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Bulletin Board

50% Increase in Tidal Wetlands Soon?

A 50% increase in the Bay's tidal wetland acreage could be something we celebrate in the dawn of the next century. According to the last survey in 1987, the Bay had 25,466 acres of tidal wetlands. Adding up the largest completed, in-progress and planned restoration projects since that time, the Bay could soon realize a gain of at least 19% (4,790 acres) according to a recent accounting by the S.F. Estuary Project. Top that off with restoration of 9,300 acres of former salt ponds in the North Bay - now protected by public ownership but yet to be endowed with restoration funds - and the Bay's gain jumps to 56% (a 14,270-acre increase). This accounting omits projects with a mitigation component (where wetlands may have been lost) but at least seven such large scale projects currently in progress could add to the Bay's gains. In all the revelry over restoration, two caveats may be important to remember. First, restored wetlands take decades to reach the ecological richness of natural ones, and their "equivalence" has yet to be proven. Second, the 39,736 acres of tidal wetlands we may achieve in the early 2000s represents only 32% of the Bay's historic 1850 stock of 123,180 acres. However, we certainly seem close to achieving the CCMP's (see cover) goal of increasing Estuary wetlands by 50% by the year 2000. (415)989-2441

Fish Passing through Suisun Bay will have more food, spawning and nursery habitat once a Fishery Foundation of California project is complete. The Foundation recently acquired 420 acres on Chipps Island in Suisun Marsh and plans to develop and manage the property as a tidal marsh for the benefit of splittail, smelt, salmon, sturgeon, bass and waterfowl. According to initial estimates, the new "Suisun Marsh Fisheries Management Area" could produce 90% more splittail larvae, 30% more Delta smelt larvae, and 200% more fish feed organisms than the contiguous Bay and sloughs. The Foundation is currently working to raise money for project design and habitat development. (510)944-9115

Climate change caused by greenhouse gas build-up could reduce the state's water supply warned scientists at an October public meeting at the California Academy of Sciences. According to U.C. Berkeley physicist John Harte, warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions will intensify in the winter, when California gets 80% of its snow and rainfall. A Sacramento Bee article cited Harte as saying the snowpack may melt sooner, and much of what falls as snow may fall as midwinter rain instead - taxing the ability of reservoirs to protect downstream regions from flooding and leaving them unable to meet agricultural demands later in the season. Downstream, lower summer runoff could increase pesticide and heavy metal concentrations. Meanwhile, models predict a sea level rise of 2-3 feet in the next 100 years, which would cause seawater to move farther upstream into freshwater marshes and city water supplies.

Prop 204 Money

The state will soon begin spending the nearly $1 billion that voters gave the statewater system when they approved Proposition 204. The item in the Prop 204 stew creating the most excitement is the $120 million for the so called "Category III" projects - established under the 1994 Bay-Delta Accord and limited to non-flow related improvements. Proposition 204 delegated $60 million to the Category III projects, while Congress authorized an additional $60 million match. Passage of 204 also allowed the appropriation of $10 million of stakeholder money at the final meeting of the Category III Steering Committee in November.

That $10 million will get 23 programs started, including fish screens on the Sacramento, Yuba and San Joaquin rivers and in the Delta, land acquisition along Clear Creek, and several Delta restoration projects, according to CALFED's Cindy Darling. She says the newly-formed CALFED Ecosystem Roundtable, now taking over from the Category III Steering Committee, will set up a public input process to pick more projects to fund, meaning none of the $60 million from Prop. 204 will be spent until at least March. Because Congress did not appropriate any of the money they authorized, the federal match could be even further off. The rest of the $935 million of Proposition 204 funds that voters approved won't be released until February at the earliest. (916)657-2666

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