SOE layout 1 8/12/04 8:27 PM Page 1 OPENING pursue diverse activities, including sor of the conference. CALFED is a REMARKS shipping, fishing, recreation, and cooperative state-federal effort, of commerce. Finally, the Estuary hosts which U.S. EPA is a part, to balance This Report describes the current a rich diversity of flora and fauna. efforts to provide water supplies and state of the San Francisco Bay- Two-thirds of the state's salmon and restore the ecosystem in the Bay- Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta nearly half the birds migrating along Delta watershed. Estuary's environment — waters, the Pacific Flyway pass through the wetlands, wildlife, watersheds, and Bay and Delta. Many government, the aquatic ecosystem. It also high- business, environmental, and com- TABLE lights new restoration research, munity interests now agree that bene- OF CONTENTS explores outstanding science ques- ficial use of the Estuary's resources tions, and offers take home notes for cannot be sustained without large- Executive Summary. 2 those working to protect California's scale environmental restoration. Keynote Address. 7 water supplies and endangered This 2004 State of the Estuary Vital Statistics . 9 species. Report summarizes restoration and San Francisco Bay and the Delta rehabilitation recommendations Pollutants . 27 combine to form the West Coast's drawn from the 43 presentations and Emerging largest estuary, where fresh water 129 posters of the October 2003 Pollutants . 35 from the Sacramento and San State of the Estuary Conference and Joaquin rivers and watersheds flows on related research. The report also Restoring the Estuary provides some vital statistics about out through the Bay and into the Watershed. 39 Pacific Ocean. In early the 1800s, the changes in the Estuary's fish and Wetlands . 45 Bay covered almost 700 square miles wildlife populations, pollution levels, Salt Ponds . 57 and the Delta's rivers swirled through and flows over the past two years, The Delta . 61 a vast Byzantine network of 80 atoll- since the last State of the Estuary Focus on Fish. 65 like islands and hundreds of miles of report was published. braided channels and marshes. Back The report and conference are all Politics then, almost a million fish passed part of the San Francisco Estuary and Plumbing . 71 through the Estuary each year and 69 Project's ongoing efforts to imple- million acre-feet of water crashed ment its Comprehensive Conservation Bibliography . 81 down from mountain headwaters and Management Plan (CCMP) for toward the sea. But in 1848 the Gold the Bay and Delta and to educate and Rush began and hydraulic mining involve the public in protecting and plugged the rivers and bays with restoring the Estuary. The S.F. more than one billion cubic yards of Estuary Project's CCMP is a consen- sediments. Over time, farmers and sus plan developed cooperatively by city builders filled up more than 750 over 100 government, private and square miles of tidal marsh, and engi- community interests over a five-year neers built dams to block and store period and completed in 1993. The the rush of water from the mountains project is one of 28 such projects into the Estuary and massive pumps working to protect the water quality, and canals to convey this water to natural resources and economic vitali- thirsty cities and farms throughout ty of estuaries across the nation under the state. the U.S. Environmental Protection Today's Estuary encompasses Agency's National Estuary Program, roughly 1,600 square miles, drains which was established in 1987 more than 40% of the state (60,000 through Section 320 of the amended square miles and 47% of the state's Clean Water Act. Since its creation in total runoff), provides drinking water 1987, the Project has held six State of to 20 million Californians (two-thirds the Estuary Conferences and provided of the state's population), and irri- numerous publications and forums on gates 4.5 million acres of farmland. topics concerning the Bay-Delta envi- The Estuary also enables the nation's ronment. In 2001, CALFED joined fifth largest metropolitan region to the Estuary Project as a major spon- 1 SOE layout 1 8/12/04 8:27 PM Page 2 STATE OF THE ESTUARY hum of mountain bikes or the drum EXECUTIVE SUMMMARY of hiking boots can also disrupt shoreline birds and mammals, but Reprint of a December 2003 decide how and where to maximize regulators and scientists are still try- ESTUARY Newsletter article. habitat potential for the many differ- ing to figure out just how much is too much. The S.F. Bay Commission’s Though the words "changes and ent species of birds that currently use Caitlin Sweeney told the crowd that challenges" dominated the banners the ponds, continued the Point Reyes two field studies along the Bay Trail and brochures of October’s State of Bird Observatory’s Nils Warnock. show differing results—one that the Estuary conference, another "C" There will be tradeoffs in transform- humans have an adverse effect; the word kept springing to the lips of its ing the ponds to tidal marsh, with other that there is no correlation speakers: choices. The 800-plus dabbling ducks benefiting the most, between bird use and human use of crowd gathered at the Henry J. he said. trails. "We still have a lot to learn Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland about the relationship between fre- heard experts talk about difficult "We are entering quency and intensity of human use choices ahead, as we try to reach and effects on wildlife," admitted ambitious restoration goals for huge an era of choices, Sweeney. areas of our watershed without bringing on more pollution, mosqui- and they won’t be Because the South Bay ponds are toes, invasions, or clashes over which located in such a heavily populated city or island or bird or fish gets what easy ones." urban area, said the Coastal water. "We are entering an era of Conservancy’s Amy Hutzel, resource choices, and they won’t be easy SAM LUOMA managers will need to decide how to ones," announced one of the first CALIFORNIA balance many competing interests, BAY-DELTA AUTHORITY speakers, CALFED’s Sam Luoma. among them endangered species, birds, flood management, and Tackling tough choices will require wildlife-oriented public access and science, education, and especially Tidal marsh restoration could dis- recreation. Planners are applying leadership, according to keynote place the threatened snowy plovers what has been learned about restor- speaker Leon Panetta. Too often it is that nest in and around the salt ponds ing salt ponds in the North Bay, but not these things, but a crisis that and levees in the South Bay and that the South Bay is a different animal, drives environmental policy said the need to be handled with kid gloves. said Hutzel, who explained that the 16-year congressman from Monterey, According to U.S. Fish & Wildlife’s Conservancy and its partners are who served as White House Chief of Joy Albertson, the Bay supports 100- working on a phase-out and steward- Staff from 1995 to 1997. Panetta 150 breeding plovers, about 10% of ship plan that will deal with such pointed to the collapse of Monterey the entire U.S. population of the issues as formulating a long-term Bay’s valuable sardine fishery as an Pacific Coast Western Snowy Plover. water circulation plan for the ponds, example of shortsighted stewardship The birds nest in shallow scrapes on and minimizing mercury methylation, and called for a national commitment salt pond levees or flat open areas introduced species, and mosquitoes. to protecting our oceans and estuar- within 100 meters of water, lining Said Hutzel, "We hope to compress ies on the order of Roosevelt’s early their nests with pebbles and salt crys- the 10 years of work done in the commitment to our national parks. tals. But California gulls—which also North Bay to five years in the South "We need to decide what kind of roost on dry salt ponds and levees— Bay." quality of life we want to pass on to prey on plover nests and chicks. Like the next generation," he said. gulls, ravens and crows are thriving as But how will we pay for long-term the Bay Area continues to urbanize. maintenance and operations of the Many of the decisions that loom They "hang out" in the landfills built restored South Bay ponds? That was ahead involve birds. The last few gen- next to the wetlands years ago, and the question posed by the Bay erations of Bay shorebirds have also eat plover eggs and chicks. Institute’s Marc Holmes in his talk the greatly benefited from the large con- Choosing where to locate and second day. The Bay lacks a distinc- stellation of salt ponds in the South restore salt pans and ponds will be tive identity 3,000 miles away in Bay, but they may need to make way critical to the plover’s future, said Washington, D.C., said Holmes, for other avians unless careful choices Albertson, along with deciding how which makes it challenging to get are made about what the U.S. to manage water levels, salinities, and federal funding. It doesn’t have the Environmental Protection Agency’s predators. poetic "River of Grass" image of the Mike Monroe called the largest single Everglades, or the strong, multi-state habitat restoration project ever envi- Ravens and crows are not the only constituency of Chesapeake Bay, said sioned for the Estuary. We must interlopers on sensitive bird turf. The 2 SOE layout 1 8/12/04 8:27 PM Page 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMMARY Holmes, and "historic diked baylands" ‘pretty up’ an ugly engineering proj- "...Sediment loads don’t necessarily inspire East Coast ect—is over.