West Coast,” Henderson says.  From the 1920s into the 1940s, Angel Island saw induction, transfer, or discharge of nearly 40,000 servicemen (plus a few women) a year.

By 1946, the army had left-but not for long.  In ’54, it boldly returned to establish a Nike antiaircraft missile base.  “The battery had three sections, each with four launchers and armed with liquid-fueled rockets carrying TNT warheads,” writes Soennichsen in his appropriately titled Miwoks to Missiles.  The Nike era lasted eight years.  In 1963, thanks to the efforts of Marin County conversationalist Caroline Livermore, the military government agreed to the creation of Angel Island State Park.  And thus, to this day, it has remained.

Angel Island State Park is accessible throughout the year for hiking, biking, playing on the beach, picnics, camping, and tours.  For information call Angel Island Ferry, 415.435.2131.  Thanks to Jim Wood  for providing this information.