May 2013 NewsletterVolume 30
Save the Date Restoration Project Science Symposium San Francisco Estuary Partnership State of the Estuary Conference June 2013 Drawbridge Van Excursion Environmental Education Center, Alviso There?s a ghost town in the San Francisco Bay? That?s right! Nestled on an island in the salt marshes of South San Francisco Bay, the town of Drawbridge once boomed. Was it a quiet, peaceful town full of nature lovers, or a rip-roaring town full of two-fisted rowdies? Find out at this program, led by Ceal Craig. We?ll start with a slideshow and then take a short van excursion to view Drawbridge across Coyote Creek. Note: we do not visit the town itself ? we go to the closest spot that one can legally view Drawbridge. Program is intended for adults and space is very limited. RESERVATIONS ARE ESSENTIAL. Call Debra at 408-262-5513 ext. 102. Explore Bay Ecology at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve Eden Landing Ecological Reserve, Hayward Can you list the major functions of wetlands or name one animal that relies on our hard work? How many different species of San Francisco Bay mammals do you know? What?s the difference between a native plant and an invasive weed? If you know the answer to any of these questions, please come out and share your knowledge. If not, we invite you to come out and learn! Volunteers will help us remove invasive species while our project leaders teach the importance of wetland restoration. More info. Habitat Under Construction Environmental Education Center, Alviso The South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project is engaged in an effort to convert former salt ponds into lands for wildlife habitat, wildlife-oriented recreation, and natural flood protection. Join Park Ranger Jose Garcia in this bike ride and learn about the structure of several different habitats which make up the bay front. Helmets required. Water and other safety gear recommended. PowerPoint will be substituted in case of inclement weather. Call 510-792-0222 ext. 141 for more information. Refuge Rambler Walk Moffett Bay Trail, Sunnyvale Meet new people while getting fit and healthy! This 6.7-mile trail is a compacted dirt levee that is flat and level. The walk is self-paced and you may turn back at any time. No reservations are needed. Hats, water, and sunscreen are strongly recommended. A Refuge Representative will be there to greet you. More info. July 2013
Midsummer’s Bay Restoration at Eden Landing or Ravenswood Eden Landing Ecological Reserve, Hayward/Union City Shakespeare and his cast of colorful characters would be proud of the habitat restoration we are completing in the wetlands! A chorus of birds and a bevy of magnificent mammals await your presence. Please join us for a morning of invasive plant removal and help use prepare the site to receive its next batch of native plants come winter. More info and RSVP More info and RSVP August 2013
Power to the Plants at Eden Landing Eden Landing Ecological Reserve, Hayward/Union City Enjoy Bay breezes and the sweet sound of bird songs as you prepare former salt ponds for the next batch of native seedlings. You will play a vital role in the largest wetland restoration project on the West Coast. Invasive plants and trash may think they?ve won. Let?s show them that the native plants are here to stay! Come learn about the exciting changes happening at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve. More info. Habitat Under Construction Bayfront Park, Menlo Park The South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project is coming to the end of Phase 1 restoration and beginning Phase 2. Take a nature trail walk with Park Ranger Jose Garcia and enjoy the abundant wildlife. Come see and be a part of the exciting transition. Call 510-792-0222 ext. 141 for more information. Children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Photo Credits: Judy Irving, Cris Benton, Carleton Watkins For a complete list of our partners, major donors and participants, see here.
|
Salt Ponds Restoration Celebrates 10 Years of Hard Work & Progress
It was in March 2003 that 26 square miles of land were transferred from Cargill Salt to state and federal land management agencies, after months of careful negotiations and preparations, setting the stage for the largest coastal wetlands restoration project in California history. After the transfer, many people — activists, agency and local government leaders, scientists, business representatives — helped us craft a long-term restoration plan that sets an initial goal of turning a minimum of 50% of the area into tidal marsh. The plan calls for adaptive management, using strategically designed scientific studies to evaluate and refine our progress. Since that time, Project managers have been working to transform the landscape in a way that will best support a diversity of plants and animals, from secretive marsh dwellers like the endangered clapper rail and salt marsh harvest mouse, to many species of fish, to the thousands of shorebirds who stop here along the Pacific Flyway to rest and nest.
Managers are also working to build more trails and other public amenities so people can come down to the Bay and enjoy themselves. And the Project and its partners are working to enhance flood protection, planning for a suite of wide and sloping levees that can support plants and animals escaping rising tides. Scientists continue to conduct the key research to inform our next steps. We will celebrate the 10th anniversary at the late afternoon poster-viewing and reception at the end of our biennial Science Symposium, on Tuesday, July 16, as USGS in Menlo Park. While space at the event is limited by the size of venue, we still have more tickets (which are free) available. Ticket information Additional information about Project progress through 2012 is available in the latest Annual Report, which can be viewed and downloaded from our website here. We reminisce about the early days of the Restoration Project in this edition’s Faces of the Restoration, below, through an interview with Pat Mapelli of Cargill, one of the many people involved in the Project’s infancy, who helped our wildlife managers learn a thing or two about taking care of salt ponds. On the Ground: Alviso: New Nesting Islands and Reopened Loop Trail! Birds are already nesting at Pond A16 after construction crews finished sculpting 16 new islands there this spring. The completion of enhancement work at Pond A16 doubles the amount of enhanced ponds at the Project to a total of about 480 acres. The $6.5 million cost of construction for Pond A16 and neighboring Pond A17, which was opened to the Bay on Halloween 2012, was paid for by:
The work paid for lowering levees and breaching Pond A17, constructing the 16 new islands, installing a new automatic fish screen and new pond outlet structures, and improving the newly reconfigured Mallard Slough Trail with a viewing platform and interpretive signs.
Plovers, avocets and stilts are mainly nesting on exposed areas of the pond bottom, although a couple avocets have created nests on the new islands built just for birds. Chicks have already hatched. To visit, see more information and a link to the new trail map here. Eden Landing: If You Drain It, They Will Come
Nesting snowy plovers have slowed construction work at Eden Landing this spring. Construction workers have a big job underway at Eden Landing, where they are developing a 230-acre mosaic of bird ponds that will host different salinity levels to suit multiple species. When ponds were drained dry for toiling humans, the moonscape became attractive to another animal: the threatened western snowy plover, which historically used beaches and alkaline flats for nest sites. Biologists at the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory now count 35 nests at the construction zone, along with 28 plover nests elsewhere at Eden Landing. Work will start again once plovers leave the site some time this summer. Workers here will eventually be building an extensive network of trails to a historic saltworks, and a kayak launch. Work is expected to be complete by the end of 2014. A year of wildlife surveying will follow, with trails likely opening in early 2016.
Ravenswood: Smoothing the Way for Chicks Sister Project at Bair Island Moves Forward Phase 2 Planning: Scoping Meeting in September Planning for our suite of Phase 2 construction projects continues to progress, with consultants in the process of developing environmental analyses of potential actions at the Ravenswood and Alviso ponds. A public scoping session for the environmental analyses will be held at our annual Stakeholder Forum meeting, which has been scheduled for Tuesday, September 24. Meanwhile, we are working with our partner, the Alameda County Flood Control Agency, on Phase 2 planning for Eden Landing. The Agency is working with the rest of the management team to develop scenarios for restoration and flood risk management projects there. Science Updates: One of the key challenges for the Project is how to manage habitats in parts of the South Bay where mud is contaminated with mercury from the largest historic quicksilver mine in North America. The old New Almaden mine site in the hills above San Jose is drained by the Guadalupe River into Alviso Slough and our surrounding Alviso Pond Complex. Read More… Other Science News
Faces of the Restoration: Pat Mapelli
Pat Mapelli is a Real Property Manager for Cargill. In his work for the salt-making company, he was a key participant 10 years ago in facilitating the birth and successful infancy of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project. He was responsible for making sure Cargill lands met certain standards before they could be transferred to state and federal land managers. He and others at Cargill worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge to install early infrastructure necessary for operating Alviso ponds for wildlife. And he worked with Restoration Project managers, including then-Refuge Manager Clyde Morris and Alviso ponds manager Eric Mruz [now Refuge Manager], to pass along his knowledge and experience keeping levees and other pond infrastructure maintained in the face of harsh winds, strong waves, and goopy Bay muds. “They have been a tremendous help to the Refuge over the years, and we would not be where we are today without Cargill’s help,” Eric Mruz says. Along with sitting on the Project’s Stakeholder Forum, Pat also is a board member of the San Francisco Bay Trail. Read More… New Project Website Design The Restoration Project has redesigned our website at www.southbayrestoration.org/. The new website is wider and allows us to better display images of the restoration, as well as a new Google Earth fly-over video that helps those less acquainted with the Project understands its geography. We aim to make the website useful and easy for visitors; as always, we welcome your feedback and comments. Feel free to provide them via this link to our comment form.
Benton Salt Ponds Photos Grace New Exploratorium Kite photographer Cris Benton’s artwork is exhibited at the Exploratorium’s new San Francisco waterfront home. Cris, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of architecture, captures beautiful aerial images of both salt-production ponds and restored landscapes along the South Bay. The hands-on science museum commissioned his work to wrap up a stairway connecting two exhibit halls. The Exploratorium celebrated the grand opening of its new Pier 15 building on the Embarcadero in April; Cris talks about and shares photos of the exhibit in a blog entry here. His work will soon be featured in a book, to be published by Berkeley-based non-profit publisher Heyday this fall.
Salt Pond Restoration in the News A compendium of recent media coverage
|
This year, 2013, marks the 10th anniversary of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project.
