Palo Alto, CA - From Shell Mounds to Facebook

 

I am from Palo Alto, California, which is located in the heart of the Bay Area. While this region differs geographically and ecologically from the Midwest, there are many (unfortunate) parallels between the ecological themes seen in the Bay Area and those we have studied in this course so far.

The land today known as the Bay Area or the San Francisco Bay was inhabited primarily by the Tamien Nation, Ramaytush Ohlone, and Muwekma Ohlone. Spanish explorers reached the San Francisco Bay in 1769 via the Portola Expedition, which unfortunately began the complete transformation of the area both culturally and ecologically. Historically, people centered around shorelines of the bay and ocean in small communities, harvesting shellfish like clams and mussels as well as other fish, waterfowl, and game animals along shorelines (Biba, 2019). Shell mounds are some of the more famous and important artifacts and landmarks from these cultures. Inland areas would have also provided access to nuts, especially acorns, seeds, berries and other game to hunt. Due to the abundance and diversity of natural resources in the area, Native peoples did not historically practice agriculture for sustenance. However, they did utilize land management strategies such as the implementation of fire to promote growth of certain plants (Saving the Bay).

With the introduction of outsiders to the region, many different developments and industries began popping up over the next several centuries. Spanish Missions immediately followed the Spanish explorers as The Mission Santa Clara De Asis was set up in 1777 and encompassed land of modern-day Palo Alto. Spanish missions began the ecological alteration of the region by first introducing agriculture and cattle grazing and by establishing the El Camino Real, a major highway that still exists today. Palo Alto, like many other places in America, was influenced directly and indirectly by resource exploitation. During the Gold Rush in the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains, people flocked to the area, especially San Francisco. San Francisco’s expansion led to the rapid development of areas such as Palo Alto, which is in the suburbs of the city. After the Gold Rush died down, the salt marshes around the bay began to be mined as tidal marshes and wetlands were converted to evaporative salt ponds. By the 1930’s salt mining was one of the largest land uses in the Bay Area (Booker, 2012). Today, the city of Palo Alto is centered around Stanford University and is in the heart of Silicon Valley as many companies like Google and Facebook are either headquartered in Palo Alto or neighboring towns.

Figure 1: Palo Alto City Boundaries and Land Use in the San Francisco Bay Area

Source: City of Palo Alto

Figure 2: Land Use in the San Francisco Bay Area

Source: American Farmland Trust

The photos above show how Palo Alto, and a lot of the land surrounding the San Francisco Bay is now almost entirely developed. Two predominant ecological issues in Palo Alto and surrounding areas of the Bay Area is nature conservation and climate change. The salt mining industry coupled with severe sediment runoff from the damming and alteration of rivers during the Gold Rush led to the shrinking and degradation of the bay’s marshes and wetlands. Development has also encroached on the bay shores which has made preservation and restoration of natural areas along the shore a key focus of activist groups. Climate change is also a big issue because there is a lot of development in marshes/wetlands along the banks of the bay. Sea level rise will likely be a major problem in the coming decades as many residential and commercial developments will be impacted by the rising water.

 

Sources:

Native American Heritage Month | Palo Alto City Library (cityofpaloalto.org)

THE FIRST PALO ALTANS (cityofpaloalto.org)

Cultivating-An-Abundant-San-Francisco-Bay.pdf (savingthebay.org)

Agriculture: For a century, the business of the Valley – Museum of the San Ramon Valley (museumsrv.org)

» Visualizing San Francisco Bay’s Forgotten Past Journal of Digital Humanities

Bay Area Agriculture Today (sagecenter.org)

MEMORANDUM (cityofpaloalto.org)

A Brief History of the Ever-Changing San Francisco Bay (nobhillgazette.com)

Cultivating-An-Abundant-San-Francisco-Bay.pdf (savingthebay.org)