Marin Voice: Funding for Farallones Marine Sanctuary kelp comes just in time

I am writing to share amazing news. Thanks to community outreach and the support of Rep. Jared Huffman, $4.9 million in federal funding is coming to local ocean conservation nonprofit, Greater Farallones Association (GFA), to lead the important work of restoring an essential building blocks of our blue backyard: kelp forests off the Sonoma-Marin coast in Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary (GFNMS).

For more than 15 years, I have had the good fortune to be a volunteer for the sanctuary and to serve on the board of GFA, an organization dedicated to helping to study, preserve and build community around the sanctuary. Together these two entities have been at the forefront of protecting and conserving our local marine resources for the public.

Since around 2014, bull kelp forests off the north-central coast have declined by more than 90% of historic levels due to a combination of large-scale stressors including a climate change-related marine heatwave.

The effort to begin bringing back this essential coastal habitat in the sanctuary began in 2018 with a kelp restoration working group formed by the sanctuary’s public-based advisory council. I co-chaired this working group, and I’m proud to have been at the very beginning of this community-driven project exploring solutions to shore up our kelp forests.

I’m even more proud of the myriad efforts that have flourished from that seeding of ideas, especially to see the all-female GFA-GFNMS dive team working tirelessly on the science and monitoring of the kelp forests along the Sonoma-Marin coast.

Anything that began pre-pandemic seems like an eternity ago, but to think that in five short years we went from a community-driven working group idea in 2018, to a draft restoration plan, to a fully functioning program, to being recommended in 2023 to receive nearly $5 million in federal funding is nothing short of remarkable.

There has been a constant trajectory for this effort. It has been fueled by the precipitous decline of the kelp forest canopies themselves, the outpouring of energy from divers, tribes and local businesses, as well as the collective interest from nonprofits, academic institutions, students and members of the media. The response and momentum has been incredible.

Kelp restoration is a relatively new area for restoration in the ocean environment, although it is an essential ecosystem that has existed for millennia. As a network of diverse stakeholders, we are working closely with partners and agencies learning, trying and testing to implement the most successful restoration possible amid ocean conditions that are ever changing.

Kelp forests are recognized as highly dynamic ecosystems that support dense populations of fishes, invertebrates and other algal species, and play a role in the carbon cycle. Bull kelp is the dominant kelp species in the GFNMS (which manages coastal waters from San Francisco to Point Arena). It grows at depths of around 6 to 60 feet and attaches to bedrock reefs and boulder fields.

Being able to study, protect and conserve nature that makes our Northern California home so special is important. The benefits of this federal funding, which comes from the $1 trillion infrastructure legislation that passed last year, not only allows for the recovery of a vitally important coastal ecosystem, it gives the ability for GFA and GFNMS to conduct sound research in the living laboratory of a sanctuary.

Doing research in a large marine protected area means we can closely monitor progress and develop infrastructure to bolster success of future recovery efforts. What’s even cooler is how this project can inform and scale restoration efforts around the globe — serving as a model for success.

Kelp forests are important for California’s economy, environment and cultural resources. Restoring our kelp forests can contribute to global carbon sequestration to defend against a changing climate that wreaks havoc with storms and wildfires; and I retain hope that one day the persistence and vitality of the kelp will rebound enough to see a reopening of the recreational fishery for red abalone.

The goal for restoration is to foster regrowth at sites where kelp was historically abundant to replenish kelp spore availability across the entire nearshore environment, re-establishing a network of healthy kelp forests in the sanctuary.

To put it all plainly, this work and this money will help ensure our coastlines and populations (including humans) are resilient, productive and vital for generations to come.

Francesca Koe, of San Francisco, is a member of the Sanctuary Advisory Council for the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and serves on the Greater Farallones Association Board of Directors.