Final Report- Estuary 2100-2 “San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund” San Francisco Bay Living Shorelines: Near-shore Linkages Project Integrating Subtidal Habitat Restoration Projects to Increase Connectivity, Function, and Resiliency across Multiple Habitats in San Francisco Bay. July 10, 2015 Marilyn Latta, Project Manager, State Coastal Conservancy (510-286-4157, [email protected]) Contributors to this Report: San Francisco State University: Katharyn Boyer, Jen Miller, Cassie Pinnell, Julien Moderan, Stephanie Kiriakopolos and Kevin Stockmann University of California at Davis: Chela Zabin, Edwin Grosholz, Stephanie Kiriakopolos United States Geological Survey: Susan De La Cruz, Ashley Smith, Tanya Graham, and Laura Hollander ESA: Jeremy Lowe, Michelle Orr, Elena Vandebrook, Damien Kunz II. Table of Contents Executive summary of project goals and results……………………………………2-6 Progress in Addressing the Project’s Objectives…………………………………...6-11 Description of Project Components (substantive tasks)……………………………11-13 Partnerships…………………………………………………………………………13 Project Evaluation - Summary of monitoring results……………………………….13-18 Summary of Expected Outputs and Outcomes/Accomplished Deliverables………..17-18 Key messages, lessons learned and project implications……………………………18-19 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………….20 Appendices…………………………………………………………………………..Attached II. Executive summary of project goals and results Introduction and project description The San Francisco Bay Living Shorelines: Near-shore Linkages Project is a multi- objective habitat restoration pilot project managed by the State Coastal Conservancy, in collaboration with biological and physical scientists with San Francisco State University, University of California, Davis, USGS Western Ecological Research Center, and consultants at ESA. Critical initial grant funding has been provided by the Environmental Protection Agency in partnership with the San Francisco Estuary Partnership/Association of Bay Area Governments, which was then matched by California State Coastal Conservancy with additional project funds provided by the California Wildlife Conservation Board and NOAA Fisheries. Additional project partners include landowners The Nature Conservancy and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and construction support was provided by the California Wildlife Foundation, Reef Innovations, Drakes Bay Oyster Company, and Dixon Marine Services. Grant term: March, 2010 – June, 2015 Funding from this grant: $300,000. Match funding $100,000 from the State Coastal Conservancy. Additional leveraged funding $1,510,000 in funding from multiple partners including the State Coastal Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Board, and NOAA Fisheries. While not a new concept nationally and globally, “living shorelines” projects are new to San Francisco Bay, where pilot restoration work on eelgrass and oyster reefs has led to recommendations for additional experimental testing of techniques and gradual scaling up to larger projects. The 2010 San Francisco Bay Subtidal Habitat Goals Report (see www.sfbaysubtidal.org) recommended that the next generation of projects consider the possibility of integrating multiple habitat types to improve linkages among habitats and promote potential synergistic effects of different habitat features on each other as well as associated fauna. Such habitat features, if scaled up slightly beyond previous projects would have the potential to positively influence physical processes (such as sediment erosion and accretion) that influence shoreline configuration. With this critical first seed grant from the Estuary 2100-2 project led by the San Francisco Estuary Partnership with funding from EPA, the State Coastal Conservancy assembled an interdisciplinary team to build on previous restoration lessons and begin to test integrating multiple habitats. The project further tests subtidal restoration techniques, restores critical eelgrass and oyster habitat, tests the individual and interactive effects of restoration techniques on habitat values, begins to evaluate and test soft shoreline alternatives to hard/structural stabilization. Due to limited historical information on distribution and abundance of native oysters and eelgrass, we use the term “restoration” in the sense of enhancing valuable functions and services promoted by these types of features in San Francisco Bay and elsewhere, rather than in the strict sense of replacing previously known distributions or extent. 1 The project was designed in 2010-11, fully permitted in July 2012, and constructed over a three week window in July-August 2012. Eelgrass plantings and oyster treatments were installed at two sites: San Rafael Shoreline and the Eden Landing Ecological Reserve in Hayward. There is a larger project with both physical and biological goals at the San Rafael site, and a smaller project to test just oyster and eelgrass recruitment at both sites. The overarching goals of the project have remained consistent since the original project inception, but the final project constructed and monitored differs from the original grant proposal description, as approved by grant managers as the project design was finalized. This project is the first of its’ kind and scale in San Francisco Bay, testing an experimental “living shorelines approach” through construction of offshore native oyster and eelgrass reefs to achieve biological and habitat goals, and also test the ability of reefs to increase wave attenuation and protect the shoreline from erosion in the face of climate changes such as sea level rise. Existing subtidal areas are poorly understood and undermanaged, due to the limited research that has been done in submerged areas, but the connection between the subtidal bay and the shoreline edge is increasingly important with climate change. Subtidal environments in San Francisco Bay have harsh work conditions- with extremely cold temperatures and strong currents- that make conducting research, experiments, and restoration projects difficult in these areas. Developing complementary biological and physical goals in a sound restoration design has involved a lot of technical input and willingness to experiment by an interdisciplinary team and multiple regional land management and regulatory agencies. There were a wide variety of technical considerations ranging from land ownership and physical site selection considerations, permitting process and issues including current allowable beneficial fill amounts, and multiple special-status species considerations that were incorporated into the final design and construction timing. There have only been a few pilot subtidal restoration projects in the bay since 2002 and none at this one acre scale before. There are limited entities to lead the technical work and a need to better educate regional resource agency staff and key stakeholders on the goals, methods, and benefits of this type of multi-habitat and multi-objective approach. This truly is a pioneering and experimental project, particularly at this stage of new science with both subtidal restoration and pilot climate adaptation methods in San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco Bay Subtidal Habitat Goals Report describes the many data gaps with subtidal habitats and restoration project methods, and therefore recommends a thoughtful and metered approach, starting with small-scale shoreline monitoring and slowly phasing up once key information has been gained on restoration methods and outcomes. The project development involved substantial communications and developing new partnerships between different science and management disciplines, new restoration techniques and methods, and new contractor and vendor partnerships. Planning specific logistics with oyster shell material purchase and configuration into reef elements, and the creation and configuration of artificial reef elements (Reef balls, etc.), required establishing methods and entities locally who could do the work. The Bay Conservation and Development Commission currently has limits on the amount of fill that can be placed in the bay due to concerns about development and filling of habitat, and the use of beneficial fill such as oyster shell is a new concept in San Francisco Bay that requires 2 discussion and experimental testing before permitting agencies will allow larger scale projects. BCDC is currently reviewing beneficial fill policies, particularly in light of climate change stressors and adaptation, and this project will provide new information that will help to guide fill policies moving forward. Oyster and eelgrass habitats are typically located in fairly quiescent estuarine conditions, and we are testing the ability of these species to provide ecosystem services in areas of the shoreline that receive wind waves, ferry and boat wakes, extreme king tides, etc. Site selection criteria had to include not only appropriate conditions for oyster and eelgrass beds, which can be ephemeral species, but also willing landowners who would give permission for access to their shoreline and subtidal parcels and co-sign on permits. Given our objectives and these constraints, we began the process of identifying locations to conduct this pilot project. We found it quite challenging to achieve siting that could permit us to meet all our objectives. We decided to identify criteria most critical to conducting the project, and also secondary criteria to meet if possible: Highest priority: Appropriate region and depth for eelgrass and oysters (based