The Bay of 1950 was vastly different from the bay of 1850; by 2050 it will surely be another place again. We have set processes in motion in the estuary and its watershed and in the world, whose effects are only beginning to be seen. Among these processes is the growth of our own conscience and our own knowledge. … There is much to be struggled with, much to be solved, in our relationship to the San Francisco Estuary. But the first step is simply to see, to marvel even: to value, ever more keenly, the luminous, priceless, vulnerable puddle of water around which we have chosen to live. A work in progress: the estuary and its people.
From San Francisco Bay – Portrait of an Estuary by John Hart and David Sanger www.ucpress.edu