New wetlands trail at Sears Point open for weekend preview

Reclamation underway at new Bay Area wetlands|

The clouds were low, but the December rain had passed to the north for most of the morning. Dramatic clouds were mirrored in an unblemished expanse of water, steely in the somber morning light, that was newly born from the breach in the levee on Oct. 25.

The restoration of these 1,000 acres of tidal marsh at Sears Point has just begun, but the public will have a first chance to visit the changing landscape at Sears Point on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The access – on Reclamation Road, south of the stoplight at Highway 37 and Lakeville Road – will become open to the public on a permanent basis, dawn to dusk, sometime in the first quarter of 2016.

It would be nice to report that change was already visible, the future of the wetlands returning. In point of fact, the Sears Point acreage was pretty unremarkable, aside from its soothing expanse broken here and there by man-made hummocks of higher ground, helpful in restoring the historic natural landscape and in breaking up winds and wave formation.

To the right, however, to the west, the Sonoma Baylands – restored in 1996 – were rife with life. Curlews poked their curved bills into the monochromatic cordgrass lining the sinuous channels. Stark black-necked stilts pierced the mud revealed by the lowing tide. There had been reports – anecdotes, really, nothing more – that clapper rails had been seen, too.

“The clapper rail is the poster child of the wetlands movement,” said Marc Holmes, wetlands restoration program manager of the Bay Institute (bay.org). Once numbering in the tens if not hundreds of thousands, the California clapper rail is now fewer than 1,000 in number.

“The third most important stop for migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway has long been the San Francisco Bay,” said Holmes. “Those mudflats and vegetated wetlands were why they came, for rest and feeding, etc. So the restoration plays a significant role in rebuilding the population of birds on the Pacific Flyway.” The two other migratory stops on that short list are the Copper River delta in Alaska, and Grays Harbor on west coast of Washington.

Holmes walks with Julian Meisler of the Sonoma Land Trust down the one-lane road being built on top of the levee that separates the Sonoma Baylands from the newer Sears Point acreage. They are each remembering their part in the on-going rebirth of these wetlands, which will ultimately become part of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Holmes has been involved for 20 years in wetlands restoration, a life zone crucial to the San Francisco Bay’s greater ecology. He was involved in the 1996 restoration of Sonoma Baylands, and worked with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in 2003 to encourage them to donate the land to Sonoma Land Trust, and build their casino elsewhere.

Holmes was last here in October for the breach in the levee, an event that proved strangely moving and celebratory. A drone had flown over-head, to the irritation of a few; the footage turned up in the Sonoma Land Trust’s two-minute video of the event, a YouTube environmental classic. It demonstrated that the breach was both a break in the levee, but the birth of a new living ecology.

It has been Meisler, the Baylands program manager of the Sonoma Land Trust, who spearheaded the drive to open Sears Point to the public. “The main thing I want people to know is that this is their wetlands,” he stressed. “They paid for it, through bonds and federal grants, but they need to visit to understand the importance of it.”

Perhaps the most popular way that area residents will enjoy the wetlands environment is the Bay Trail, a still-growing network circumambulating the perimeter of the San Francisco Bay. There are currently about 340 miles of trail, which will eventually comprise a 500-plus mile network connecting the shoreline of all nine Bay Area counties.

This coming weekend, a new 2.5 miles to the east will be open to the public for the first time, adding to the 1.4 miles that has been accessible from a so-called marina in Petaluma. It runs along the levee that marks the north side of the combined Baylands/Sears Point wetlands, providing access to this still-evolving territory, informational signage and a chance to get away from the pressures of urban life – and the frequent traffic tie-ups on Highway 37.

That’s the goal, really. To understand the role of wetlands in preserving not only environment for the clapper rail and salt water mouse, but protection for the homes, roads, businesses inland, a buffer between the open waters of the Bay and the surge tide of global warming.

“Katrina and Sandy proved what happens when we let our buffer zones disappear,” said Holmes. “They demonstrated the argument.”

Wetlands help absorb storm surges, and king tides such as the Bay saw on Nov. 27, the highest of the year. They slow the winds that come inland from off the waters, and provide refuge for the things that live there through their plant buffer zone – including at least two endangered species, the salt water harvest mouse, and the California clapper rail.

They are doing that now in the Sonoma Baylands, which after 20 years is looking a lot like the real deal. Sears Point is however a newborn – skin still smooth in the soft light – wildlife tentative and wary.

Preview access to the Sears Point wetlands on Saturday Dec. 5, is free to the public, though the Sonoma Land Trust requests reservations be made from the link on their website at sonomalandtrust.org.

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