[Sosfbay-discuss] Wetlands Restoration in the South Bay

[Tian Harter]

 >
 >*Tuesday, June 27 at 11:45 AM*
 >
 >*Eileen McLaughlin*                                                   
                                 
 >
 >*Wetlands Restoration in the South Bay*
 >
 >
 >Eileen McLaughlin is project director of Wildlife Stewards, a non-profit
 >organization that works to build citizen-based stewardship among diverse
 >communities in support of wildlife and National Wildlife Refuges and that
 >is a partner to the National Wildlife Refuges of the San Francisco Bay 
Region.
 >She is also a member of the public access workgroup of the South Bay Salt
 >Pond Restoration Project and of the public outreach committee of the San
 >Francisco Bay Joint Venture.
 >
 >Eileen will discuss the salt pond restoration project, reviewing its 
ecological
 >and infrastructure goals, timelines, interagency cooperation and the 
challenges
 >and opportunities involved in finding solutions that serve wildlife 
and wild lands
 >and the communities of the South Bay.
 >


Eileen McLaughlin began her talk by explaining that the three main goals
of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project are habitat restoration,
public access, and flood protection in the wetlands of the San Francisco
Bay Area. She showed us a satellite photo of the area with the Cargill salt
ponds in the east bay a pinkish color, and the rest of the salt ponds that
are being restored to wetlands a greener color. She explained that the
ones losing that "salt pond look" are the ones the project is helping with. 

The difference is because Cargill's salt business will continue on the 
eastern
shoreline of the South Bay, something that is commonly not understood by
the public who heard about the salt pond acquisition. These ponds are a
location where the company gets a tax break by owning just salt production
rights, not the land beneath the ponds. On most of its remaining ponds,
Cargill pays no property tax. This arrangement was in existence when 
Cargill
purchased the Leslie Salt Company. In the 1970s many salt ponds were 
sold to the government to create the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge. 
As a result, we will continue to see those red salt ponds as we fly into 
local
airports.  The flip side of this land ownership arrangement is that 
government
ownership permanently protects those same ponds from development, 
should the day ever come when Cargill decides to get out of South Bay salt
business entirely.

A salt pond that is left alone continues to make salt. Currently, the 
project
leadership team is coordinating input and analysis of many government
agencies, NGOs and citizens to identify appropriate ways to turn them into
wetlands. While those plans are being developed and to avoid salt 
production,
gates were opened in some of the ponds to let sea water in and out. Since
then there has been a dramatic rise in the use of the area by fish and sea
birds. In an ideal world, the strong levees on the bay side of the ponds 
would
be removed, and strong levees would be put on the shore side of the 
wetlands,
so that the full tidal wetlands washing of the tides could nourish the 
place.
As is unfortunate but common for a government-run project, funding toward
such restoration has not yet been identified.


Wildlife Stewards enjoys connecting people with the Don Edwards National
Wildlife Refuge. There is a Visitor Center in Fremont and an Environmental
Education Center in Alviso.  In addition, Wildlife Stewards or docents 
it trained,
lead salt pond hikes through the refuge on a regular basis. Groups that
want to have a special tour are invited to contact Wildlife Stewards for
more information at WildlifeStewards at aol.com 
<mailto:WildlifeStewards at aol.com>

<mailto:WildlifeStewards at aol.com>If you want to find out more on the 
web, please visit:

http://desfbay.fws.gov <http://desfbay.fws.gov/>
http://www.southbayrestoration.org
http://www.refugenet.org

During Q&A the following points came up:

This project is a pet of Senator Diane Feinstein.

There is still a lot of duck hunting in the salt ponds, but the active duck
blinds have been moved further from the active parks for safety reasons.

Since Station Island really is an island, one of the most likely projects is
to let the levees around it disintegrate, returning it to natural wetlands.

The Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge is the largest NWR in an urban
center anywhere on the country.

-- 
Tian
http://tian.greens.org
I got these coins at Ozzfest: 2x65, 67, 68, 72, 76, 3x77, 81, 
2x83, 2x84, 2x85, 86, 3x89, 90, 3x91, 2x92, 94, 96, 97, 2x98, 
DE, 2xGA, 2xCT, 2xMA, MD, 2xVA, 2xVT,  KY, OH, MS, 2xME, MI, 
IA, CA, MN, 2xOR, KS, 4xWV, NV, 3xNE, and a 1992 half dollar.