Ahead: A More Crowded Coast MICHAEL L. FISCHER ome activists say conservation is like guerrilla warfare, in that you have to keep at it. The danger never goes away. Land use decision makers have a saying that echoes that idea: "A permit denied is simply a decision delayed." It's quite apt when applied to the Coastal Commission's work. Just as the Pacific Ocean's waves unceasingly wash against our shores, so the challenges that confront coastal managers keep returning, in ever-changing but similar forms. Erecting regulatory barriers against them is essential but, ultimately, as futile as trying to keep our "collision coast" from moving inland by arming our seacliffs. That may buy time, but it's no long-term solution. We need to tap our imaginations and invent new and positive ways to meet the challenge and serve the future. Anyone who has read a management handbook will recall this advice: Know your customers, focus on their needs, serve them well. For coastal managers, that's a tall order. Among our principal customers are future generations-future generations of all the species that depend on coastal zone resources for life itself, for a livelihood, or for spiritual enrichment. The future is, of course, unknowable. We do know, however, that it will bring enormous population growth and development pressures. California's population, now 32 million, is expected to double to 64 million by the year 2040--that's little more than one generation from now. Unless we drastically change the way we do things, we will need to double in a little over 40 years all that we have built in the state's short history: all the urban growth, all the subdivisions, all the roads, schools, the energy and other facilities we have today. Breathtaking. In a way, exhilarating. For those dedicated to coastal protection, threatening. Challenging. Because the coast is so beautiful, because clean air blows in from the ocean, because the coastal climate is more temperate than that of inland areas, the pressures to build on the coast will be far more intense than ever before. Several years ago, a group of 40 of us who have been active in California coastal issues collaborated on a report, Coastal Agenda 2000: Protecting and Managing California's Coast in the 21st Century. The report was prepared for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation as they looked ahead to establish their funding priorities. The three objectives that emerged in that report provide a useful outline for considering the changes and improvements we must make in our coastal program in the service of an expanding and increasingly diverse population: 1. Reestablish a firm, diverse, and sophisticated citizen base for coastal protection. Without that, governmental attention and commitment will waver. Even in good times, government actions alone will never protect the California coast. 2. Develop new partnerships among public agencies and private organizations. The terms "integrated coastal management," "sustainable development," "reinventing government," and "ecosystem management" offer nebulous direction. But these are sound concepts, and require that we forge new ways of doing the public's business. We must connect the economy to the environment; local agencies to the state and federal; general interests to the neighborhood; the neighborhood to the watershed; the future to the present. 3. Bridge the land/ocean interface. It's only a slight exaggeration to say that land use managers know nothing about the marine environment, and fisheries managers or marine scientists know nothing about private property rights and land use management. Coastal land and marine management must be coordinated. To do so will demand a series of projects that require those concerned with each area separately to collaborate over time. There is one more very important point. Will Rogers put it this way: "Invest in land. They ain't makin' any more of it." This generation has a duty to invest in purchasing coastal land for the benefit of coming generations. When viewed from a future perspective, current prices are incredibly low. If we wait, scenic, habitat, and recreational property will quite probably be lost to development or become too expensive to acquire. Bond issues are an appropriate--even essential--ingredient in our coastal management program. They also pass some of the cost on to the future. One final reflection as we look ahead from our first 25 years of California coastal protection efforts: What a miracle, what a magnificent success it has been, by and large! In your mind's eye, take a trip along a favorite stretch of coastline--whether it be Humboldt Bay, the San Mateo coast, Big Sur, Nipomo Dunes, Malibu, or the San Diego lagoons. Remember how beautiful the coast was 25 years ago and note how much of that beauty--even immediately adjacent to major metropolitan areas--is still here today. It hasn't stayed that way by accident. We all owe an immense debt of gratitude to the literally tens of thousands of Californians who have actively participated: city and county planning staffers, local planning commissioners, councilmembers, supervisors, landowners, architects, and citizens who have attended thousands of meetings--or voted in local election--to help arrive at policy decisions that have, in fact, protected the coast. Since that probably includes everyone who will read these words, thank you! Michael L. Fischer is the executive officer of the Coastal Conservancy. He was executive director of the Coastal Commission from 1978 to 1985.