‘Twas the day before New Year’s and all through the house, biologists were typing and rereading paragraphs aloud…
 
It’s a cruel fact that projects are often due on the last day of the month, meaning that if it was a year-long project, it’s due on the last day of the year. Therefore, before you head out to your New Year’s Eve festivities, you must first cobble together whatever brainpower survived the onslaught of holiday cookies and poor sleep decisions during the week between Christmas and New Year’s and submit! that! final! report! While generally not anyone’s preferred New Year’s Eve activity, if you’re lucky, the project you’re finishing is interesting and worthwhile. The kind of project that makes you reflect on what you accomplished during the year, appreciate how much you learned, who you worked with, and how your efforts illuminated a new corner of the world you hadn’t considered before.

 As part of our ongoing work to connect people with the Bay’s natural landscapes, we’re sharing a series that explores the story of San Francisco Bay’s tidal marshes — their history, science, and the community efforts that keep them thriving.

San Francisco Bay’s tidal marshes do more than shape the shoreline. They filter water, buffer nearby communities from storms, and store carbon that would otherwise contribute to a warming climate. These wetlands are also home to wildlife found nowhere else, including species specially adapted to life in the tides.

As part of our ongoing work to connect people with the Bay’s natural landscapes, we’re sharing a series that explores the story of San Francisco Bay’s tidal marshes — their history, science, and the community efforts that keep them thriving.

​The Bay’s tidal marshes are humming with song and motion — and we’re working to help keep them that way. At Eden Landing Ecological Reserve, SFBBO’s restoration teams and partners are rebuilding habitat that endangered species depend on, including the Ridgway’s Rail, Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, and Western Snowy Plover.

As part of our ongoing work to connect people with the Bay’s natural landscapes, we’re sharing a series that explores the story of San Francisco Bay’s tidal marshes — their history, science, and the community efforts that keep them thriving.

The marsh’s recovery is unfolding through a combination of science and stewardship, as recent projects show.

​At Pond A17, our team has been studying how different soil treatments and seeding techniques support native marsh vegetation.

As part of our ongoing work to connect people with the Bay’s natural landscapes, we’re sharing a series that explores the story of San Francisco Bay’s tidal marshes — their history, science, and the community efforts that keep them thriving.
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Our story with the marsh began at Pond A6. In 2010, we helped restore 330 acres of a former salt-production pond to tidal action, reopening the area to the natural ebb and flow of the Bay. We scattered native seeds across the newly restored marsh in an aerial seeding effort that helped jump-start plant growth and stabilize the soil. It worked: today, Pond A6 teems with life, from song sparrows trilling in the reeds to herons and rails hunting along the channels.

As part of our ongoing work to connect people with the Bay’s natural landscapes, we’re sharing a series that explores the story of San Francisco Bay’s tidal marshes — their history, science, and the community efforts that keep them thriving.

Once salt flats — now a living marsh.

For decades, the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project has been transforming former industrial salt ponds across the Bay into thriving tidal wetlands. These restorations turn salty, barren landscapes into dynamic ecosystems alive with water, vegetation, and the calls of nesting shorebirds.

As part of our ongoing work to connect people with the Bay’s natural landscapes, we’re sharing a series that explores the story of San Francisco Bay’s tidal marshes — their history, science, and the community efforts that keep them thriving.

Tidal marshes are the beating heart of San Francisco Bay — a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance that supports over a thousand animal species and protects our communities from floods and rising seas.

This spring our staff and community outreach volunteers have been busy teaching about conservation science and advocating for birds at our Coyote Creek Field Station and at events in the wider community.

​This is part of our mission to engage communities in avian science, habitat restoration, and education. 

​We brought science to life at the Wildlife Society's Earth Month Kickoff and engaged 118 visitors through interactive education about bird migration, sparking curiosity and dialogue about the importance of conservation. 

​Scientists have identified the two biggest threats to biodiversity as land use change (which has driven historical extinctions) and climate change (predicted to drive the greatest future extinctions). As a bird observatory in a major metropolitan area, understanding how the loss of 90% of historical tidal wetlands in the Bay Area has impacted birds has always been a central focus of SFBBO’s research. And many of our programs are studying the impact of climate change on birds—from the  threats facing phalarope habitats under the worsening droughts to impacts on the timing of migration in songbirds. ​

​But climate change is bigger than the impact on bird species, affecting both nature and society in myriad ways. The impacts on social systems can in turn alter processes of land use change. For example, a major reason the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project is restoring tidal wetlands is not just to create habitats (though this is important!) but also to buffer our human communities against flood risk under sea level rise.