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Goals for Future Baylands Released
Sustaining a healthy ecosystem will require "extensive" tidal marsh restoration throughout the Bay region, say 100 top scientists in recommendations to be released for public review in late June. In their draft San Francisco Estuary Baylands Ecosystem Goals report, the region's best and brightest describe their collaborative answer to the question: what kind and size of wetlands are needed, and where, to keep the Bay and its fish and wildlife in fine fettle.
"It's the first time we've really looked at restoration from a regional perspective, rather than on a piecemeal, project-by-project basis," says Steve Granholm, an LSA Associates wildlife biologist and member of the Goals team.
"Putting such a huge number of biologists to work on a long-term wetlands vision, and then seeking public input on that vision has never been done before," says fellow goals team member Mike Monroe of the U.S. EPA. "We can't go back to what we had historically, but these new goals go a long way towards it."
Among the goals are extensive restoration of tidal marsh in the North, Central, South and Suisun Bays; enhancement of seasonal wetlands, particularly in the North Bay; restoration of riparian habitat wherever possible; and management of large areas of shallow, saline ponds to benefit fish and fowl. Balancing the need to replace long-lost tidal wetlands with the desire to preserve and improve habitat on seasonal and saline ponds - key candidate sites for tidal marsh creation - was one tough issue before the goals team, says Granholm. To strike this balance the team recommended working harder to "optimize" habitat values as salt ponds go out of production, he says.
While environmentalists and scientists are likely to embrace the goals for their effort to decide what's best for the Bay biologically, shore-zone landowners are sure to have concerns. Monroe emphasizes that the purpose of the goals is for regional planning not regulation. Any resulting restoration action would have to go through "a physical, financial and local reality check," he says.
"It's not a hard and fast management plan showing what has to happen on every square inch of the Bay," says Granholm. But the goals do include site- and acreage-specific recommendations for each of four sub-regions of the Bay (as well as information on how to design and manage these new habitats).
Public workshops this July (see calendar) will zero in on specific recommendations for the subregion where each workshop is being held. Comments on the draft goals will likely be due this August, with a final document scheduled to come out later this fall.
What's unclear is whether resource protection agencies will step up to the plate to take the next step, as recommended in the S.F. Estuary Project's 1993 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for the Bay and Delta, namely developing a regional wetlands management plan based on the goals.
Contact: Peggy Olofson (510)286-0427
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