The San Mateo County Transportation Authority and Caltrans are partners in the creation and restoration of a tidal salt marsh located just south of Coyote Point and northwest of the intersection of Third Avenue and Mariners Island Boulevard in Foster City.

The site is on a Caltrans-owned parcel and a section of wetland owned by the City of Foster City, which provided no-cost conservation and drainage easements to Caltrans to excavate channels to restore the full ebb and flow of the bay’s twice daily tides throughout the site. A new levee was built to provide flood protection, and an existing bike pathway was moved and now runs along the top of the relocated levee.

The Transportation Authority has been a major player in the restoration and has put $3 million toward the habitat with another $2 million coming from Caltrans.

Currently, the mitigated habitat looks like a non-descript mudflat. In reality, it is showing early signs of making a successful comeback. In March, ecologists observed native salt marsh vegetation, mainly Pickleweed seedlings, beginning to naturally colonize the newly created marsh. “That’s a good sign that the physical conditions that were created are likely adequate to support native salt marsh vegetation,” said Max Busnardo, a restoration ecologist with H.T. Harvey & Associates working on the project.

Over the next three to five years, vegetation should rapidly establish, making the site similar to the adjacent, lush green salt marsh, which Busnardo explained was used as a model for the restoration design. The tides will bring in additional seeds that will germinate and grow, adding to the biological diversity.

The TA and Caltrans are responsible for all maintenance and monitoring of the wetland for five years.

Transportation Authority Project Manager Jim McKim expects the restored wetlands to be well established and self-sustaining by the end of the five-year monitoring period. “We just have to wait for Mother Nature to do her thing and help us out to set up a suitable habitat.”

Once restored, the wetlands will provide a habitat for a host of unique plants and animals adapted to life where the ocean meets the land, including animals found only in San Francisco Bay and threatened with extinction, including the endangered California Clapper Rail.

The targeted habitat is being created and restored to mitigate permanent impacts of three Caltrans projects to approximately two acres of wetlands under U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and California Fish and Game jurisdiction. Caltrans and the Transportation Authority are partners on the largest of these, the Highway 101 auxiliary lanes project.

5/1/2008 - msk
Media Contact: Mary Knuckles – 650-508-6356