The series, Saving the Bay,is available through KQED. I was amazed and very pleased at how well the series came out. The four one-hour pieces (I am only in hour 3) narrated by Robert Redford, not only takes the history of San Francisco Bay and tells it in a fascinating way both visually and verbally, it also makes it relevant to the larger issues of our time, notably how man and the environment can manage to live together in a non-destructive embrace that nurtures both and, just as importantly, it shows how individuals can really have an impact on something that effects the lives, the living and the health.

Until this production, I had no idea that there had serious plans to fill in San Francisco Bay which was becoming a smelly, ugly and foully polluted sewer. There were few who wanted to defend it exactly because it was smelly, ugly and polluted. Most people felt that this was probably the best way to deal with that problem. Three women took on the entrenched interests and turned the Bay around so it is now a rapidly improving playground, a nurturer of sea life, as well as a transport path and even the beginnings, once again, of a commercial fishery.

Since I had nothing to do with the shaping of this film and participated only in one small portion, I feel it is not too self-promoting to say that those interested in Maritime or California history, those interested in environmental issues, social activism, and those who like well-done documentaries, will find a lot to like in this series.

The PBS stations in California have been running the programs once or twice a week for the past month or so as part of their fund-raising specials so any of you who feel you might like to know more about this may have a chance to judge for yourself before you buy a copy for your own.

Sourdough
   (On the banks of the Petaluma River which flows into San Pablo Bay, an arm of San Francisco Bay)