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Dr. Marty Griffin, Marin environmental hero, author and retired physician poses with a copy of his book “Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast” at his home in Belvedere, Calif. on Friday, July 16, 2020. Among his accomplishments, Griffin helped stop a planned freeway from the Golden Gate Bridge through West Marin to Sonoma County. Griffin will be turning 100 years old on July 23. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)
Bicyclists ride north on Shoreline Highway past an entrance to the Martin Griffin Preserve at the Audubon Canyon Ranch in Stinson Beach, Calif., on Thursday, June 2, 2022. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)
BELVEDERE CA – JULY 17: Marty Griffin, Marin environmental hero, author and retired physician works on text and images for presentation at his birthday zoom party with his assistant Jocelyn Knight at his home in Belvedere, Calif. on Friday, July 16, 2020. Among his accomplishments, Griffin helped stop a planned freeway from the Golden Gate Bridge through West Marin to Sonoma County. Griffin will be turning 100 years old on July 23. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)
Greg Moore, right, welcomes Martin and Joyce Griffin at the new Presidio Visitor Center. Moore is the head of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy,
Marty Griffin, a retired physician and longtime Marin environmental activist, at his home in Belvedere on July 16, 2020. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)
Dr. Martin Griffin was instrumental in creating Audubon Canyon Ranch.
Marty Griffin, Marin environmental hero, author and retired physician looks laughs while chatting with his wife Joyce at their home in Belvedere, Calif. on Friday, July 16, 2020. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)
Marin lost one of its environmental champions in the death of Dr. Martin Griffin on May 22.
The legacy of this conservationist and environmental activist will be shared by the thousands of people over the years who have watched birds at Audubon Canyon Ranch on Bolinas Lagoon, a nature’s sanctuary saved for generations instead of the subdivisions and large harbor that had been planned.
That was just a chapter in Marty Griffin’s dedicated work, among which is a leader in the creation of the Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary in Tiburon, another Marin environmental treasure.
Dr. Griffin died in his Belvedere home. He was 103.
He was even active as a centenarian, writing letters to this page advocating for nature and protecting the environment.
“I don’t think there is any health unless your environment is healthy,” Dr. Griffin said in a 2020 IJ interview. “I think the key to public health and our individual health is to protect our environment and protect our habitats. Every native habitat is healthy. We can’t afford to lose any more.”
The ethic that Dr. Griffin preached and practiced has become a guiding principle in our county.
His activism helped create the template for future environmental victories that have shaped, if not saved, Marin from being laced by wide freeways and its coast being lined with subdivisions.
He proved that environmental victories could be won with grassroots activism – dedication and political will.
He was proud of his and others’ accomplishments. He deserved to be.
The natural landscapes and the feeling of environmental connection we enjoy at many locales across our county are a testament to the vision and work of pioneers like Dr. Griffin.
His 1998 book, “Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast,” is a personal account of that inspirational work and a history of the men and women who made a difference.
His environmental resume is long and impressive. He credited his environmental roots to the Boy Scouts and a trip to the Bolinas Lagoon where he set eyes on a large rookery of blue herons and egrets.
Years later, after serving in World War II, starting a career in medicine and moving to Marin, Dr. Griffin in 1961 founded Audubon Canyon Ranch and over the years was instrumental in its expansion. Today, a 1,000-acre stretch encompassing four canyons near the Bolinas Lagoon is named after him.
He also helped save Richardson Bay shoreline from a sweeping 800-acre development and was instrumental in the opening of the Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary.
Meanwhile, the physician rose to leadership roles at Marin General Hospital and Ross Hospital, the county’s two largest hospitals at the time.
In 1972, he founded the Marin Environmental Forum, an educational and training program on local environmental issues that continues today.
He was elected to the Marin Municipal Water District board in 1973 and was part of a majority that put the brakes on growth, voting for a moratorium on new hookups.
His activism aimed northward, as well. He opened a Healdsburg winery, moved there and soon became active in efforts to protect the Russian River, including helping start the Friends of the Russian River and taking on the damaging practices of the gravel companies that were mining along the river.
His activism also crossed the Pacific Ocean, to Maui, where his scientific efforts helped lay the foundation for including Maui’s Kipahulu Valley in the Haleakala National Park.
In recent years, Dr. Griffin has been writing and working to enhance wilderness areas and issues of Point Reyes National Park.
He was, to borrow from the 2013 documentary film on Marin’s environmental activists, a “rebel with a cause.” Given the longevity of this work, he likely was one of their mentors.
Marty Griffin will be missed, but he leaves a legacy that is a large part of Marin, its landscape, its environment, its ethic and its history.
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