College of Marin nears opening of Bolinas marine lab

After decades of debate and controversy, College of Marin’s new $7 million marine biology and science laboratory is set to open next month at Bolinas Lagoon.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for March 29 at or near the lab at 72 Wharf Road. The time and location have not yet been decided.

The center is expected to continue the work started in 1963 by the founders of the college’s marine biology program, Al Molina and Gordon Chan, said Joe Mueller, a biology professor at the school.

“The dream has come true,” he said.

“The Bolinas Field Station will soon be a center of education, science and inspiration,” he added. “It promises to inspire biophilia, learning and environmental stewardship through equitable and accessible education and scientific research.”

The college acquired the site, a former U.S. Coast Guard station, in 1958. It was shuttered in 2005 because of deterioration, unsafe conditions and environmental hazards such as mold and asbestos.

Between 2005 and about 2021, college officials and the community debated what to do with the site. Engineering reports commissioned by the college said the hazards would be too costly to overcome and could expose the college to liability problems.

Various proposals for the site included declaring it as surplus property and donating it to the Bolinas community. But Mueller and other faculty members campaigned to keep the site as a lab.

Following several years of outreach, design and planning, the old station was demolished in June 2021. The college broke ground for the new center in July 2023.

The field station was rebuilt over the last two years as the college and the community assembled funds for the work. Financial support has come from individual and foundation donors, grants from local governments and the college’s Measure B bond funds.

With costs continuing to escalate during construction, the final cost came in at $6.98 million, with about $100,000 left over for reserves or last-minute expenses, said Jonathan Eldridge, president of College of Marin.

“As the community’s college, the Bolinas Field Station allows us to further serve all areas of Marin and meet the educational needs of all members of our diverse community — key tenets of our mission,” Eldridge said.

He said the college plans to offer a marine science institute this summer and a marine biology class in the fall, Eldridge said.

The college also plans to hold events for the general public to visit the center, he said.

“We are grateful to the residents of Bolinas for their support and patience as we have undertaken this significant project and to everyone who has worked so hard to make this field station a reality,” Eldridge said.

Over the next few weeks, Mueller said, students will visit the lab for the first time since it was closed 20 years ago.

“The first visit by students will be a marine biology day for my current ‘Introduction to Natural History and Field Biology’ course,” Mueller said. “Students can’t wait to use the lab with living specimens — they will be living marine biology.”

Mueller took over the marine biology program in 1995, when Chan retired and Molina was about to retire. Chan died in 1996 and Molina died the following year.

“This will continue their legacy by reviving a rich and vibrant marine education and research community,” Mueller said. “It will create a sense of place for students and the whole learning community.”

Kent Khtikian, a Bolinas naturalist and environmental activist who helped develop the docent program at Duxbury Reef, said he has helped since 2017 as a volunteer to guide the marine lab project.

Khtikian said the lab has the potential to increase interest in the physical sciences and provide students with hands-on experience with the natural world, he said.

“I think it will help create a passion and a constituency for conservation policies,” Khtikian said. “I think it will generate concern and an understanding of how to analyze the issues that we’re facing as a society.”