Hey Area: You ask, we answer

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. Brit Byrd wanted to know, “Why does San Francisco have the Farallon Islands? They’re thirty miles off the coast, but they’re legally part of San Francisco. What’s up with that?” The Farallones are these islands off the coast of San Francisco, and Brit noticed them on the internet. One day he was looking at San Francisco and noticed that the county line jutted thirty miles out into the ocean and circled some tiny little dots. On a clear day you can just make out the islands from the city — they’re like jagged teeth sticking out of the Pacific. To understand why they’re part of San Francisco you first have to understand what they’re like, so I went to the visitor center for the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. It’s at Crissy Field in the Presidio. These days the islands are protected as a national wildlife refuge, and only a handful of people get to set foot on them. One of those lucky people is Mary Jane Schramm . She