The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the American Experience

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1 January 11, 2010 To: From: Re: Delta Protection Commission Robert Benedetti, Executive Director, Jacoby Center for Public Service and Civic Leadership, University of the Pacific Margit Aramburu, Director, Natural Resource Institute, University of the Pacific The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the American Experience You will find attached a concept paper for a study of the historical, social, cultural, and ecological resources of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. We are currently seeking support for a project which would result in an inventory of these resources and a guide which would help direct the public to them. We also envision the publication of a collection of documents which would help establish the Delta as a cultural region. This was done for the Central Valley recently with the publication of Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California s Great Central Valley, Stan Yogi, et al. editors (Berkeley: Heyday Press, 2007). Overview of Project Stages We anticipate that this project will proceed in three stages. First, we plan to engage institutions in the Delta already active in the collection and preservation of historical, social, cultural, and ecological materials in planning such an inventory. The University of the Pacific through the Jacoby Center and the Natural Resource Institute will provide expert assistance and archival capacity as well as leadership. However, we anticipate that the parameters of the project will be determined by the collectivity of organizations already active in the Delta so that they will benefit directly from the result. Toward this end, we are planning a series of informational meetings this spring and hope to establish a structure for continuing interaction among these groups by early summer. Second, we plan to seek grant funding in support of this project. We are particularly focused on a program offered through the National Endowment for the Humanities entitled Interpreting America s Historic Places. This program offers both a planning and an implementation grant and the next deadline for submission is in August, We are also exploring other funding opportunities, for example the Environmental Education Grants offered through the Environmental Protection Agency. We have estimated the cost of the project through the preparation of a guide at approximately $250,000. We anticipate that the collection of documents would be supported in part by an advance from a publisher. Third, we hope to begin the survey of resources in We will involve a substantial number of faculty and students in the effort to insure that it is comprehensive and to help educate a new generation on the value of this region of California. We calculate that the 1

2 project would require a year and a half for completion. The draft guide could, therefore, be available by fall, Request for Support of the Delta Protection Commission We are approaching the Delta Protection Commission at this time to make the Commission aware of this effort and to ask its help in identifying organizations currently interested in the collection and preservation of historical, social, cultural, and ecological materials in this region. We hope to return to the Commission once we have had an opportunity to interact with these organizations and have prepared draft requests for funding. At that time we will seek Commission support for our grant applications. We believe that this project will strengthen the Commission s initiative in regard to the establishment of a National Heritage Area in the Delta. At completion, it will provide information which would be of considerable use to those attempting to encourage cultural and ecological tourism as well as stimulate public support for the preservation of the region. Therefore, as we proceed with the project, we plan to keep in close touch with Commission staff regarding our initiatives and pledge our support as they work to complete the application for the Heritage Area. 2

3 The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the American Experience Summary: The goal of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta initiative is to establish a structure to facilitate collection of the natural and cultural history of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region. The project would include the implementation of surveys assessing Native American sites, transportation, festivals, ethnic communities, ecological sites, architecture, 19 th and 20 th century historical sites, and religion. These surveys could then provide the basis of an in-depth guide to the Delta that would take the historic WPA guides and the San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide as its models. Critical to success of this project is close interaction with the organizations that also collect information and are indigenous to the Delta, including museums, historical societies, environmental groups, and libraries. The Natural Resource Institute and Jacoby Center for Public Service and Civic Leadership at the University of the Pacific will assist with professional consultation. They will also structure a series of student practica and faculty research projects to facilitate the surveys and the assembling of the guide. The resulting structures, surveys, and guide would help to stimulate eco- and cultural tourism as part of the region's economy. Project Description: Kevin Starr has made the case that California is a site for an intense pursuit of the American Dream. Similarly, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is an exemplar of the American experience with nature. The literary historian Leo Marx summed this experience with the phrase, machine in the garden. The Delta was a garden carefully tended by Native Americans when the Spanish explorers first glimpsed it in the late 18 th century. The trappers and mountain men who made French Camp their home base praised the richness of its flora and fauna. However, even before the mid-19th century, the machinery of water transport tamed the region. Later, Sacramento and Stockton launched the Gold Rush and equipped it. 1

4 When mining engaged fewer and fewer of those who had come to California in search of gold, many turned to agriculture. Because of its rich soils and the ease of transport to world markets, the Delta was an early center of California s green revolution. To increase productivity, a massive system of levees was constructed, creating new islands for cultivation and habitation. The garden was restructured and bridges increasingly replaced boats to facilitate the movement of people and goods. However, the 1000 miles of waterways continued to support recreation, including both hunting and fishing, remarkable for their scale and dependence on the rich gifts of nature. It also sprung the imaginations of generations of creative individuals from Mark Twain, Jack London, and John Muir to the poet William Everson and Joan Didion. Both 19 th and 20 th century plein-air artists recorded the beauty of its foggy sunrises and spectacular sunsets. The demands of crops and recreational activities attracted generations of immigrants to the Delta. With diversity came tension. The Delta was the site of the last segregated schools in California. On the other hand, it also provided the opportunity for immigrants to reconstruct their homelands in miniature as the Chinese did in Locke. Today, Portuguese, Italians, Filipinos, Japanese, Chicanos, and others celebrate their heritage in Delta communities. In the 21 st century, the Delta is again being tamed, now to provide water for much of the Central Valley and parts of Southern California. In the struggle to re-allocate this resource between cities and farms, much of the environment of the Delta is threatened. Environmentalists have identified unique habitats, some of which could provide an opportunity for citizens to learn more about nature s secrets if they were preserved and appropriately developed. However, the dreams of urbanites, farmers, and environmentalists are at risk from deteriorating levees and rising sea levels. The story of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, then, is one of continuing engagement between Americans and their natural environment. The area is rich in visual, cultural, and ecological evidence of that engagement. However, the region is spread over five counties and has lacked the central organizing force needed to integrate the telling of its story and to orchestrate the many unique experiences of its residents over the past two centuries. Such a pulling together is the prerequisite for the region s further development as a destination for eco- and cultural tourism. Located as it is near San 2

5 Francisco, Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, and Monterey Bay, the Delta could benefit from proximity to other world-class visitor destinations. This region could provide a fortuitous way for many to get in touch with the history of the American struggle with and embrace of nature. To provide an integration of the Delta s story will take coordination on several levels. The State of California has recently acted to unify the authority to make environmental and land use decisions in the region. In addition, parts of the region are being placed in a conservancy or in a National Heritage Area. However, the cultural and ecological history of the area has larger boundaries than those relevant to water allocation and habitat preservation. It stretches from Port Costa and Benicia on the west to Tracy, Stockton, Lodi and Sacramento on the south, north, and east. This initiative proposes to establish a structure to facilitate interaction between those organizations that have begun to collect the natural and cultural history of this expanded region as well as to celebrate it. The first fruits of such a venture should be the creation of surveys assessing Native American sites, transportation, festivals, ethnic communities, ecological sites, architecture, 19 th and 20 th century historical sites, and religion. These surveys could then provide the basis of an in-depth guide to the Delta that would take the historic WPA guides and the San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide as its models. The guidance for these projects would be organizations indigenous to the Delta, including museums, historical societies, environmental groups, and libraries. The Natural Resource Institute and Jacoby Center for Public Service and Civic Leadership at the University of the Pacific will assist with professional consultation. They will also structure a series of student practica and faculty research projects to facilitate the surveys and the assembling of the guide. To fund this initiative and as a way to focus the several cultural and environmental organizations of the region, Pacific will take the lead in pursuing grant opportunities including those offered by the Environmental Protection Agency (Environmental Education Grants, for example) and the National Endowment for the Humanities 3

6 Interpreting America s Historic Places. Pacific will also seek other opportunities to further fund this project. Robert Benedetti, Executive Director, Jacoby Center for Public Service and Civic Leadership Margit Aramburu, Director, Natural Resource Institute University of the Pacific November