Rep. Sam Farr can remember when Elkhorn Slough was known as the “mud flats.”

On Saturday, Farr and his colleague, former Congressman Leon Panetta, helped celebrate the opening of a new $2.8 million research and education laboratory at Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.

In an interview before the ribbon cutting, Panetta said, “As somebody born and raised in this area, I was always very familiar with the slough and used to go by there as a kid and spent a lot of time around here. When I became a member of Congress, it was one of the estuaries that we really wanted to protect. One of the problems in California with the coastal development is we’ve lost about 95 percent of our historical wetlands.”

Panetta joked about his reputation as an advocate for protecting estuaries, delicate intersections of rivers and ocean.

“You mentioned I’m a ‘champion of mud,’ that really goes back to Washington,” Panetta joked in a speech to about 250 people at the reserve. Panetta resigned from his seat in Congress to become President Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff.

Farr, who was elected to Congress in a 1993 special election to fill the vacancy left by Panetta, remembered proposed amendments to a general plan to build housing around the slough.

“At that time, this whole area was just known as the Moss Landing mud flats stuck out here by the power plant,” he told the crowd on Saturday.

Farr saluted Warren Church, chair of the board of supervisors in the 1970s, for resisting development pressure and halting the proposed housing. Instead, in 1979, the National Estuarine Research Reserve was established.

Les Strnad, board president — for Camp SEA Lab marine science adventure camp — and then a staff member for the coastal commission, championed the idea of a reserve.

“Bless his soul, because Les had this vision that this ought to become a national marine estuary, nobody had heard that title before,” Farr recalled.

Becky Christensen, manager of the reserve, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration contributed almost $2 million in construction funds for the new research center, and California Department of Fish and Game provided more than $800,000.

“For the last 27 years, our research staff has been working out of trailers and storage sheds. Our stewardship staff, their office is an unheated storage room in the administration building, so this is a step up,” she said.

School groups can study the slough in a new education lab, which replaces a space in the corner of a maintenance building, Christensen said.

California Department of Fish and Game manages the reserve in cooperation with the Elkhorn Slough Foundation.

Panetta said research conducted at the reserve can help stem threats against California’s coastline.

“There really is a major crisis facing our oceans,” he said. “When it comes to our fisheries, overall, we’ve lost about 90 percent of the big fish in the ocean, that means the tuna, the swordfish, 90 percent are gone. We’re also continuing to lose a lot of our local fisheries as well. When I was a kid and went on Monterey wharf, there used to be a dozen shops that sold fresh fish, and now I think we’re down to one.

“Because of pollution along the coastlines, we’re seeing an increase in what are called dead zones, where there’s absolutely no life. In the Gulf of Mexico there’s a dead zone that’s the size of the State of Massachusetts,” he said.

“Coastal development is obviously a real problem, we’ve got over 50 percent of our population that lives near the coast, and we expect another 20 million people to move near the coast in these next few years. That means they’re going to build on places like Elkhorn Slough.”

Key components of the 3,500-square-foot building are a new research laboratory for staff and visiting scientists to study specimens and analyze data; a teaching laboratory to provide hands-on experience for students to observe specimens and samples; office and meeting space for research and stewardship staff, and a studio apartment for visiting researchers. Kase Pacific Construction was the contractor.

The reserve also recognized more than 100 local community volunteers who annually contribute more than 7,000 hours to help staff with monitoring, restoration, education and other activities. The celebration also marked the 25th anniversary of the Elkhorn Slough Foundation, the reserve’s non-profit partner. During an open house in the afternoon, the public was invited to tour the new buildings.

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(Published in 8/13/07 edition)

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