Linking past, present, and future landscapes at SFEI
Jessie Kong (she/her)
Hometown: Mountain View, CA
Major: Urban Studies ‘26
Internship: San Francisco Estuary Institute
Jessie Kong reflects on her internship experience on the Resilient Landscapes Team at the San Francisco Estuary Institute.
Despite its rapid development since the Gold Rush, San Francisco has managed to maintain some form of green space in the city. Whether that is Glen Canyon Park, Golden Gate Park, or The Presidio, San Francisco’s residents have a place to go to escape urban life and reconnect with nature. However, many of these green spaces were planned with the idea that nature and the city are separated. Today, there is an increasing emphasis on urban nature and the idea that nature and cities can intertwine and strengthen environmental resilience and human health.
Understanding what San Francisco’s landscape was like in the past can help us make more informed decisions about urban redevelopment in the present day and the future. At the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI), the main project I worked on was on mapping Yelamu historical lands, which is a historical ecology project. Historical ecology is a research field where data in all mediums is compiled, analyzed, and synthesized in order to produce authoritative maps and written narratives documenting the historical, cultural, and ecological landscape in a region.
I took a deep dive into studying Islais Creek, which had a watershed that covered the majority of southeastern San Francisco, including the present day Glen Park, Crocker-Amazon, Excelsior, and Bayview neighborhoods. While it was a deep river that sustained a thriving ecosystem and provided drinking water to the city, the river was rerouted into a tunnel in the 1920s to accommodate expanding development. Today, the only parts of Islais Creek that are on ground level are a small stream in Glen Canyon Park and the main channel as the creek enters the bay. While analyzing textual, photographic, and cartographic data, I was surprised at just how fast the creek was forced underground and freeways were built on top with complete ignorance to the previous land cover. In order to emphasize these changes, I went out to some of the locations at which historical photos were taken to recreate them. Many of these photos show change over time that made the landscape completely unrecognizable to its past.
However, not all is lost. Green spaces still remain in the city and throughout the Bay Area. There is also renewed interest in increasing green space access. Another project I worked on was Ground Stormwater Infrastructure for Communities, where I was able to help host a workshop with the residents of Richmond to increase the presence of natural stormwater solutions. Seeing people so invested and passionate about improving the environment of their surroundings reminded me that ordinary people have the power to create change in their communities. To create effective and engaging solutions, it is essential to understand Richmond’s historical landscape and ongoing environmental challenges, which is why historical ecology is crucial.
SFEI has put a lot of effort into increasing collaboration within the community, whether that be through outreach workshops, cohosting the State of the Estuary Conference with other local nonprofits, or through one of the many other ongoing projects. Now that my internship at SFEI is coming to an end, I’m thankful that I have been able to contribute to community engaged outreach and historical ecology projects that will be used to inform future urban revitalization efforts. I’m also grateful for all the career and life advice that my colleagues have given me. In the future, I want to continue finding ways to make my work have a positive tangible impact on the people and space around me.
