Rose Gaffney

Rose Gaffney (1895–1974) was an environmental activist known for fighting the construction of the Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant in Sonoma County, California. She is sometimes referred to as the "mother of ecology." With only an eighth grade education, she rode the trains down from Canada to work for the man who later became her husband. Her husband died in 1941, leaving Gaffney to inherit property on Bodega Head that her father in-law purchased in 1863. Gaffney responded by inviting geologists, including Dr. Pierre St. Amand, who had studied the effects of the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile, at 9.4-9.6 on the moment magnitude scale, the largest ever recorded. She also invited government inspectors to visit the land and observe the actual visible fault lines. Although, according to Gaffney, other property owners in the area sold to PG&E "without hesitation," she refused to sell to the utility.

Legacy After the Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant proposal failed, the exploratory hole dug for the proposed plant filled with water. It has since been nicknamed "The Hole in the Head". Gaffney sold 90 acres of land to the California Beaches and Parks Department, and another 327 acres to the University of California, where the Bodega Marine Research Lab was established. She was called the "Mother of Ecology" by the Los Angeles Times in 1971.

In 2003, Gaffney was the focus of a 30-minute documentary by Annette Arnold and Cathy Wild, called "Rose Gaffney: The Belle of Bodega Bay."