Save the Date
Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Levee Breach & 40th Anniversary Celebration
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
1:00-3:30 p.m.
Refuge Environmental Education Center, Alviso, CA
Join us as we open 130 new acres to the rushing Bay tides and celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge!
The ceremony will celebrate the breach of Pond A17 near Alviso and honor those who helped establish the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge in 1972: the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge and former Santa Clara County planner Art Ogilvie. The opening of Pond A17 that afternoon will continue the work of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, the largest tidal wetland restoration effort on the West Coast, to restore the salt marshes that once ringed the South Bay and buffered the shore from storms and tides. With this breach, the Project will have completed more than 3,000 acres of restoration action as we continue transforming the industrial salt ponds into a thriving mosaic of wetlands and enhanced ponds, creating habitat for endangered species and other wildlife. Please join us and other partners and friends as we recognize this important milestone.
Construction at Pond A17 and nearby Pond A16 was supported by numerous funders: $4.5 million from US Fish and Wildlife Service; $1.3 million from the State Department of Water Resources; $725,000 from US EPA and $625,000 from the State Coastal Conservancy.
Please plan to arrive by 12:30 p.m. to allow time for parking and reaching the site.
Directions to the Refuge Environmental Education Center in Alviso, CA
From I-880 or Highway 101, exit on Highway 237 toward Alviso. Turn north onto Zanker Road. Continue on Zanker Road to the Environmental Education Center entrance road (a sharp right turn at Grand Blvd.) The distance from Hwy 237 to the entrance road is 2.1 miles. Parking is available at the Center parking lot and along adjacent roads.
