San Francisco Bay Island Needs Extensive Restoration, Judge Says

The government’s proposed restoration plan for a greater San Francisco Bay island should be approved after its owners’ construction projects severely damaged its ecosystem, a federal magistrate judge recommended.

Magistrate Judge Jeremy D. Peterson found the Point Buckler island owners John Sweeney and Point Buckler Club LLC improperly cited their counsel’s opinion as expert analysis when they proposed an insufficient restoration plan, which principally involved “letting nature take its course,” according to a findings and recommendations report filed Thursday to the US District Court for the Eastern District of California.

The government sued Sweeney and Point Buckler Club in 2017, ...