After World War II, California experienced another development boom, especially throughout the Bay Area. With population rising by the millions and space at a premium, developers targeted the 1,600 square miles of the bay itself, proposing a host of fill projects that would turn its waters into habitable land. In response, citizen activists inundated city council meetings and demanded that local officials protect the region’s famed waterfront from such development schemes. Activists rallied under the banner of the Save San Francisco Bay Association. By 1965, the association’s advocacy led to the creation of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, or BCDC, a new state agency charged with regulating all development on the bay. The creation of BCDC marked two important steps in the evolution of Bay Area environmentalism. First, it gave environmental considerations a permanent place in state government. Second, the agency aimed to strike a balance between economic development and environmental conservation, as reflected in its name. Ultimately, BCDC would establish the blueprint for other regulatory agencies, such as the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the Delta Stewardship Council, and the California Coastal Commission.

Environmental Conservation strives to protect the natural resources of an area by regulating human impacts to ensure the sustainability of those resources into the future. Unlike preservation, which prohibits various human activities in a place, conservation seeks a balance between the use and safeguarding of resources. For example, a city park conserves open space while also designating areas for human activities, such as picnic tables, playgrounds, sports fields, or music venues. In the United States, conservation first arose in forestry, where science and resource management was applied to the nation’s forests to balance logging and the health of forest lands and wildlife. By the mid-1900s, the rising human impacts on natural resources furthered public demand for environmental conservation, especially in places like California where residents increasingly sought to balance urban expansion and industrial development with protection of resources like the San Francisco Bay. After the 1960s, these demands spread nationwide in a social movement for environmental action, which resulted in the establishment of Earth Day and a host of new environmental laws.

"I was totally appalled of the city manager's dream to fill over 2,000 acres in front of Berkeley. This was one of the things that galvanized us into action."

— Sylvia McLaughlin

Co-Founder, Save The Bay Association

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“Environmentalists should be extremists. They represented an extreme, and the people who are going to make a buck represent the other one. The role of the decision makers is to sweat it out in the middle.”

— Melvin B. Lane

Chairman, San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission

Play Podcast - "Tides of Conservation"

Explore the Story

For a deeper look at the Save The Bay Movement and the creation of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, listen to this section's podcast linked below. Here you'll hear the full story of how a grassroots effort led by three women in Berkeley during the early 1960s resulted in the nation's first environmental regulatory agency that reshaped San Francisco Bay—a story told through the voices of the participants.

Press the button to listen.

"People sort of had to confront the legitimate interests of both conservation and development....no fair-minded person can say marshlands aren’t important. Similarly, no fair-minded person can say ports aren’t important to the Bay Area economy."

— Joseph Bodovitz

Executive Director, San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission

A Model of Conservation

What began with three women in Berkeley under the banner of "Save San Francisco Bay" dramatically changed environmentalism in California. The co-founders of Save The Bay—Esther Gulick, Catherine “Kay” Kerr, and Sylvia McLaughlin—approached their environmental activism through research and distribution of information. Through pamphlets, newsletters, and conferences, they sought to bring the most recent urban development and fill plans to the attention of Bay Area residents, and to prompt rigorous public engagement with elected officials. Their efforts paid off through the state’s creation of the San Francisco Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), which made environmental regulation a function of government. BCDC legitimized environmental concerns while also providing communities a responsive way to address them. Indeed, the robust activism and engagement of Save The Bay members remained a constant presence at commission hearings. BCDC also created a blueprint, or model, of government-led conservation that would be used in other places of the state where economic development had to be balanced with environmental protection. Today this model can be seen with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the bi-state body that regulates all development around Lake Tahoe, and the California Coastal Commission, which oversees the state's 1,100 mile shoreline. The images in the carousel below offer a look at the historic Save The Bay campaign and creation of BCDC.

Voices

Featured Oral Histories

Esther Gulick (1911 - 1995)

Born in Oakland, Gulick was an environmental advocate and co-founder of Save San Francisco Bay Association. She grew up in California’s Central Valley and attended UC Berkeley, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1932. Years later, she married Charles Gulick, an economics professor at UC Berkeley, and she became active in city and campus affairs for the remainder of her life. Her efforts with Save San Francisco Bay Association in the 1960s led to the creation of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, or BCDC, the first coastal protection agency in the nation.

Esther Gulick Oral History

Catherine “Kay” Kerr (1911 - 2010)

Born in Los Angeles, Kerr was an environmental advocate and co-founder of Save San Francisco Bay Association. She moved to the Bay Area to attend Stanford University, where she majored in journalism. While at Stanford, she met her future husband, Clark Kerr, who later served as chancellor of UC Berkeley and president of the University of California system. Throughout her life, she was active in city and campus affairs, as well as several environmental causes. Her efforts with Save San Francisco Bay Association in the 1960s led to the creation of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, or BCDC, the first coastal protection agency in the nation.

Catherine "Kay" Kerr Oral History

Sylvia McLaughlin (1916 - 2016)

Born in Denver, McLaughlin was an environmental advocate and co-founder of Save San Francisco Bay Association. She attended Vassar College and earned a bachelor’s degree in French before relocating to Berkeley with her husband in 1948. Her efforts with Save San Francisco Bay Association in the 1960s led to the creation of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, or BCDC, the first coastal protection agency in the nation. She served on the board of directors for Save The Bay, the National Audubon Society, People for Open Space, the Oakland Museum of California, and the San Francisco Exploratorium. In 2012, Eastshore State Park was renamed in her honor, in recognition of her environmental activism throughout the Bay Area.

Sylvia McLaughlin Oral History

Joseph Bodovitz (1930 - 2024)

Born in Oklahoma City, Bodovitz was the founding executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, or BCDC. He attended Northwestern University and Columbia University before coming to the Bay Area to work as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. In 1964, after working for the Examiner and the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, or SPUR, he led the drafting of the Bay Plan and served as the executive director of the newly created BCDC. In 1972, he did the same on a larger scale with a new state agency, the California Coastal Commission. In addition to leading these pioneering regulatory agencies, he also served as director of the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Environmental Trust, and the BayVision 2020 project.

Joseph Bodovitz Oral History, 1986

Joseph Bodovitz Oral History, 2015

Melvin B. Lane (1922 - 2007)

Born in Iowa, Lane was co-owner and publisher of Sunset magazine, and the founding chairman of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, or BCDC. He grew up in the Bay Area and attended Stanford University before joining the family business, Lane Publishing, which he operated with his brother, Bill. In 1965, he became chair of the newly created BCDC. In 1972, he did the same on a larger scale with a new state agency, the California Coastal Commission. In 1998, the California League of Conservation Voters (now called California Environmental Voters) named Lane “Conservationist of the Year,” in recognition of his work on behalf of the California environment.

Melvin B Lane Oral History