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Stewardship at San Francisco Bay NERR, CA
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Mission
The stewardship program at San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve integrates aspects of research, monitoring and resource management to provide long-term protection for the natural resources within the reserve sites and to provide models for effective stewardship of other similar habitats. Invasive species, visitor use, degraded estuarine water-quality, and climate change pose significant threats to wetlands through the San Francisco Bay estuary and at both of the Reserve sites: Rush Ranch in Solano County and China Camp State Park in Marin County. The priorities of the stewardship program at Rush Ranch are: (1) Maintain an economically viable and ecologically sustainable grazing operation; (2) provide meaningful opportunities for education, public access, and scientific research, (3) protect high quality habitats and biodiversity, (4) restore degraded sites, (5) re-establish the physical processes necessary to maintain the natural ecosystem, within the context of agricultural, educational, and research goals, and (6) use adaptive management to respond to change over time. The San Francisco Bay Reserve recently began working with California State Parks to develop a stewardship program at China Camp State Park. This program will build from our experiences at Rush Ranch and will be an integrated approach between the Reserve and State Parks to ensure protection of the natural resources at China Camp State Park. Lessons learned from stewardship activities within the Reserve are shared with the broader regional management community through the Reserve’s Coastal Training Program and direct communication between researchers and managers.
Priority Topics
Science Based Restoration and Management
Vital Habitat and Reference Sites: The tidal marshes at Rush Ranch and China Camp provide homes for numerous federally and state-listed threatened and endangered species, including salt marsh harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys raviventris), California clapper rail (Rallus longirostris obsoletus), and other rare and special status species. Both of the Reserve sites also encompass tidal marsh, upland grasslands, and rare protected transition zones between these habitats. Because of these unique habitat features Rush Ranch and China Camp each serve as reference sites for restoration projects throughout the region.
Master Planning
Rush Ranch is owned and managed by the non-profit Solano Land Trust, which actively collaborates with the Reserve to develop and implement stewardship projects at Rush Ranch. Solano Land Trust (SLT) is currently preparing a marsh restoration master plan to describe the current physical and ecological conditions in the historic tidal marsh at Rush Ranch and prioritize restoration and management actions for the next thirty years. Preparation of a new master plan will enable SLT and the Reserve to move forward with marsh-wide habitat management, weed control, and other on-the-ground projects so as to ensure responsible stewardship of the marsh and surrounding grasslands. The tools and information generated from this master planning process will be made available for scientific research and public education via “Research in the Reserve” displays at the new Rush Ranch Nature Center, thereby contributing to broader understanding of tidal marsh ecosystems and wetland restoration in the Suisun Marsh ecosystem.
The project will also produce a marsh plain ecosystem analysis tool that integrates multiple layers of data into a geo-database that can be queried to shed light on key ecological questions. This analytical tool will provide land managers and scientists with the best available data for management decision-making, scientific research, and monitoring of long-term trends such as ecological change in response to climate change and sea level rise.
Invasive Species
Despite being used as examples of “pristine” marshes in San Francisco Bay estuary, the tidal marshes at Rush Ranch and China Camp face numerous threats to the ecological resources in the marsh, transitional areas, and uplands. One of the most pervasive threats in the estuary is the ecological impact of invasive species. For example, the marsh at Rush Ranch has been impacted by a widespread infestation of perennial pepperweed (Lepidium latifolium), a highly invasive plant. Land managers from Solano Land Trust are working closely with scientists to test the safety and efficacy of several methods of pepperweed eradication. Conversations and presentations about this project, and future related projects, were facilitated through two workshops organized by the Reserve's Coastal Training Program.
Restoration
Solano Land Trust and San Francisco Bay Reserve are also looking at several options for restoring habitat at an 80-acre muted tidal marsh located within Rush Ranch. The project goals are to create habitat that is compatible with regional goals for water quality and habitat for the Suisun Marsh, and provide opportunities for education, research and public enjoyment. A conceptual restoration design has already been completed for this project. Further action requires additional funding. Additional restoration opportunities at the sites include restoring physical processes on the marsh plain, protecting rare habitat, restricting weed infestation, and possibly restoring tidal inundation to high marsh-upland transition areas that are currently diked or ditched. Similar restoration opportunities exist throughout the San Francisco Bay area, and the approaches, successes, and failures in restoration within the Reserve will be actively and formally shared with the broader community of wetland managers.
Last Updated on: Friday, October 16, 2009
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