Monday February 27, 2023
Northern California Public Media —
Hike through Marin’s Tennessee Valley and you’ll pass by a small duck pond set just back from the beach. Holding in the pond: a small earthen dam – whose days are numbered.
The dam was originally built by a private landowner around 1960 according to Julian Espinoza with the National Parks Service – the same time that developers attempted to build a planned city of 30,000 called Marincello in Tennessee Valley and the surrounding Marin Headlands.
“The pond that is impound by the dam was used for duck hunting, and as you might imagine, wasn’t engineered to today’s standards,” Espinoza said. “So the dam can’t be stabilized without completely rebuilding it, but there’s not any ecological reason to maintain it. So as a result, we are planning for its removal.”
Tennessee Valley is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and Espinoza said the dam has been on the Park Service’s radar for some time.