ADS REQUEST SALE OF WETLANDS ISLAND.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Environmentalists launched a last-ditch advertising campaign Tuesday aimed at persuading the Japanese owner of Bair Island to sell the property into the San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay, 50 mi (80 km) long and from 3 to 13 mi (4.8–21 km) wide, W Calif.; entered through the Golden Gate, a strait between two peninsulas. National Wildlife Refuge  National Wildlife Refuge . The ads, purchased by the National Audubon Society The National Audubon Society is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservancy. Incorporated in 1905, it is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world. and other groups, ran a full-page ad in the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times' West Coast editions, which circulate in California and the Pacific Rim. The groups also have taken their cause to the media in Japan, where the main owners, Kumagai-Gumi Ltd., are based. ``When you've tried so many things, there's no reason not to try this,'' said Ralph Nobles, whose group, Friends of Redwood City, has tried to encourage the sale of the 1,700 acres - mostly wetlands - off Redwood City. ``We're optimistic,'' Nobles added. But Kumagai-Gumi Ltd., a large Japanese construction company, so far has ``absolutely stonewalled all of our approaches,'' said William Rukeyser of the Audubon Society. At one point, the company had planned to build a residential, office and hotel complex on the island. The full-page advertisement, addressed to ``Mr. Kumagai in Tokyo,'' reads, ``Please let Bair Island go back to nature.'' It includes a form that readers can send Kumagai urging him to ``be a good corporate neighbor and release Bair Island from your worldwide real estate holdings.'' Calls to Redwood Shores Properties, which represents the Japanese firm owned by Kumagai Taichiro, were not returned. Bair Island - which contains the largest unbroken chunk of wetlands in the area - is home to dozens of wildlife species, including the endangered California clapper rail The California Clapper Rail (Rallus longirostris obsoletus) is an endangered subspecies of the Clapper Rail (R. longirostris). It is found principally in California's San Francisco Bay, and also in Monterey Bay and Morro Bay. , a shore bird, and the salt marsh harvest mouse The Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse (Reithrodontomys raviventris), also known as the Red-bellied Harvest Mouse, is an endangered rodent endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area salt marshes in California. , which is an important food for the peregrine falcon. While Kumagai owns 1,674 acres, the California Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and several individuals also own small portions of the island, which is actually three islands connected by sloughs, said Howard Stark, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service land acquisition manager. |
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