Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge

09/02/2026

What a wonderful tribute to an incredible person. Florence has been leading the way for wetlands advocates for over sixty years - protecting lands that benefit us all in so many ways! We thank her and all the plants and animals that live on the lands she has helped to protect thank her too! ♥

The National Wildlife Refuge Association presented its inaugural Lifetime Refuge Friend Award to Florence LaRiviere, honoring more than six decades of extraordinary leadership to protect the wetlands, wildlife, and open spaces of San Francisco Bay.

07/22/2026

The Almanac's Samhita Krishnan provides a portrait of two of the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge's founders and long-time leaders: Florence LaRiviere and Enid Pearson. Now over 100 years old, both Enid and Florence have spent over six decades working on behalf of San Francisco Bay's wetlands and wildlife.

We are proud to celebrate their decades of accomplishments -- and lift up their call to action to continue to defend the Bay's wetlands, particularly in the face of sea level rise.

Enid Pearson and Florence LaRiviere have spent more than sixty years as each other's most reliable co-conspirators, though neither can quite remember how they met.

04/28/2026

As we wrap up Earth Month, NPR-member station KALW took a deep dive into our efforts to protect the Newark Baylands by stopping the proposed Mowry Village project. Click the link in our comments to listen to the full 10-minute podcast by reporter Padma Balaji and hear from two of Newark’s leading voices to protect the Baylands: Jana Sokale and Cara Madden.

Jana and Cara forcefully argue the importance of Newark planning for a future with higher sea levels, and the importance of listening to the scientists who say that the Newark Baylands are critical to be protected as a flood buffer that both protects communities from flooding and gives wetlands and wildlife the opportunity to survive.

Listen to the full piece and add your thoughts below!