Map of Upper Newport Bay

The restoration and preservation of the Upper Newport Bay as an ecosystem and recreational site is one of Orange County's greatest environmental success stories. And not only has the Bay itself been well preserved, but the history of the struggle to save it is also well preserved in the UCI Libraries.

Langson Library has been actively acquiring documents on the Upper Newport Bay and San Diego Creek ecosystem since 1970. Reports, photographs, maps, manuscripts, and other documents cover all aspects of this key waterway and estuary, including water supply, habitat, pollution control, and restoration activities. Sources include the County of Orange, State of California, private consulting firms, and individual citizens. All told, the documents form a significant primary resource for researching Orange County's ever-changing environment.

Activities that are particularly well documented include a proposed land swap between the Irvine Company and the County in 1965; the formation of the Friends of the Newport Bay (FONB, the activist group that worked diligently to preserve the bay) in 1967; and the papers of J. Frank and Frances Robinson, founders of FONB, who devoted 30 years of their lives to environmental activism on behalf of the Bay.

Frances & J. Frank Robinson

For further information, please call Yvonne Wilson, Orange County Documents Librarian, at (949) 824- 7362 or Bill Landis, Manuscripts Librarian, at (949) 824-3113.