Since 1974, preservationists have been trying to complete a complex jigsaw puzzle involving Sonoma County land north of Highway 37 and east of Highway 121. The final piece of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge fell into place last week with the purchase of the 1,092-acre Haire Ranch on Skaggs Island.
It was worth the wait.
The $8.3 million deal, coordinated by the Sonoma Land Trust, has been in the works since 2010. It calls for transferring the property to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which will then have the long-term task of removing the surrounding levees and restoring all the area — some 3,300 acres on the island — to marsh lands.
But that couldn't have happened without the acquisition of Haire Ranch, which Wendy Eliot, conservation director at Sonoma Land Trust, described as the "holy grail" of local conservation projects.
"I'm kind of pinching myself," she said.
The history of Haire Ranch and Skaggs Island is similar to that of so many tidal areas that border San Pablo and San Francisco bays.
The island was once part of a thriving tidal marsh system.That changed about 130 years ago when the island was diked and drained along with many of the wetland areas around the bay which similarly were converted to hay fields, salt ponds and other agricultural uses.
The island was eventually named for Marion Barton Skaggs, the founder of the Safeway supermarket chain, who acquired the property during the Great Depression.
The U.S. Navy bought much of the land in 1941 and converted the island into a communications base for intelligence gathering. It pretty much remained that way until 2008 when Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, introduced legislation enabling the property to be transferred to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Only one portion of the land remained out of reach — the 1,092 acres that Skaggs sold to William Haire, the grandfather of Jim and Judy Haire, who have farmed it ever since.
The Haires deserve much credit for not only agreeing to the sale but preserving the land from development for years.
Once the wetlands are restored, the island is expected to be used for bird-watching, canoeing and environmental education. A fine picture for this now-complete puzzle.
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