Dear Friends of Sailor Bar,

This is a long update. A lot is happening to protect our beloved Sailor Bar. The first two sections (short) include an update from the Sacramento County Director and Commissioner's meeting and next steps. The rest of the updates are focused on detailed information about the status of this effort. Please read on, and feel free to copy all or part of this message to spread the word and garner support. 

Please also feel free to reach out to me at eringriffin09@comcast.net or Jodi King at artisticinteriorsbyjodi.com if you want contribute your time, effort, or expertise in additional ways. Your support is needed and appreciated!

With Gratitude, 

Erin

__________________

Updates

Thank you for everyone who attended the Sacramento County Director and Commissioner's meeting last Thursday, and those who sent comments.  There was an impressive showing!  Two letters are shared at the end of this email outlining, informing, and clarifying our concerns. 

Liz Bellas would not budge, and gave no other reason than: 1) They now have the staff and budgetary resources to proceed with the 2008 American River Park Plan; 2) The purpose of opening the gravel roads to public vehicles is to accommodate persons with disabilities; 3) The plan must be followed, and it would take about 2 million to revise it.  She was clearly not open to our concerns. 

However, it did appear that the Commissioners were listening, and wanted to understand the issues expressed. They, however, do not have the authority to make a decision.  The authority is with the Board of Supervisors.

This was the first hurdle is to meet with Rich Desmond, (Dist 3 Supv) and the other four Sac Co Supervisors.  Jodi King delivered our letter and our signed petitions Rich Desmond, and mailed copies as a cc to the other 4 Board of Supervisors, and to Anne Edwards (Sac Co Executive), and Dave Defanti (Deputy County Exec, Community Services).  The letter was also given to Liz Bellas, (Director of Regional Parks), and Commissioner McDermit (District 3). In this letter we are asking that SAILOR BAR is included in an upcoming meeting and that a town-hall be held. 

NEXT STEPS

1.       Get the word out to request that SAILOR BAR SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS is put an agenda item an upcoming Board of Supervisors meeting via email: (BoardClerk@SacCounty.gov) and Dist 3 Supv Rich Desmond (RichDesmond@SacCounty.gov) and Bd of Supv Chairperson Patrick Kennedy (SupervisorKennedy@SacCounty.gov).

2.       Post flyers, hand out the Protect Sailor Bar business cards, get the word out to keep signing the petitions, and to ask that we are put on the Board of Supervisors Agenda.  

3.       Reach out to organizations stakeholders in protecting Sailor Bar.  Please share any updates.

4.       Attend the meeting with Sac Board of Supervisors when the date becomes available. 

Continue reading for more updates and powerful new information provided by our supporters: 

• The Sac County Regional Parks, Natural Resource Plan, chapter 7 supports keeping the gates closed. Please read this document: https://regionalparks.saccounty.gov/Parks/Documents/ARP_NRMP__Chapter%207-%282022-09-16%29.pdf  The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve this plan on March 1st, 2023. 
• In Chapter 4 of this document, Biological Resources mentions Sailor Bar 21 times. Figure 4.4 shows Sailor Bar is a conserving planning and wildlife connectivity area.  CDFW maintains an Areas of Conservation (ACE) database that presents coarse-level information for conservation planning and wildlife connectivity which includes Sailor Bar.  Nesting colonies of Bank Swallow, a state threatened species, have been observed on steep, unvegetated banks at Sailor Bar
• Appendix C, Special-Status Species mentions the following at Sailor Bar: Brandegee's clarkia, Valley elderberry longhorn beetle, White-tailed kite, Bald eagle and Great blue heron (nesting colonies). See the Appendix here: https://regionalparks.saccounty.gov/Parks/Documents/NRMP__Chapter%204_Final-2023-01-26-sm.pdf

Here is the letter sent to Rich Desmond with the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors

January 22, 2024 

To: Rich Desmond, Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, District 3 

From: Friends and Neighbors of the American River Parkway, Sailor Bar 

Subject: OPPOSITION TO THE REOPENING OF SAILOR BAR TO  PUBLIC VEHICLES 

We are asking for your help to protect wildlife, prevent public safety hazards and to preserve a significant natural area for public recreation and education in the Sailor Bar Regional Park. Specifically, our plea to you is to NOT reopen the closed interior gravel roads at the Sailor Bar Regional Park to public vehicles, for the reasons stated below. Reopening the gravel roads will have significant adverse impacts on the very qualities that draw visitors to the park. If you have visited this uniquely pristine and, for many, sacred area, you will find that unlike many other places along the American River, this area is free of debris, well cared for by frequent visitors, and is among the best places in Sacramento County to observe wildlife. 

SALMON: Significant resources and effort have been undertaken to increase the American River salmon and steelhead trout population. Endangering their lifecycle to provide for human recreational activities is a contradiction in use of resources. Increased traffic in the area will lead to significant erosion into their spawning beds as deeper and more widespread dirt paths to the river are created to access to the river front. This pattern is already evidenced at other places along the river parkway such as Nimbus Hatchery trail offshoots and Upper Sunrise trail offshoots. Many of these volunteer paths are now trenches. 

BIRDS: Sailor Bar has become a haven for a myriad of wildlife species which are easily disturbed when there are loud noises in their environment. One example are ground nesting birds, such as killdeer, who abandon their nests when there is frequent loud noise or people nearby. Great Blue Herons are also at risk of leaving their tree colonies. A parking lot that is scheduled to be reopened is immediately adjacent to a group of trees bordering the river where Great Blue Herons nest each year. Nesting and/or foraging hawks of various species also use this habitat, all of which are sensitive to human use, especially faster moving, loud an common throughout the day. 

RIPARIAN HABITAT: The banks and water of the American River at the Sailor Bar area are heavily inhabited by ducks, geese, egrets, otters, cormorants, green herons, seagulls, and many kinds of fish. Reopening the roads and associated parking areas will result in additional degradation to the riparian habitat including but not limited to trampling of new seedlings. The riparian areas are one of the characteristics of the park the County highlights on their Sailor Bar web page as a reason for people to visit the park. Approximately 98% of California’s riparian vegetation has already been lost as a result of human encroachment and habitat, erosion, conversion and alteration. The remaining riparian areas are critical to wildlife and maintaining proper riverine ecosystem functions. To degrade any well-used riparian habitat, especially in a park where people come to enjoy the beauty of the riparian zone, is counter-productive. 

·        CRIME AND PUBLIC SAFETY: Prior to 2008, when these roads were accessible to public vehicles, there were major safety and public health issues in the interior areas of Sailor Bar including drug use and drug dealing, garbage and bulk waste dumping, abandoned pets, theft, broken glass from bottles and car windows being shattered. At least one fire occurred that impacted a resident. The additional traffic generated by the plan to reopen the interior gravel roads will endanger the safety of the people and animals (domestic and wild) who walk through the park. Additional patrols cannot and have not prevented impacts from the additional vehicles and people that will use the park. 

PUBLIC ACCESS: According to Liz Bellas, Director of the Sacramento County Department of Regional Parks, opening the interior closed gravel roads for public vehicles is to accommodate persons with disabilities. This is not realistic. Visitors with mobility challenges will find terrain from the road down to and along the riverbank too sloped and rough. Additionally, the negative impacts of motor vehicles in this area will be as unpleasant to people with disabilities as those without, countering the intent of increased access to natural areas for people with disabilities. The environmental impact of implementing the Sacramento County plan to allow public traffic into the interior cannot be mitigated, despite the Director of County Parks’ claim that additional resources have been allocated to patrol the park. It is already common knowledge that the gates are often not closed at night as they should be. People are driving recklessly, doing ‘donuts’ in the parking lots at night and lighting fireworks in the middle of the night, especially during summer months when the fire risk is extraordinarily high. A move to expose the areas to more problems of this nature is unacceptable. 

CHANGE IN USE: Opening the gates to the interior of Sailor Bar is a change in use, versus a maintenance project as the County claims. The park we have today is not the same park we had in 2008. Furthermore, there was no documentation known on wildlife and habitat impacts. It seems that some of these problems identified were already in motion then, and closure thereby better protected the natural environment. 

We, the Friends and Neighbors of the American River Parkway, Sailor Bar urge you to keep with the goals and mission of the American River Park plan, to “Preserve naturalistic open space and protecting environmental quality within the urban environment.” We need your help to keep this gem we share at Sailor Bar. May Sailor Bar remain a haven for wildlife and people to be enjoyed by present and future generations. We request time on the agenda for an upcoming Sacramento County Board of Supervisors meeting, and an informal town-hall style meeting with you to provide opportunity for us to share our concerns with you. Your support and timely response to Jodi King or Erin Griffin is appreciated. Thank you for your dedicated service to our community. 

Enclosed are petitions signed by friends and neighbors of Sailor Bar. 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Friends and Neighbors of Sailor Bar 

And here is an additional letter submitted by Bruce Forman 

As a resident of Fair Oaks for several decades, I widely and frequently use many parkway access points. This includes Sacramento Bar, Arden Bar, Sailor Bar and Nimbus Hatchery river access as well as infrequent use at most other main parkway access sites. I am strongly in opposition to opening up both interior roads to public vehicular use at Sailor Bar. Such an opening would be akin to opening Pandora's box of a myriad of problems - environmental, safety, social, recreational, as well as be a budgetary burden. Such an opening of public roads from east and west ends at Sailor Bar would greatly encourage public use. The Parkway overall is already at capacity and at times over capacity especially during the past 5 years. I see this quite regularly from hiking, biking, kayaking let alone seeing various parking lots regularly filing up. Our metropolitan population is undergoing much growth (in-filling and sprawl) and use of the Parkway will continue at strong use rates. With a mission (of the American River Parkway plan) to Preserve naturalistic open space and protecting environmental quality within the urban environment, it strongly seems this Sailor Bar plan of the County is not well aligned. 

PROBLEMS 

A. Environmental Strong examples of voluntary paths to the river are widespread. Frequent, deeply worn paths, trenches and sloughed off areas are evident at most all Parkway sites and especially along river bluffs at Sacramento Bar, Lower Sunrise and Nimbus Hatchery lands, and to a lesser degree but pronounced at Sailor Bar. The tonnage of sand, silt, and sediment actively eroding into the river is a threat to king salmon and steelhead which require clean cobbled areas for their spawning beds. The area by Sailor Bar is the prime section of river for these fish species. Sediment in these beds will suffocate their eggs. Faced with a number of other problems, these species cannot afford to have yet more pressures on their survival. 

The Sacramento Water Forum and partners massive salmon restoration project at Sailor Bar underlines the importance of saving these threatened species. More public use at Sailor Bar, over the next decade or two, will result in replication and accelerated perpetuation of this significant erosion issue - a threat to the survival of these ecologically, recreationally and economically important species. The annual tonnage collected by the September cleanup organized by ARPF speaks to the expected trash and debris left at Sailor Bar. The greater the public use, especially with vehicle access, the greater the amount of this littering and dumping. Additionally, more people will result in more human and pet waste at Sailor Bar. More vehicle use will lead to more oil pollution from drippy engines. I wonder if the County has ever done any assessment of wildlife species to see if any concerns for sensitive or even threatened species at Sailor Bar and especially in the corridor of the roads at hand? It is a rich area for foraging and nesting area for raptors, as well as herons and songbirds. I personally witnessed a bald eagle while at Sailor Bar this past November. Nesting eagles are in the nearby area. Has the county completed any wildlife surveys at Sailor Bar during seasons of use and sensitivity such as nesting? Has the County mapped out areas of concern? Has the County requested or received any consultation by CDFW, or California Native Plant Society, or sought input from American Fisheries Society, all with local representatives. ? 

B. Recreational This Sailor Bar unit seems to be the least used of the large parkway units (by far!). It only seems right that one unit should be allowed to remain in this wilder status. The sightings and noise and dust of cars traveling back and forth negates the wilderness feeling nature recreationists such as I have when visiting. The roads planned to be open are immediately in the river corridor section of this parkland, the area where hikers, bicyclists, anglers, birdwatchers and botanists spend most of their time. People such as these come to Sailor Bar to get away from cars. 

C. Social Issues I have seen homeless encampments at virtually every parkway unit except Sailor Bar. An access road at either end let alone both ends would accelerate homeless expansion into Sailor Bar. With greater vehicular access into the parkland, more drugs related incidents are likely to occur. Having been part of a sizable volunteer team cleaning up a large homeless encampment at Sacramento Bar a few years ago (what the County left behind! after removing structural materials), a many hour task, with toxics at hand including many hundreds of used hypodermic needles, etc, I can say from experience, this is a huge concern for wide type of negative impacts on the land, heightened patrols and human safety concerns. I have since seen a return of encampments at Sacramento Bar and see what seem to be homeless people there on a biweekly basis. (Wandering parking areas, bicycling and walking/resting along trails). Even though there is no public road into this unit, Bannister Park access affords easy opportunity to haul in materials. A duo of roads into Sailor Bar would make such a problem easier to be initiated there. 

D. Safety Fire dangers will accelerate with greater use, especially after hours where people can drive in for campfires and fireworks. The rate of fires elsewhere along the parkway seems to have greatly increased in the last 20 years. More Vehicles along narrow quiet residential roads leading to Olive Ave access will only lead to accelerated number of safety incidents. These roads (without sidewalks) are well utilized by residents of wide ages for walking. I see this weekly for 20+ years. Interior parking lots would be prime spots for car vandalism to occur. 

E. Fiscal There seems no doubt that with greater use, patrols would need to increase, perhaps daily. While day use fees and annual passes would offset some of this, there's also the fiscal and administrative work associated with fee collection and processing. The County would be responsible for accelerated need for cleanups - from litter to dumping. It should not rely on neighborhood residents and non profit groups who appear to widely oppose this project based on many people I have spoken with. The county would also sustain financial responsibility for habitat damage including from fire and pollution spills and from expected increase of invasive species from greater public use. The County would have greater patrol and related work hours from tasks relative to homeless encampments and parties as well as inappropriate and incompatible activities that seem to be on the rise elsewhere along the Parkway.  

F. Lack of Education and Remedial Efforts of High Danger areas. A vacant (for many years) sign/exhibit panel pedestal at Sacramento Bar (along main jeep patrol/hiking trail 0.2 mile west of parking lot) at perhaps the most dangerously eroded volunteer path along entire parkway is a blatant example of your county's ignoring its education role. The human danger posed by this steep trail is great and is situated by immediate section of river heavily used by salmon. Theres no effort to close this path (barrier) nor place a sign on existing pedestal. How can one have confidence in future education and dangerous and/or impactful pathway closures at Sailor Bar when the County neglects high priority (high use and threat) elsewhere. Other kiosks have badly faded and unattractive old interpretive panels dot the parkway. It's quite rare that I ever see a person looking at any panels, over many years. I think the County should sooner put its efforts into redoing outdated, ineffective features before jumping into new features at Sailor Bar. Furthermore the County should be putting in barriers along its tens of eroded out and at times dangerous pathways (volunteer) to the river for public safety and the protection of salmonids. That's where the maintenance focus should be before undertaking new areas that are poised to repeat some of the same significant problems found now in virtually all of the parkway units. 

CEQA While the Parks Director refers to this as a maintenance plan /issue, it's seems far greater. It's impacts are way beyond internal. I think that the County should be required to follow CEQA to make such a change. While the Parks Department closed the road in 2008 for maintenance or fiscal reasons, that doesn't mean that the road should have allowed public vehicular access prior to this. There are scars on the land from this prior use. There were many inappropriate uses then. Furthermore the times have changed considerably in the past 16 years. The impacts on some of the CEQA checklist items would be in question now, and I feel some impacts would be significant. 

Having served as CEQA lead for a trail and parking lot project for the State, I do not say this lightly or superficially. I think the County is circumventing a matter for its benefit, not for the benefit of the landscape, the species of concern, and not for the benefits of park visitors who want a fully natural experience as they deserve. I think it is time for the Parkway Plan, adopted in 2008, to undergo an update, not just for Sailor Bar. At minimal an addendum that would include Sailor Bar seems quite prudent and timely.

While the increased County staffing may well be helpful in the next few years to come, staffing levels seem to ebb and flow over the past 20 years. The impacts that would be created by this road (2) opening will be far longer term. And seeing that the serious similar problems haven't been lessened or corrected elsewhere along the parkway only makes me skeptical that the County would be able to handle this diversity and depth of problems I have addressed here. Sailor Bar is among the two wildest areas of the full Parkway. The other, Sacramento Bar, has no public road into it. Sailor Bar deserves the same. A public road from either end into its interior, based on map provided by Director Bellas, would save the average visitor 7-10 minutes walking on easy terrain. This is such a small distance, such a small benefit, at such a high risk of expected consequences to play out. I urge you to stop the current process, which seems rather rushed, for a more thorough recruitment of public comments and analysis of impacts. 

Bruce Forman Retired Supervisor/Manager of Public Education, Recreation and Wildlife, CA. Dept. Fish and Wildlife (Some of my work focused on American River salmon, steelhead and wildlife.)