Tracking Fisheries Use of Newly Restored Salt Ponds in San Francisco Estuary

Acquisition of habitat may not be enough to conserve important habitat functions and values.  Restoration can be an important next step to achieving habitat and species recovery objectives.  In San Francisco Estuary much of the recent tidal restoration activities involved transforming former salt production ponds back to tidal marsh.  The acquisition of the former North Bay salt  production facility, as well as the Alviso and Eden Landing complexes of the South Bay salt ponds, created exceptional opportunities for recovery of tidal wetland functions and values in sediment rich locations that are projected to be robust to moderate rates of sea level rise.  Construction has been completed at all of the North Bay salt ponds targeted for tidal marsh restoration and the first phase of restoration of the South Bay salt ponds is nearly complete.  Exemplar projects include the 1,460-acre Napa Plant Site near American Canyon, California, and the 330-acre Pond A6 near Alviso, California, both of which received stimulus funding from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for restoration of tidal action.  Ducks Unlimited has worked in close collaboration with NOAA and other project partners and consultants, including ECORP Consulting, Inc. and URS Corporation, to develop fish monitoring strategies to assess use of these newly restored salt ponds.  Methodologies included using trawls and seines as well as deployment of acoustic tags and receiver arrays to track presence of Chinook salmon, steelhead, and green sturgeon.  Preliminary results illustrate a broad array of fish species utilizing the restored habitats soon after breaching, including Chinook salmon and Pacific herring.