Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
they'll say is not to try to leave the boat: those who do face sinking to the
waist in bay mud.
Restoration in this vast diked area of farm fields and salt ponds has
taken many forms. In the arc of bayshore between the Petaluma and Napa
rivers lie examples of nearly every kind of wetland and restoration tech-
nique.
Under the Petaluma River Bridge, the first high point on the highway
east of Novato, drivers can see beautiful S-shaped sloughs through the
marshes. The closest of these looks likes it's been there for centuries but
was only created in 1994, when a backhoe carved two 50-foot holes in the
levee and let the tides in under the guidance of the California Department
of Fish and Game's Carl Wilcox. Wilcox championed and oversaw many of
the earliest restoration projects in the North Bay, and the new wetland was
called “Carl's Marsh” in his honor. Wilcox remembers the moment of the
breach in a 2001
San Francisco Chronicle
article by reporter Jane Kay: “It
immediately started to fill up, and black-and-white Western Grebes flew
overhead fishing for the Yellowfin Goby that came in on the tide.”
From a grebe's-eye view, this stretch of river branches of into thick
wetlands and eventually connects with the bay's finest historic natural
marsh a short distance upriver. This upstream reach of the 4,000-acre Pet-
aluma River Marshes, managed by the state, is one place where scientists
come to study how nature makes a perfect wetland.
Farther along Highway 37 east of the Port Sonoma marina lies a resto-
ration project where engineers experimented with ways to speed natural
sedimentation and vegetation processes. Here, in 1996, designer Philip
Williams used 2.5 million cubic yards of material dredged from the Oak-
land harbor to raise 300 acres of subsided hayfields closer to tidal levels.
The project accomplished two goals at once: providing a place to reuse
dredged material and elevating the land decades faster than nature could.
The design also included some engineered wetland topography, some low
peninsulas to buffer wave action, and a few plugs of planted cordgrass.
Years later, the Sonoma Baylands are growing into a complex, functional
TOUR WETLANDS BY PODCAST
Download a private tour of the wetlands, wildlife, and restoration projects
along Highway 37 from the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture website,
www.yourwetlands.org.
This audio tour narrates what can be seen along the
highway via an iPod or mp3 player. Other visual and audio tours of the So-
noma Baylands and South Bay salt ponds are also available via the Internet
(see “References”).
