Restoring South Bay
wetlands RECLAIMING 10
PERCENT OF LOST ACREAGE WILL TAKE 50 YEARS, $1
BILLION
By Lisa M. Krieger Mercury
News - San Jose Mercury News 03/08/2007 01:37:50 AM
PST
|
 One goal of the Salt Pond Restoration Project is
to lower the salt content of the ponds, increasing the
number of ducks, fish, plants and other freshwater
species inhabiting the bay. (Susanna Frohman/Mercury
News Archive) ( Susanna Frohman
)
| Nature will need a
huge helping hand to restore the South Bay's system of salt
ponds, says a long-awaited report on the future of the
ambitious project.
In this unusual
back-to-nature experiment, it will take more than $1 billion
and 50 years of close supervision to roll back the clock to
the Bay's pre-industrial conditions, concludes the draft
environmental impact report on the Salt Ponds Restoration
Project.
"We can't just throw
it all back 100 years," said project manager Steve Ritchie of
the California Coastal Conservancy, a state agency based in
Oakland. "We've changed everything."
The project - the
largest wetlands restoration ever conducted on the West Coast
- would set aside habitat for endangered wildlife, while
providing flood protection and places to play for South Bay
residents.
Among new
recreational sites would be a kayak launch in Hayward and 37
miles of new waterside trails in areas long off-limits to
humans, including the edge of Moffett Field. The
2,400-page report offers the first formal public viewing of
the project plans since the ponds were sold to the state and
federal government for $100 million in 2003.
The public
can respond to the report until April 23, and then a
final report will be submitted and reviewed before the project
can begin.
One option -
doing nothing - is discouraged by the experts, who say
that would not help either humans or wildlife. Also, they
worry that ignored levees will breach, posing flood risks.
Fifty to 90 percent
of the former Cargill ponds should be allowed to revert to
wild freshwater marshland over the five-decade span of
the project, the report recommends.
The new saltwater
marshland would benefit harbor seals, estuarine fishes, salt
marsh harvest mice, steelhead trout and "dabbling" ducks,
which feed with their tails in the air.
But there will be no
rush to freedom for these long-captive salt pond waters.
The restoration will
be cautious and data-driven, as experts seek the best balance
between artificial and wild environments for the creatures
that depend on the bay.
Salt-dependent species
The challenge is that
several types of birds, such as migratory shorebirds and ruddy
ducks, have become reliant on the salt ponds over the past
century. And many of these birds' original habitats have
disappeared in the meantime.
"We can't just take
it away," Ritchie said. "We can't just put it back like it
was."
So some high-salinity
ponds - an estimated 10 to 50 percent of the total acreage -
may never be fully restored, due to the dependency of birds.
They will be retained and "managed" to keep their walls and
waters strong.
How much is enough?
The final number of preserved ponds won't be known until the
process is well under way. If salt-dependent bird populations
show signs of stress, the conversion process will slow. "We'll
stop and take a long breath," Ritchie said.
"None of the species
have read the textbooks that we have. They will respond
however nature intends them to," he said. "It is a huge
adventure."
Measurements of
species, salinities, water levels and the presence of mercury
and other toxics will continue for 50 years. New islands will
be built, and predators will be controlled.
The first phase of
the formal project, opening tidal gates of four ponds, is
expected in 2008 and 2009. A few ponds were opened last year
in a preliminary step.
Huge undertaking
Although this report
identifies sites for potential levees, it does not make any
formal proposal for flood protection measures. It will,
however, act as the foundation for detailed flood protection
plans by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the upcoming
South Bay Shoreline Study, said Jim Fiedler of the Santa Clara
Valley Water District.
"It is a significant
milestone. It will help us move towards the goals of
restoration, public access and tidal flood protection," said
Fiedler, chief operating officer for watersheds with the water
district.
The project is
rivaled in size only by efforts to restore the Florida
Everglades and Mississippi River Delta in Louisiana.
Project manager
Ritchie estimated that the cost of construction for the first
phase of the project will be $25 million to $30 million. The
total cost of construction will be $600 million to $1 billion.
The cost of monitoring ponds over the first decade will be $3
million a year.
The San Francisco Bay
has lost almost all of its tidal marshes to ponds, development
and hay fields. This effort will restore 10 percent of what's
been lost, and most of it will be off-limits to human
interference.
"The vision is very
exciting, and is definitely something we support," said David
Lewis, director of Save The Bay environmental organization.
Lewis also welcomed
the creation of new places for people.
"These were shoreline
communities - and will be, again."
IF YOU'RE
INTERESTED
The South
Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project's draft environmental impact
statement can be read at some public libraries, government
agencies and online at http://www.southbayrestoration.org/EIR/
Public
hearings will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in Mountain View on
March 28 and in Hayward on March 29. The first meeting will
be the NASA/Ames Research Center's Eagle Room, Room 943,
Mountain View. The other will be at Centennial Hall, Room 1,
22292 Foothill Blvd., Hayward.
Contact Anna Schneider
at the Coastal Conservancy at (510) 286-1015 or e-mail
mailto:aschneiderscc.ca.gov
Contact Lisa M. Krieger
at lkrieger@mercurynews.com or (650)
688-7565.
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