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Pesty Bugs or Precious Rodents?

What at first seemed a stand off between mosquito haters and mouse lovers turned into a happily ever after this spring when six agencies finally settled on a restoration plan for the South Bay's Ora Loma marsh.

Though the six banded together to save the parcel adjacent to Hayward Shoreline wetlands from suburban sprawl in the 1980s, it's taken years for them to decide what to do with it. The recently finalized restoration plan, developed with seed money from U.S. Fish & Wildlife's S.F. Bay program, will create a tidal marsh and brackish pond and wipe out prime skeeter breeding grounds by reintroducing water circulation and drainage instead of by disking what is also sensitive mouse habitat.

Two things distinguish this restoration, to be executed by Levine Fricke, from others: the reintroduction of tidal influence in phases and therecreation of a brackish tidal pond characteristic of historic San Francisco baylands. Due to subsidence caused by years behind levees, immediate tidal flooding would drown out harvest mouse habitat. The phased restoration will flood half the marsh and then wait for mouse-friendly vegetation to develop there before flooding the other half.

The brackish tidal pond - a natural feature in the transition between marsh and uplands that serves as a secure food source and roosting area for shorebirds - is nearly absent from the present day Bay-Delta landscape. As opposed to seasonal marshes which tend not to fill up until the roosting season is underway, a brackish tidal pond is consistently flooded throughout the season. In order to create the brackish tidal pond, the restoration team must put a hardened control structure, called a weir, in place that allows water in without letting it completely drain back out. Ora Loma flooding is scheduled to begin at the end of the year once the final regulatory hurdles are cleared.

Contact: Joe DiDonato, East Bay Regional Parks (510)635-0135

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