ESTUARY

SCIENCE • RESTORATION • WATERSHED • POLITICS SPECIES BAY 1 RECYCLING OUTSIDE San Francisco Estuary Partnership THE ESTUARY New Grey BOX in Areas the Keeping the Salt Field at Bay II: Waterless Plumbing Code NEWS Monitoring Yields Surprises Water Closets? Advocates of water Never mind the wh Grande Dame of Bay Monitoring Retires Catamaran Carries On Mainstreaming Resilience Gaming the Water Crisis Waiting for the Big Storm North and South Bay Restorations Tweak Skeeter and Transition Zone Details

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March 2016 VOL. 25, NO. 1

Restoration Authority . . . . 2 False River Barrier . . . . . 3 Do the Pieces Fit? ...... 4 Buzz on Reslience ...... 5 RMP Tracks El Nino . . . . . 8 Centennial Marsh ...... 9 Bair Plantings ...... 10 2 MARCH 2016 ESTUARY NEWS

OPINION Even so, the tally of tidal wetland acres now stands at just 44,000. Raising that number to 100,000 acres, as recommended in the Vote for Bay Beauty & Safety Baylands Ecosystem Habitats Goals Report of 1999, will be the measure’s prime KATHLEEN M . WONG and urban development, diking, and directive. That’s because wetlands SCIENCE WRITER salt pond construction had decimated are not only critical for declining tidal wetlands by more than 85 percent. As the icecaps melt and the regional species, they’re also key seas rise, the Bay Area and its In the intervening decades, to keeping Bay Area shorelines dry densely populated communities environmental organizations and buffering us from big storms. face a momentous choice. have made tremendous progress The enlarged marshes will In one scenario, it could carry on adding to these remnant acres of attract scores of wildlife, from the as usual, adding incrementally to the pickleweed-dependent salt marsh muddy necklace of wetlands that ring harvest mouse to the gawky, squawky its shores. In due time, this option Ridgway’s rail. Broad, gradual could commit our region’s cities to levees on the landward side of the erect ugly walls between themselves marshes will offer upland habitat for and the Bay. These shoreline barriers wildlife looking to shelter in storms. would be every bit as engineered Expanded trail networks through and pricey as Hoover Dam. the new wetlands will let residents experience the muddy glory of it all. In an alternative scenario, we citizens could vote to approve a $12 A Bay once hemmed in by more per parcel tax this June 7. On the than 20 municipal trash dumps also ballot in all nine Bay Area counties, will have far less pollution floating Measure AA for a Clean and Healthy through it. Garbage interceptors Bay would not only provide comparable will be installed along waterways protection against flooding but also Photo: Rick Lewis to trap much of the detritus that so result in a healthier Bay with a softer, often collects on urban shores. spongier shore. Administered by historic wetland. With backhoes To make this greener Bay come the San Francisco Bay Restoration and pipes spewing dredge spoils, true, we must act today. Newly Authority, a regional government people have learned to reconnect established wetlands will need agency established to enhance the salt ponds to estuary waters, decades to accumulate enough fine Bay’s wetlands and wildlife habitat, raise subsided hayfields above the sediments to stay above water level. the funds would raise more than tides, and repopulate marshes Plenty of restoration projects, ranging $500 million over 20 years. Make with rare wetland plants. from Oakley to Palo Alto, are planned, no mistake—without Bay wetland ready to go, and await only funding. restoration on this scale, no amount This work has transformed the of high-dollar engineering will be Bay from a place to avoid into a Evidence of the value of wetlands surrounds us—in the form of enough to protect the doorsteps of treasured destination for swimming, stunning views from atop Mission Delta residents and Google from the birding, and hiking. The Carquinez ocean in tomorrow’s warming world. Peak, avocet chicks toddling off nests Strait, the wetlands just west of at Hayward Regional Shoreline, and When the late Sylvia McLaughlin the new Niners stadium, and the the silver shine of fishes pulled from helped launch Save the Bay in 1960, formerly polluted Emeryville mudflats Bay piers. Grow that vision for the infill had reduced the acreage of the draw picnickers and bikers to enjoy future, and vote for Measure AA. Bay by nearly 240 square miles, marsh darting flocks of sanderlings and birds languished for lack of habitat, breezes fresh from the Pacific.

NORTH and how fast timely topics include the latest BAY reservoirs would on new projects and plans for fill up. Improving water recycling; funding tips for the region’s ability shoreline restoration projects that to forecast and benefit flood management along Watershed Pow Wow respond to major with habitat improvement; and April 22 storm events will be state groundwater rules. Keynote one topic discussed speakers include State Senator Lois The mid-March spate of storms at an April 22nd Wolk and Assemblymember Marc hit the North Bay hard, and water conference in Levine. A wine reception will top managers throughout the region Napa sponsored off the one-day conference at the watched closely to see how newly by the North Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown restored creek channels, flood Bay Watershed Napa. Details and registration plains, and wetlands would respond, Association. Other information: www.nbwatershed.org Photo: Bird’s Eye View 3 ESTUARY HYDRODYNAMICS Keeping the Salt Field at Bay II After four of California’s driest in the middle of the Delta that DWR reports that by keeping NEWS years on record, the rain we’ve looks like a lake. “During drought, salt out of Frank’s Tract, the gotten this winter is hardly a salt starts moving in and laps barrier helped us keep about drought buster. But it’s still a its way up to Frank’s Tract, and 29 billion gallons in upstream relief. Just a year ago, our “wet” then the vigor of the tides injects reservoirs, instead of releasing season was so dry that state it in,” Ateljevich says. And from it to flush out the Delta and keep water officials panicked. there, it’s just about as close to a the water drinkable and fit for straight shot south as you get in farming. This much-needed water Major reservoirs were drawn way the Delta — and water can take helped stretch supplies for people down, and record-low snowpack several routes. “Once salt makes and fish until the next rains. would limit replenishment to a it to Frank’s Tract, there’s no way The barrier also provided a trickle. Water managers worried to control it and keep it away from deeper look into the inner workings about the hot, dry months. Would the pumps,” he adds. “The drought of the Delta. “We don’t often do reservoirs still hold enough for barrier was an insurance policy.” freshwater releases to keep these kinds of grand experiments saltwater from pushing deep into One that we needed, it turned on water flow and the ecosystem,” the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, out. In the summer of 2015, salt says Sam Harader, a manager with contaminating water supplies to levels just west of the barrier the Delta Stewardship Council’s cities and farms? So they built a climbed as high as Ateljevich has Delta Science Program. So he barrier to block salt instead. seen since they’ve been intensively and other Delta experts put their monitored. But inside Frank’s heads together to brainstorm Late last spring, when all Tract, salt levels held steady and likely impacts of the barrier. Then hope of snow was gone, the state even dropped a bit. “Salt would the program funded studies to Department of Water Resources have been just shy of twice as high see what actually happened. (DWR) dropped 150,000 tons of rock without the drought barrier,” he Questions included whether across the West False River in the says. “I’d give it an A+ for preventing altered flows would affect heart of the Delta. Salt barriers salinity intrusion.” That said, he phytoplankton growth, and are not new. The state first built says there’s room for improvement: whether the barrier would them in the Delta during the mid- “I’d have liked the water to get restrict zooplankton — which the 1970s drought — two in 1976 and fresher faster.” One way to make six in 1977 — and came close that happen in the future would endangered Delta smelt (Hypomesus again two years ago. “We thought be to get the barrier in before the transpacificus) and other fish eat about installing a drought barrier salt intrudes so far into the Delta. continued to back page in 2014 but then it rained,” says Eli Ateljevich, a water quality modeler with DWR. “2015 was more urgent. It was full of unpleasant surprises, like even when it rained not much was getting into reservoirs.” While barriers are nothing new in the Delta, last year’s approach was. Rather than the multiple barriers used before, modeling suggested that a single obstruction would be less disruptive to fish habitat while still being enough to protect water supplies. With all the waterways that thread the Delta, it may come as a surprise that blocking just one could keep the salt at bay. But the West False River is effectively all that stands between the tides and the pumps at the southern end of the Delta. “It’s the biggest, most direct channel for getting salt down toward the pumps,” Ateljevich says. “Other routes are smaller, more meandering.” West False River is the entrance False River emergency salinity barrier. Photo: Bird’s Eye View to Frank’s Tract, a flooded island 4 MARCH 2016 ESTUARY NEWS

COORDINATION Wildlife Service since 2001, has taken the lead in making restorations happen. Another consortium of agencies cleared the way for the Do the Pieces Fit? use of dredge mud in building up subsided wetland soils. Now, with Reporter John Hart previews his Some distinctly don’t. And some, the job about half done, attention assignment for ESTUARY perhaps compatible, have yet to be turns to the challenge of sea level measured against one another. This summer, the San rise and the integration of wetlands Francisco Estuary Partnership On assignment from Estuary News, into a regional system of flood publishes its new Comprehensive I am delving into these matters for a control and water recycling. A new Conservation and Management Plan longer piece to be published online. focus on watersheds intersects with (CCMP) for the Bay-Delta Estuary. local government land use planning. In the process of my research, That word “comprehensive” There are new pieces needing to fit. however, I have already encountered stakes quite a claim. In the Upper Estuary, the road to coordination began later, one might say in 1992, with the creation of the Delta Protection Commission; in 1994, with the hope-filled launch of CALFED; or in 2009, when the Delta Reform Act set up the Delta Stewardship Council and the Delta Conservancy. As I explore the interaction of these agencies, one thing is already clear: coordination is hard upstream because fundamental decisions involving statewide interests here have yet to be made. While the Council and Commission have certain authorities, especially in land use, neither has much power over the Delta’s uneasy role as the hub of the Photo: Rick Lewis state’s water plumbing. The rules here are written by the likes of the If the CCMP is the closest thing the profound divide that still Department of Water Resources, we have to a master vision for the separates efforts concerning the the State Water Resources Control future of these waters in the era of Lower Estuary — otherwise known Board, and often the courts. climate change, it is also just one as San Francisco Bay — and those in swarm of plans and planning relating to the Upper Estuary — Thus one huge factor in the efforts purporting to shape that otherwise known as the Sacramento- estuary’s future — the supply of fresh future. How do they all get along? San Joaquin River Delta. (The Suisun water from inland rivers, the very Bay region, in between, is a zone of thing that makes this an estuary, How does the CCMP fit in with institutional overlap.) The Estuary not a bay — is out of reach of the the Bay Area Integrated Regional Water Project covers all three, and the new Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan Bay-Delta Water or the forthcoming CCMP says more than Management Plan. Clarity here must Quality Control Plan? Does it mesh its predecessors did about Delta wait for the State Water Board, with the Bay Plan and the Delta Plan, matters. Still, the 34-member CCMP which has just embarked on the not to mention the Delta Land and Implementation Committee is heavily long-delayed revision of its Bay Delta Resource Management Plan? Is it on weighted toward “downstream” Water Quality Control Plan. The board the same page with Plan Bay Area interests. Planners in both regions has already confirmed that the and California EcoRestore? What acknowledge the need to work ecosystem needs much more water about California WaterFix and the together more closely. I’ll attempt to than it is getting. Now comes the California Water Action Plan? For the ascertain how well they are doing. fateful balancing of needs that will non-initiate, the contours of the yield the actual rules. Concerning In the Lower Estuary, the years cause can disappear in a cloud of this enormous factor in the future of since launching of the Estuary organizations and acronyms and the estuary, the Estuary Partnership Project have brought remarkable abstractly titled calls to action. can only educate and advise. results. The first CCMP, in 1993, Are these people talking to one called for vast wetland restorations Read the results of my another? Do their ideas add up to around the lower bays; a series of investigation into how all Bay one way forward, or tug in opposing follow-on reports spelled out the and Delta initiatives overlap and directions? Do the pieces fit? science and the details. The San integrate, or not, online no later than Some fit quite well, in fact. Francisco Bay Joint Venture, created March 31 at in 1995 and funded by the Fish and www.sfestuary.org/estuary-news 5 ESTUARY FASHION Seven Resilience Principles

Mainstreaming Resilience 1 SETTING

NEWS Whatever the “perturbation” Officially, definitions of resiliency Unique geophysical, biological, and coming our way — a flood, a drought, range from the social — the capacity cultural aspects of a landscape that a weed or Donald Trump — our of individuals, communities and determine potential constraints and recovery, in the aftermath, depends on systems to survive, adapt and grow opportunities for resilience something ecologists call resilience. in the face of stress or shocks — It’s a term everyone is pasting to the ecological — the amount onto their management initiatives of disturbance an ecosystem can PROCESS these days — resilient landscapes, withstand without changing self- 2 resilient shorelines, resilient organized processes and structures. water supplies, neighborhoods, Physical, biological, and chemical infrastructure… But what exactly Unofficially, it’s touched on by this drivers, events, and processes that does it mean, and how is it different water conservation fable from the create and sustain landscapes over from other fashionable buzzwords US Geological Survey’s Jim Cloern: time that have galvanized Californians “Trying to be a good citizen, I replaced into thinking about the future? my back lawn with artificial turf. After it was installed, the blades stood tall CONNECTIVITY “It’s not a replacement for the and from a distance kind of looked 3 still very valid goals of ‘restoration’ like grass. After a year of my lab and ‘ecosystem health,’” says racing across the plastic grass the Linkages between habitats, Marilyn Latta of the State Coastal blades are bent over, matted down, processes, and populations that Conservancy’s Living Shorelines and I don’t know how to get them to enable movement of materials and organisms Project. “It’s about [visualizing] those stand upright again. Artificial turf concepts through the lens of climate is not resilient because it doesn’t change.” From this perspective, return to its original state after a DIVERSITY she says, resilient refers to natural perturbation (her name is Bella).” & habitats being as strong and robust 4 COMPLEXITY as possible (in terms of ecosystem “The whole notion that a system structure, functions, and services) can bend but not break is comforting,” Richness in the variety, distribution, as soon as possible in order to best says Wiens. In a new book called and spatial configuration of landscape Ecological Challenges and Conservation features that provide a range of withstand stressors such as changing options for species temperatures, freshwater regimes, Conundrums, out this April, he uses real and sea level rise over the long term. grass in bigger patches than Cloern’s backyard as an example: “A grassland “Like adaptive management, it’s REDUNDANCY that is moderately grazed may change become somewhat of a holy grail: 5 in some details of species composition manage systems for resilience and nutrient cycling, but if grazing and they’ll be able to absorb all the Multiple similar or overlapping stresses we throw their way,” adds is stopped it can return, in time, to elements or functions within a John Wiens, a member of the Delta something approximating its basic landscape that promote diversity and provide insurance against loss Stewardship Council’s Independent function and structure … Grazed too Science Board. “What’s not obvious is heavily, however, the system may be how one should go about enhancing the so degraded that it cannot recover — resilience of a system, except perhaps a threshold has been passed and the 6 SCALE by fostering diversity or not putting system moves to an alternative state, all one’s eggs in one basket. Sounds such as a shrubland or barren desert. Its resilience has been exhausted.” The spatial extent and time frame at good, but the devil is in the details.” which landscapes operate that allows Even after half a dozen interviews “If you think about resilience species, processes, and functions to and numerous papers explored to as how well systems can absorb persist write this story, the details on the and recover from impacts, you can actual characteristics of resilience actually use that criteria across are still fuzzy. The fuzziness is both all kinds of sectors,” says Maggie 7 PEOPLE a strength (in terms of universal Wenger, a climate planner with the appeal and application to everything San Francisco Bay Conservation and The individuals, communities, and from hedge funds to emergency Development Commission’s Adapting to Rising Tides Project. “Whether I’m institutions that shape and steward preparedness) and a weakness (in landscapes terms of the lack of a way to measure thinking about a marsh or a park or it scientifically, not to mention some a human community or a highway, resilience is a [useful planning] bar.” Resilience principals described in the ambiguity about the desirability of Landscape Resilience Framework. SFEI, 2015. any status quo we are trying to make continued to page 11 Graphic: Ruth Askevold resilient, such as the current Delta). 6 MARCH 2016 ESTUARY NEWS

MONITORING The Polaris took her first Bay cruise in the late 1970s, initially for marine geologist David McCulloch’s seismic studies, then branching into water Bay Belle Retires, quality work. “It’s amazing how little we knew about the Bay in the late 60s,” says biologist James Cloern, Catamaran Carries On who heads the USGS water quality sampling program. “Fundamental Side by side at a Redwood City Pasada Mañana (“Get Around to It discoveries were made from the marina, two vessels await their very Tomorrow”). The Wilmington Boat Polaris that couldn’t be made any different destinies. The Research Vessel Works used oak timbers, Douglas- other way; some were used to shape Polaris, a classy 96-foot yacht, was built fir planking, teak for the decks, environmental policies.” Aboard the in 1927 as a pleasure craft for a Los mahogany finish for the cabins. Polaris, young oceanographers from the University of Washington —John Angeles tycoon. Beyond a few streaks As executive vice president of Conomos, Fred Nichols, Bill Broenkow, of rust, her age isn’t showing. After a Pacific Mutual Life Insurance, Phillips and Dave Peterson — launched series of owners, she spent decades had a hand in the construction of the the modern era of Bay science. as the workhorse of the US Geological Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, and the Survey’s San Francisco Bay science draining of the Cienega wetlands. As Back then, there were questions program, carrying researchers on president of California Delta Farms, about the condition and health of transects across the Bay and into the he oversaw the conversion of over the Bay that not everyone wanted Delta. Much of what we know about 100,000 Delta acres to agriculture, answered. Officials in Sacramento how the Estuary works—the effects including the Jones and Rindge Tracts tried to shut the nascent program of freshwater flows, sediment pulses, and King, Bacon, and Bouldin Islands, down; one reportedly cautioned pollutants and pollution controls, collaborating with George Shima, a that water was a political issue, invasive species and changing food Japanese immigrant known as the not a scientific one. Some federal webs—comes from sampling done from Potato King. Much of the acreage was agencies were also hostile. “They the Polaris. Recently enrolled in the leased to Chinese- and Japanese- warned us against pursuing the National Register of Historic Places, born farmers. Phillips took the Pasada research, threatened our jobs,” recalls the boat was retired last year when Mañana into the Delta to inspect his Conomos, now retired. USGS director repairing her many leaks got too costly. properties and on duck-hunting trips, William Pecora was not intimidated. She will be sold at auction. Meanwhile and to sea after marlin and swordfish “Our agency didn’t back down,” her successor floats next to her in off Catalina Island. She was also a says Conomos. “They supported us the Redwood City marina. The USGS “floating hotel” for visiting VIPs like completely and we kept our funding.” rechristened this 67-foot aluminum Winston Churchill and Herbert Hoover. catamaran the RV David H Peterson for the Early on, the Polaris had some old- late oceanographer. Once she’s refitted After Phillips’ death in 1938, his school skippers who didn’t always see and the Polaris’ equipment transferred widow sold the Pasada Mañana to oil eye-to-eye with the scientists. Then over, the Peterson will carry Bay science executive John Grant. The Army Byron Richards, who grew up on the into the future, extending the dataset acquired the vessel during World Bay (“My younger brother and I lived that is a legacy of the Polaris. War II to move troops around Puget on the water”) and graduated from Sound. A postwar owner, Alaska the California Maritime Academy, The Polaris was custom-built for Charters, rechristened her the Polaris got the job in 1980. “Byron was a gift attorney and financier Lee Allen before selling her to Ken Bechtel in from God, the heart and soul of the Phillips in 1927, originally christened 1959. Bechtel Polaris and the field data collection donated her to program,” says Conomos. Cloern the University of calls him “a treasure to work with.” California. Byron For Tara Schraga, lead scientist for Richards, her the water-quality cruises, Richards long-time skipper was “a stellar captain who cared with USGS, was deeply about the program, always told that every fixing, fabricating, and making sure time she left we got the science done.” Richards UC’s Richmond insists Polaris engineers Jim Robello berth, “something and Scott Conard deserve credit for broke.” In 1966 the program’s success as well. UC sold the vessel Richards found “a lot of stuff jury- to the USGS for rigged,” he recalls. He helped put the $4000, and she Polaris to rights and restored something became part of her former glory, stripping 13 of the agency’s coats of paint from the salon, down Pacific-Alaska to the original mahogany: “The Army Marine Geology had painted it white; later somebody Monitoring instruments lowered into the Bay at 36 Bay-Delta stations Program. from the Polaris. painted it baby-shit yellow, then green like the cells in San Quentin.” 7 ESTUARY

NEWS

Photo: Francis Parchaso

He discovered a unique prohibition- standard. “Measurements before vessel in federal service. She’ll be era feature in the mid-80s: two and after urban sewage treatment sold at auction, with online bidding. copper tanks behind a false wall programs were in place document Assistant branch chief Deborah in the main cabin. Chris Morrison, successes of the Clean Water Act,” Stoliker says the purchaser will Phillip’s grandson, confirmed that says Cloern. “From Polaris data, we’ve be legally required to maintain there had been spigots on the after learned a lot about how invasive the boat’s historic character. bulkhead for the cocktail hour. species like the Asian clam have The David H Peterson, built in 2000, affected San Francisco Bay, and The Polaris has carried generations is a former Alaskan state police how oscillations of climate systems of scientists. David Schoellhamer, patrol craft. Stoliker anticipates have caused big changes in the a sediment specialist, visited her that the refit for the vessel will Bay’s biological community.” “as a little kid” when his father be completed within the next six Jack managed the marine geology “This may be the longest-running months, with the work done locally. program. Cloern first saw her on continuous monitoring program in There’s no crane, so she can’t carry a PBS “Nova” episode when he the US,” Schraga says. “Every single the smaller Boston Whaler like the was in graduate school. “I thought, data point we’ve ever collected Polaris did. All of the Polaris’ scientific ‘What a great job,’” he remembers. is available online,” Cloern adds. equipment will be transferred to “Six months later I was working “The site gets half a million users a the Peterson, and an Imaging Flow with the USGS scientists.” He and year from 73 different countries.” CytoBot will be added for monitoring others later brought their own PhD phytoplankton. The scientists have candidates and post-docs on board. It wasn’t all routine sampling. a wish list for new gear, and hope Francis Parchaso, who runs it matches the agency’s budget. The cruising routine evolved as the benthic sampling program, Stoliker promises the new boat “will new equipment became available. remembers a squall in San Pablo be able to do everything we could do Leaving Redwood City, the Polaris Bay with wind-driven waves breaking on the Polaris, but more efficiently.” would visit 36 stations along an over the boat, and being stuck on a Fritsch, who has taken the Peterson 80-nautical-mile transect from Alviso sandbar in Three Mile Slough waiting to Rio Vista to sample water quality, out for sea trials, calls her “a nice- for a tidal assist. Schraga recalls handling, good solid boat that will at first with a sump pump to on-board dodging floating trees during the bring USGS into the future and be instruments, later with sophisticated 1998 El Niño. The Polaris, for all her able to adapt to changing science.” conductivity, temperature, and depth splendid qualities, had a tendency to sensors dropped over the side. A roll. Leaving Redwood City, Richards Cloern stresses the need for local new group of scientists would come once warned: “If there’s anything you support to keep a research boat on aboard at Rio Vista and collect clams don’t want, leave it on the counter.” the Bay: “It’s not the mandate of and other benthic organisms from USGS to do this work, it’s individual the mud on the return voyage. A 17- After 29 years as master of the scientists’ research programs. foot Boston Whaler was deployed for Polaris, Richards retired in 2009, We need local and state funding shallow-water work. Sometimes the and Joel Fritsch, another Maritime to keep it going. It’s unimaginable Polaris returned to her first owner’s Academy graduate, took the helm. to think about stopping.” JE old Delta stomping grounds, up the He was accustomed to huge dredge Sacramento and Cosumnes rivers. ships: “She handled a lot differently. CONTACT James Cloern, She was built for luxury, not for [email protected]: Tara Schraga, The data they collected was maneuverability.” He did his best [email protected]; Deborah used to shape the X2 standard (for to keep her floating but “water Stolliker, [email protected] an indicator of the North Bay’s was coming in at all the seams.” salinity gradient) and California’s See extended story online www.sfestuary.org/estuary-news marine invasive species act, and will The Polaris made her last cruise influence the pending chlorophyll in May 2015 as the oldest working 8 MARCH 2016 ESTUARY NEWS

POLLUTION the Bay’s sediment and pollutant budgets and for supporting future management and policy,” says McKee. One policy that could benefit Waiting for the Big One from the new dataset, if it ever does rain, is the region’s total load If and when El Niño decides to a crane and winch system to drop target for PCBs (TMDL) scheduled dump a big storm on the Bay Area— sample bottles into the mouth of for review in a few years. Another even at 2:00 am on a Saturday the river from a bridge, and sample policy now being questioned is the night — SFEI’s Lester McKee and for a couple of days during high one that permits dredged sediment Alicia Gilbreath and their team are flows when concentrations will to be dumped in the ocean offshore. ready to pull on their parkas and likely be at their peak. “We hope to The researchers are excited, dash out to take water samples. see the beginning of a downward meanwhile, by the fact that the trend in mercury loads from this plan enables them to respond Last September, stakeholders in watershed,” says McKee. the Regional Monitoring Program quickly. “It really illustrates decided they would be remiss if they At the Dumbarton Bridge, a USGS some of the strengths of the did not try to measure some high team will go out in a boat during the RMP,” says Trowbridge. “It priority pollutants during an El Niño storm and take samples across the can be pretty adaptive.” year. “With plenty of data for normal entire span. They will take manual The San Francisco Estuary years, it was important to get data measurements of flow, derive a Partnership was also pretty adap– from a more extreme year,” says vertical velocity profile, and measure tive, working quickly with EPA to Phil Trowbridge, the RMP manager, sediment in the water column. They reallocate funds to the RMP so that adding that months of planning will then use all of that data to calibrate the El Niño monitoring could roll. enabled them to focus on three things a stationary instrument called an — mercury, PCBs and sediment — acoustic Doppler current profiler As for that big one everyone is in three places — under the Golden (ADCP) in the deepest part of the waiting for? Golden Gate Weather Gate Bridge and the South Bay’s channel that collects data every 15 Service’s Jan Null says he still Dumbarton Bridge and at the mouth minutes, and derive a sediment flux for thinks it will happen. But he also of the Guadalupe River. “There are the entire Dumbarton cross-section. says people have lots of “mixed lots of cool things to measure, but we conceptions” about El Niño. At the Golden Gate, where the wanted the results to be valuable for “The media portrays it as always water 300 meters deep (making it making management decisions.” But accompanied by huge downpours impossible to station an instrument in at press time they were still waiting with houses falling off of cliffs, but the water column), USGS researchers for a heavy enough storm to move it comes in lots of flavors, and we will sail back and forth taking these contaminants around the Bay. only halfway understand it,” he says. measurements with the ADCP and Many other factors affect El Niño, “Most legacy pollutants in the bottles. The data will be used to including fluctuations in temperature Bay tend to be associated with compute fluxes of sediment over a few between the ocean and atmosphere, sediment,” says Trowbridge, tidal cycles as a sediment plume from as well as ocean oscillations meaning they often attach to upstream passes through the Bay. occurring across decades. “It’s particles of sand, silt and mud. “This is critical information for the warmest it has ever been — a The storm event the researchers improving our understanding of record setting event as far as overall are waiting for is different for each strength — but it’s skewed slightly monitoring area. At the Golden Gate, to the west,” says Null. “We’re not they are hoping for outflow from sure what influence that has on the Delta of a minimum of 225,000 the jet stream and the weather.” cubic feet per second (cfs), as well as For her part, Gilbreath hopes a big spikes in sediment at the upstream storm happens soon; her boots and boundary of the Bay determined by gear are stacked at her front door, USGS sensors. At the other locations, ready for action. “It’s invigorating to they are hoping for a storm that be out there in the rain and wind,” occurs shortly after about 10 inches she says. “The hardest part is the of rain have fallen and saturated the sleep deprivation, especially when watershed. At the Dumbarton Bridge you’re working on something fairly that would mean around 3,500 cfs, and meticulous [through the night]. You at the Guadalupe 6,000 cfs or more. cannot contaminate any samples. SFEI’s Lester McKee, who You have to be really focused.” LOV designed the sampling protocol for CONTACT: [email protected]; the Guadalupe, wants to find out [email protected] whether the extensive work to reduce mercury loads from the watershed After press time in early March, the first biggish storm arrived but not enough to mobilize all — with its legacy of mining — has sampling efforts. SFEI crews did spend the first worked. “We want to measure when SFEI’s Jennifer Hunt out during a storm weekend out sampling past midnight however, and the watershed’s really in action,” completing measurements of turbidity in were hoping the second storm on the following stormwater. Photo: SFEI weekend would meet parameters for Guadalupe he explains. Researchers will use and Dumbarton sampling. 9 ESTUARY RESTORATION carriers of the endangered Ridgway’s rail and the Zika virus in Brazil start of the salmon and steelhead and elsewhere. migration was completed in four For over 10 months. Siegel calls it “a very Skeeters Undone years, the Vector challenging project to construct,” Control District requiring a temporary roadway out We used to blame malaria has treated the marsh with what into the marsh: “Engineer Melissa NEWS and other diseases on miasmas, in pest control parlance are called Carter and the contractor Hanford mysterious vapors emanating from larvicides and pupacides; they ARC were effective in setting goals swamps and marshes. Once the can’t use adulticides because of and developing an appropriate role of marsh-breeding mosquitoes their potential danger to wildlife. strategy.” The team “had to move in disease transmission was thousands of pounds of mud in a established, draining their habitat “In the Bay Area, most mosquito flooded habitat,” says Audubon became a public-health imperative. control districts are pretty progressive,” restoration project manager Courtney Mussolini did it, and was praised says consulting environmental Gutman. “They did a fabulous job.” even in non-Fascist circles, although scientist Stuart his Pontine Marshes reclamation Seigel, who was scheme is now recognized as a lead restoration human and environmental disaster. designer for That’s not an option in the 21st- the project and century Bay Area, where “no net guided it through loss of wetlands” is a conservation the permitting axiom. Teaming up to deal with process. a mosquito problem, the US Fish “They’ve all New marsh mounds in old mosquito habitat. Photo: FWS & Wildlife Service, the Marin- had pressure Sonoma Mosquito and Vector over the Control District, and Audubon years on the use of pesticides.” “It was like magic,” says Marriott. California had a better idea. They’ve “The channel started draining The Marin-Sonoma district, replumbed a dysfunctional marsh that basin off. We have regular which had previously made small near the mouth of Sonoma Creek, tidal flushing twice a day.” adjustments to the marsh’s eliminating a mosquito hotspot while drainage pattern, pitched the Migratory shorebirds responded enhancing habitat for endangered enhancement project to the refuge immediately to the new channel wildlife and bolstering a wetland’s and put up the initial $90,000 for and marsh mounds. A flock of 3000 resilience against sea level rise. design work. Audubon California, sandpipers dropped in toward the end of construction; Gutman says The 400-acre Sonoma Creek Marsh fresh from assisting the Refuge in a similar but smaller-scale (65- the construction workers stopped is a centennial marsh, one of a class their vehicles to watch them twist of marshes formed within the last acre) restoration at Lower Tubbs Island, signed on to manage the new and turn through the air, spooked century—in this case, beginning in by a cruising northern harrier. It’s the 1960s. After the original wetlands project. “We started the permitting process in 2011 and didn’t wind hoped that endangered rails and had been diked and drained for mice, as well as songbird species farming, sediment blasted loose by up getting everything until 2014,” Marriott recalls. “It was a doozy.” of special concern, will thrive in the hydraulic gold mining in the Sierra replumbed wetland. Wildlife use will settled between the dike and the The design called for a mile- be monitored for the next 20 years. Bay. “As sediment slowed down, the long channel through the middle Bay side started growing vertically, of the marsh; marsh mounds as The transition ramp, built at a forming a berm,” explains wildlife high-tide refugia for wildlife; and a 40-to-1 slope to allow wildlife to biologist Meg Marriott of USFWS, gently sloping transition ramp on get up and out when the tide rises, whose agency manages the marsh the landward side, also intended will be hydroseeded with native as part of the San Pablo Bay National to help marsh-dwelling birds and grasses. Then other plants grown Wildlife Refuge. “There’s a lower mammals escape extreme tides. by young volunteers in the Students area in the middle. When big storm The ramp was a sticking point for and Teachers Restoring a Wetland events push water over the bayside the permitting agencies, since its (STRAW) program at the refuge’s berm, it can’t get out. It ponds, construction covered 10 acres of nursery will be added. In addition stagnates, and breeds mosquitoes.” existing (although degraded) marsh. to its habitat function, the ramp will With a reduced footprint, it was buffer property owned by the Vallejo The marsh is too young to have approved as an experimental or Sanitation District on the landward evolved the branching channel system demonstration element—a precedent- side, currently leased for hay and tidal flushing of healthy wetlands. setting decision. “It’s a temporary farming, against extreme tides. JE Plants will grow there, but there are loss of wetlands, but with sea level Project visible with binoculars from a pullout dead zones where standing water rise it will be regained over the next where Highway 37 crosses Sonoma Creek. drowns them. Mosquitoes of four twenty or thirty years,” Siegel says. species, including two of the genus CONTACT Meg Marriott, Aedes, breed in the marsh. Although Once greenlighted, construction [email protected] or Stuart no mosquito-borne cases have been of the channel, ramp, and mounds Siegel, [email protected] confirmed in the United States, in a narrow window between the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are known end of the breeding season for the 10 MARCH 2016 ESTUARY NEWS

TRANSITIONS farming. In the 1940s, a salt company bought and divided it into three sections for evaporation ponds—Inner, Middle, and Outer Selective Sowing Bair Islands. By the 1970s, the land has been sold again, this time to While hills ringing the Bay and a coalition of conservation Mobil Oil. The city approved the are still emerald and velvety in organizations. This year, to put the company’s plans to build a massive their springtime splendor, local finishing touches on the project, land bayside housing, retail, and office restorationists are racing to get managers at the refuge partnered complex named South Shores. new plants in the ground. The last with Save the Bay and the San Local residents organized and two years (at least) have been hard Francisco Bay Bird Observatory partnered with conservation agencies on plantings that don’t rely on (SFBBO) to replant recently to put a stop to the plans, and over supplemental water. That’s why some reconstructed transition zones. These the next decades looked for a way projects that are concerned with critical habitat areas lie between the to preserve the island permanently. establishing native plant footholds salt-water marsh and drier uplands. They succeeded: the Peninsula have been taking advantage of the Save the Bay is working with Open Space Trust purchased the recent wet weather window. young plants that volunteers raised land for $15 million in the late “Typically in a year we plant about in nurseries run by the organization, 1990s and transferred control to 20,000 to 30,000 plants. This year while SFBBO is working on seeding the national wildlife refuge. we’re shooting for 100,000,” says new sections of the transition Massive restoration work began Save the Bay Habitat Restoration zone. “Because of the drought, in 2008 with the addition of dredging Director, Donna Ball. The bulk we want plants that can really material and upland fill to Inner of those plants, about 70,000, are tolerate tough conditions, such as Bair Island, restoring the marsh to being planted at the Oro Loma alkali heath and salt grass. We will its historic plain elevation. Another Horizontal Levee Project (see cover continue to install plants adapted part of the project involved building photo) on the Hayward Shoreline. to survive at the site,” Ball says. a pedestrian bridge connecting the But Save the Bay volunteers are “Both of those efforts are mainland with Inner Bair, which also planting gum plant, saltgrass, happening in small sections of the opened in 2013. More recently, in alkali heath, and creeping rye, and site this year,” says Joy Albertson, December 2015, managers breached others species to help complete the the Supervisory Wildlife Biologist the levee surrounding Inner Bair. restoration efforts on Bair Island. for the refuge. “Then we’ll move on “The tides will bring in enough down the levee and complete the The restoration of Bair Island — seed to begin the restoration of the process in the next five years.” 3,000 acres in the Don Edwards tidal areas, so it’s not necessary to San Francisco Bay National Wildlife In a lot of ways, Bair Island’s plant pickleweed and cordgrass,” Refuge along the Redwood City history encapsulates the pressures Albertson says. “But with the coastline — has been underway faced by many San Francisco Bay transition zones, there’s no place for more than a decade, led by marshlands. In the 1920s, owner nearby for those seeds to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fred Bair drained the island for come from, so if the area is not planted then it will be overtaken by weeds.” Albertson and her colleagues at the refuge will monitor how the marsh is filling in over the next few years using aerial photographs. Once there is enough viable habitat, then they will start monitoring for Ridgway rails and salt marsh harvest mouse, both endangered species that are present in adjacent marshes. “It’s expected that both species, once there are a few acres of contiguous marsh habitat nearby, will come back,” Albertson says. DM CONTACT [email protected] Photos: USFWS & Save the Bay 11

CLIMATE ESTUARY CHANGE not how many farms or ecosystems are kept functioning and watered. Game touches are thoughtful and dilemmas feel uncomfortably Fun in the true to life. Low value rolls of Drought the dice send the game into NEWS multiyear megadrought mode. Raise the topic of water in Groundwater is free until levels Afsoon Razavi California, and fingers start pointing drop below a given depth. Public fast. Residents have little sympathy approval drops in Northern part because from about 1850 on, for those in other parts of the state, California for losing farms, deciduous broadleaf trees like and even less for officials charged Southern California for failing to oaks and beeches were replaced by with keeping faucets flowing. build more cities, and the Central evergreen conifers like Scots pine Think you can do a better job of Valley for groundwater pumping. and Norway spruce. Changing the solving the Golden State’s water species structure of the continent’s dilemmas? Try playing California For variety, the game can also forests reduced the amount of water Water Crisis, a new board game be played in the historic past, when released by leaves, decreasing by Bay Area graphic designer reservoirs and the Central Valley the atmosphere’s ability to shed and public policy wonk Alfred Project were nonexistent, as well heat. The change also altered the Twu. The game lets players walk as the future, when all regions reflective properties of the canopy. a mile in the shoes of a water must cooperate to survive, with the The take-home message: forest manager from Northern California, rules adjusted accordingly. KMW management as a climate tool Southern California, or the Central The California Water Crisis risks failure “unless it is recognized Valley. Along the way you’ll gain Game is available online at that not all forestry contributes to a new understanding of how the www.californiarailmap.com/cawater climate change mitigation.” economic priorities, social values, where game pieces and the game and environmental constraints USGS physical scientist Alicia endemic to each region set the board can be printed out at home, Torregrosa, who studies the effect stage for uncomfortable tradeoffs. and selected game stores. of fog in coastal forests, calls that conclusion plausible. ”It’s so easy Each round of the game is to forget that the water cycle is equivalent to a water year. In winter, Shedding Heat very active at every interface of the a roll of the dice establishes how soil-plant-air system, “ she says, much water falls. Then each region Needle by Needle adding that the new study “has receives its water allocations based If forests are the lungs of the a lot of relevance for California, on water rights. Players then planet and trees sequester carbon, especially now that there is an active supply their towns, farms, and/ reforestation should be an effective community of land stewards that or reservoirs, and can even pump way to mitigate global warming. are responding to myriad climate groundwater if their water allotment Or maybe not. Scientists with change impacts that affect forests. “ falls short. They collect taxes France’s Laboratoire des Sciences Although California may not have based on the number of farms and du Climat et de l’Environnement, experienced the same kind of cities present, and can use those led by Kim Naudts, have concluded species replacement as Europe, the funds to raise public opinion or that it depends on what kinds of timber-management plans in effect improvements such as desalination trees are planted. Their study, here share the production-oriented plants that will guarantee them recently published in Science, notes approach that has ruled European more water in successive years. that “two and a half centuries of forestry. “What would it look like if As in real life, winning hinges forest management in Europe we took a whole-system approach to solely on public approval ratings, have not cooled the climate,” in forestry practices?” she asks. JE

RESILIENCY use in the South Bay, according consider ourselves a customer continued from page 5 to coastal ecologist Peter Baye. of this emerging science.” Last year a San Francisco Estuary The resulting 2015 Landscape However fuzzy and buzzy, Institute team led by Erin Beller Resilience Framework, which was then resilience does invite us squint made what is widely viewed as the applied in a Silicon Valley Vision, revolves a little farther and deeper into first successful attempt to defuzz around seven specific elements (see the future. “It draws attention to resilience in a project funded by p.5). “A couple years ago, our real the reality that there are limits to Google. They convened a strong estate team realized we needed how much alteration or change a national science panel to vet the the guidance of the region’s best system can take before it becomes something else,” writes Wiens. working definitions and applied ecological resilience scientists to the tenets to a watershed-wide develop a roadmap for our physical Read this story’s in-depth, vision of ecological resilience in presence in the Bay Area,” says extended version: relation to infrastructure and land Google’s Audrey Davenport. “We www.sfestuary.org/estuary-news San Francisco Estuary Partnership PRESORTED 1515 Clay Street, Suite 1400 Oakland, CA 94612 STANDARD

San Francisco Bay and the U.S. POSTAGE Sacramento-San Joaquin River P A I D Delta comprise one of 28 “estuaries of national significance” OAKLAND, CA recognized in the federal Clean Water Act. The San Francisco Es- PERMIT NO. 2508 www.sfestuary.org tuary Partnership, a National Estu- ary Program, is partially funded by annual appropriations from Congress. The Partnership’s mandate is to protect, restore, and enhance water quality and habitat in the Estu- ary. To accomplish this, the Partnership brings together resource agencies, non-profits, citizens, and scientists committed to the long-term health and preservation of this invaluable public resource. Our staff manages or oversees more than 50 projects ranging from supporting research into key water quality concerns to managing initiatives that prevent pollution, restore wetlands, or protect against the changes anticipated from climate change in our region. We have published Estuary News since 1993.

ESTUARY News March 2016, Vol. 25, No. 1 www.sfestuary.org/estuary-news/

EDITOR Ariel Rubissow Okamoto

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Joe Eaton Lisa Owens Viani Daniel McGlynn Kathleen M. Wong Robin Meadows DESIGN Darren Campeau COVER PHOTO Spring planting at Oro Loma Horizontal Levee project. Photo: Save the Bay

SALT FIELD Delta in real time, which is important River-Stockton Deep Water Ship continued from page 3 because the Delta is tidal so water Channel, which links Disappointment there is in nearly constant motion.” Slough in the central Delta at the — from reaching the western Delta. A given “parcel” of water can move eastern edge near Stockton. Researchers also wondered if the miles across the Delta in six hours. difference in salt levels on either One trouble was a huge increase in side of the barrier would affect which Besides confirming that the salt chlorophyll, which is a proxy for algae. species of invasive clam lives where: barrier worked, the study yielded a And high algae can cause low oxygen, which is bad for fish and other aquatic life. the overbite clam (Corbula amurensis) surprise. A set of findings pointed A second trouble was that nitrogen levels thrives in brackish water while the to troubles in the San Joaquin tripled in the shipping channel, which Corbicula fluminea Asian clam ( ) does not. makes sense because lots of nutrients “Part of the challenge, and really can mean lots of algae. Completing it’s a nearly impossible task, is teasing the triple whammy, flows appeared to out the effects of the drought barrier stagnate in the shipping channel. “Water from those of the drought,” Harader seems to just sit there,” Downing says. says. “Flows were already greatly “This part of the survey had a huge reduced with or without the barrier.” wow factor — we didn’t realize how The researchers are still crunching the extensive it was.” (See online story graphics.) numbers to see what it all means. Six months after the salt barrier The Delta Science Program also went in, the state took it out and ended funded a U.S. Geological Survey the grand experiment in the Delta. (USGS) study that gave snapshots of The barrier was massive at 750 feet water quality in the Delta. “We’ll be across and 120 feet wide at the base, able to link water quality data with and deconstruction — crane bucket by biological data on algae, plankton crane bucket — took nearly 10 weeks and fish,” says USGS hydrologist during the fall of 2015. We probably Bryan Downing, who led the study. won’t need a salt barrier this year USGS scientists, Dr. Judy Drexler, Dr. Tamara because recent rains have begun to While zooming along at 20 miles Kraus and Bryan Downing (left to right) collecting refill our reservoirs. But all that rock per hour, the boat used for the study water samples for laboratory analysis. The field is sitting in Rio Vista, ready for the next sucked up water samples and pumped verification instrument, a YSI model EXO, was time we need it to keep salt at bay. RM them through waterproof case-clad used to measure in situ water quality parameters, instruments, which took measurements necessary for the laboratory analyses and as a CONTACT Eli.Ateljevich@water. every second. “It’s a great system,” verification for the high speed mapping system. ca.gov; [email protected]; or Downing says. “We can cover lots of the Photo: USGS [email protected]