The restoration project, a cooperative effort with Ducks Unlimited, Inc., the State Coastal Conservancy, and other state and federal agencies, will re-establish tidal wetlands and surrounding marsh habitats on six ponds of the Lower Napa River Unit. “These efforts follow years of planning by many supporters, beginning in 1997,” Save the Bay Executive Director David Lewis stated.

The Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area, which is owned and managed by the Department of Fish and Game (DFG), lies north of San Pablo Bay between the Napa River and Sonoma Creek. The restoration project will restore a mosaic of environments, including tidal habitats and managed ponds, and provide better management of ponds to support populations of fish and wildlife, including endangered species, migratory waterfowl, shorebirds, and anadromous and resident fish.

The main focus of the Napa-Sonoma marshes restoration effort is to reclaim former tidal marsh areas that were diked many years ago to become salt ponds. Diking or filling has destroyed up to 90 percent of the original tidal wetlands of the San Francisco Bay Area, greatly reducing the amount of habitat available to fish and wildlife.

Benefits of the project include improved water quality, the potential use of recycled water, enhanced public open space and recreational opportunities. The long-term goal is to produce a natural, self-sustaining habitat that can adjust to naturally-occurring tidal influences.

Other benefits of the project include the creation of:

• Large areas of contiguous tidal marsh for a diversity of fish and wildlife, including threatened and endangered species, such as salt marsh harvest mouse, California clapper rail, and black rail;
• A variety of slough channel sizes, a large increase in slough habitat, and improved connections between San Pablo Bay, the Napa River and the tidal salt marsh. These improvements will benefit estuarine fish, potentially including listed species, such as Delta smelt, splittail, steelhead trout, and Chinook salmon, and other aquatic species, such as the Dungeness crab;
• Large tracts of tidal marsh that extend up the Napa River that allow fish and wildlife to adjust to changes in salinity that occur seasonally and over longer periods because of variations in precipitation.

The WCB approved allocating funds for the project during its regularly-scheduled meeting in February. Eventually, nearly 9,000 acres on the wildlife area will be restored. Ducks Unlimited, Inc.’s Director of Conservation Programs, Jim Well, stated, “this project will further DU’s goals in the San Pablo Bay area and we’re enthusiastic about being involved with all of these partners in a project of this magnitude.”

WCB will finance the project with funds from Proposition 50, the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water, Coastal and Beach Protection Fund of 2002. An additional $3.17 million needed for the project has been allocated by the California Bay Delta Authority.

The WCB was created in 1947 to administer a capital outlay program for wildlife conservation and related public recreation. While it works closely with DFG, the Board is a separate and independent panel with authority and funding to carry out an acquisition and development program for wildlife conservation.