San Francisco Bay Area:An Environmental History, with Highlights from Marin David Schmidt 12 08 2025

“San Francisco Bay Area: An Environmental History, with Highlights from Marin”
Presenter: David D. Schmidt, Environmental Historian, Author

David D. Schmidt

David will give an overview of the Bay Area’s environmental history, from 10,000 years ago to the present, starting with Native Tribes but focusing on land uses, industries, earthquakes, fires, transportation, water supplies, waste, and urban growth of the past 250 years. Highlights from Marin will include environmental pioneers like Laura Lyon White and William Kent, the founders of the Marin Conservation League and MALT.

David’s recently published book, San Francisco Bay Area: An Environmental History, is half historic and half recent history. Copies of this comprehensive book of 632 pages with more than 20 color maps and more than 60 photos is available now at CNPS Marin.

David D. Schmidt is a lifelong San Francisco Bay Area resident, naturalist, and environmental historian. He worked as a writer in the public affairs office of the US Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco from 1991 to 2021. An avid hiker and backpacker, he has led dozens of hikes for the Greenbelt Alliance, the Bay Area’s leading land conservation organization, in the region’s extensive public parklands.

David has volunteered on habitat restoration projects for the Golden Gate National Parks and the California Native Plant Society in Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties from 1991 to the present. He is also the author of Citizen Lawmakers: The Ballot Initiative Revolution (Temple University Press, 1989). He has a bachelor’s degree in history from Santa Clara University. Born in Mountain View, he lived in San Francisco for more than 50 years. David has been on the board of the Yerba Buena Chapter of CNPS, until recently moving to Santa Rosa.