A small team takes on big polluters and wins. In this episode, the story of San Francisco Baykeeper, from its scrappy beginnings to a formidable force defending the Bay. Along the way, a deeper question emerges: What does it mean to be a keeper?

It started with a guy they called Mad Dog…

Back when San Francisco Bay was being treated like a dumping ground, one man decided to go out on the water and start paying attention. As Baykeeper, he chased down polluters, pushed reluctant agencies, and made enough noise that people had to listen.

Today, San Francisco Baykeeper fields a team of scientists, lawyers, and advocates with the same fierce energy of those early days. They take on powerful adversaries like oil companies, chemical giants, even the U.S. Navy and win victories for the Bay.

But along the way, a bigger idea has taken shape. What is a keeper, exactly? Is it a job title… or a choice? In this episode, we follow Baykeeper’s evolution from lone watchdog to elite action team, and meet the volunteers, neighbors, kayakers, and hip hop artists who show what it means to speak up for a place that can’t speak for itself.

In this episode you’ll hear selections from ‘Small But Mighty,’ a music video produced in collaboration with RyanNicole, Hip Hop for Change, Destiny Arts, and San Francisco Baykeeper. The song is used with Baykeeper’s blessing as part of our shared love for the San Francisco Bay and the communities fighting for it.

Sign up to receive updates: https://once-upon-a-bay.kit.com/01c971c878.

🌊 Learn More

• To see images and other information about this episode, go to https://www.onceuponabay.org/post/more-about-episode-5-who-will-keep-this-place.
• Read about San Francisco Baykeeper at https://baykeeper.org/.
• Read about Penobscot Bay Waterkeeper at https://www.penbaywaterkeeper.org/.
• If you’d like to help protect and celebrate San Francisco Bay, visit onceuponabay.org and click the button that says “Be a Keeper!"

🌊 Credits

• "Small But Mighty” is excerpted from a music video produced in collaboration with RyanNicole, Hip Hop for Change, Destiny Arts, and San Francisco Baykeeper. It is used in this episode under a perpetual, worldwide, royalty‑free license granted to San Francisco Baykeeper for Baykeeper‑related programs and promotions. The official music video link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tQf89bhrg4.
• Archival sound courtesy of “Bay Area Backroads” and San Francisco Baykeeper.
• Cover art by Level Five Graphics, Inc.
• Thank you to Point San Pablo Harbor for giving us safe haven.

A love letter to a giant analog computer made of concrete, copper, and tidewater.

Mike and Kate spend a day inside the San Francisco Bay Model, an enormous mid‑century scale model in Sausalito that once tested radical plans to dam, pave over, and reroute the Bay. Guided by long‑time Park Ranger Linda Holm of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, they trace how this 1.5‑acre, hand‑sculpted “water computer” helped sink the Reber Plan, shaped debates over the Peripheral Canal, and continues to inform navigation, oil‑spill response, and sediment management today.

As they lose their way among waist‑high concrete channels, toy bridges, and signposts, they clock tide cycles that run 100 times faster than nature and tally up “points” in a long-standing argument. Kate is an engineering fangirl, while Mike brings a healthy dose of environmental skepticism, sparking a lively back-and-forth about the promises and pitfalls of trying to “fix” nature with infrastructure.

Sign up to receive updates: https://once-upon-a-bay.kit.com/01c971c878.

🌊 Learn More

• To see images and other information about this episode, go to https://www.onceuponabay.org/post/more-about-episode-4-geeking-out-at-the-bay-model.
• For visitor info and hours at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model Visitor Center (Sausalito, CA) – go to https://www.spn.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/Bay-Model-Visitor-Center/.
• If you’d like to help protect and celebrate San Francisco Bay, visit onceuponabay.org and click the button that says “Be a Keeper!"

🌊 Credits

• Theme music by Zac Bentz.
• Voice work by Ted McDonald.
• “Heaven is Free” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed by Kelvin Ruijters t/as Frequency under an Attribution 4.0 International License.
• “Smooth Rumble” by David Renda is royalty free music from https://www.FesliyanStudios.com. Please DO NOT add this audio content to the Youtube Content ID System. This content is owned by FesliyanStudios.
• Cover art by Level Five Graphics, Inc.
• Thank you to Point San Pablo Harbor for giving us safe haven!

Who pays for the growth of a world‑class city?

In this episode of Once Upon a Bay, Mike and Kate sit down with historical geographer Gray Brechin, author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin. Together, they trace how gold, mercury, dirt, and long‑distance water grabs turned shared waters into real estate, wealth, and leverage for a handful of powerful landholders.

From hydraulic gold mining that poured eight Panama Canals of sediment into the water, to filling in one-third of the Bay to create more real estate, to water schemes that irrigate cities like high‑value crops... this is the story of how imperial San Francisco grew by conquering other people’s rivers, lands, and lives.

Sign up to receive updates: https://once-upon-a-bay.kit.com/01c971c878.

🌊 Learn More

• To see images and other information about this episode, go to https://www.onceuponabay.org/post/more-about-episode-3-dirt-water-power.
• If you’d like to help protect and celebrate San Francisco Bay, visit onceuponabay.org and click the button that says “Be a Keeper!"

🌊 Credits

• This episode was produced with the assistance of Sam Anderson and Earthstory Studios.
• Theme music by Zac Bentz.
• Voice work by Ted McDonald.
• “The Gold Rush Is Over” by Smokey Hormel was recorded live at WFMU on Jeffrey Cobb's Show on 4/3/2008. It is licensed under an Attribution 3.0 International License.
• “Oh, Susannah” was recorded by violinist Lauren Abels and graciously donated to this episode. Abels is the founder of The Tune Project at https://www.thetuneproject.org/.
• “Healing Water” by David Renda; “Mighty Russia” by Steve Oxen; “It Is Coming” by David Fesliyan. Royalty free music from https://www.FesliyanStudios.com. Please DO NOT add this audio content to the Youtube Content ID System. This content is owned by FesliyanStudios.
• Cover art by Level Five Graphics, Inc.