Restoring Sears Point

When John Brosnan notes that the Sears Point Restoration Project “seems to include a little bit of everything,” he could be talking about its diverse terrain, its far-reaching restoration plans, or its diverse stakeholders and supporters.

Brosnan, the Baylands project manager for Sonoma Land Trust, is heading up the restoration of Sears Point, which is located on the north shore of San Pablo Bay, a shallow tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of California’s San Francisco Bay.

Aerial view of the Sears Point Restoration Project, looking north from the San Pablo Bay. The project area includes everything to the first ridgeline.

The project represents a unique opportunity to restore a varied landscape encompassing roughly 1,000 acres of tidal marsh, 400 acres of seasonal wetlands, and a 1,000-acre upland watershed reaching 400 feet above sea level.

The project aims are ambitious: to restore wetlands and habitat, expand resource-sensitive agricultural practices, construct levees to mitigate the effects of climate change, remediate and reuse soil, control erosion, protect stream corridors, encourage wildflower beds while discouraging growth of non-native plants, and create a public trail network and environmental education activities.

“As a land trust, we’re involved not only in conservation but also in retaining our agricultural way of life,” explains Brosnan. The area possesses a thriving community of hay and dairy farmers. However, agricultural draining methods going back 150 years have decimated 85 percent of its original tidal wetlands, making restoration a critically important goal.

Seasonal wetlands on the diked bayland portion of the Sears Point property. Some of these seasonal wetlands will be enhanced,but almost 1,000 acres of the diked bayland (historic tidal marsh) will be returned to tidal marsh.

That goal took on new urgency in 2003, when a local Native American tribe proposed to build a casino in the area. Sonoma Land Trust spearheaded a coalition of stakeholder groups and, working together, they produced a white paper explaining why the site was not suitable for a casino. “We sent it out to the tribe and the media,” says Brosnan. “One month later, the tribal leaders agreed not to build a casino there, plus they donated their option on the land, which allowed us, later on, to purchase 2,300 acres.”

Since then, the project has gathered energy and momentum. “This community has, historically speaking, been supportive of restoration projects, and Sears Point has turned out to be our ‘feel good’ project of the year,” says Brosnan. “Also, the Bay Area is now in its third generation of wetlands restoration, so we have seen what works and what doesn’t. That’s an advantage, because we can afford to be pretty innovative.”

Sonoma Land Trust has cultivated that innovative spirit by bringing together a diverse project team and public advisory group of more than 40 individual, agency, and organizational stakeholders. By encouraging open dialogue and maintaining regular contact with stakeholders, the land trust has fostered a largely cohesive group willing to try new restoration strategies. 

Innovation and Integration
In order to jump-start evolution of the tidal marsh and manage water levels, project partners have proposed a technique never fully utilized before—“marsh mounds” about 15 feet across and 4 feet high. Vegetation growing on these mounds will secure land surfaces and control wind-wave erosion before the area is opened to high tides.

	View of the Sears Point property, looking south to San Pablo bay, from the Sears Point uplands.

“With the Sears Point Project, we focus on ‘integrated efficiencies’ by bringing together, whenever possible, stakeholders who haven’t worked with each other before,” explains Brosnan. “We also make sure that different stakeholders are communicating on, and thinking about, the project in the context of the project level, the community level, and the regional level.

“For instance, planners are working with farmers on applying certain agricultural practices in a strategic way to encourage healthy habitat,” notes Brosnan. “We’ve learned that the annual tilling of the soil eliminates non-native species. So when we’re not able to restore the tidal marsh, we ask farmers to make slight changes to their tilling routine that help water stay in the vernal pools for a longer period and support native plant and animal habitat.”

Strategic grazing is another restoration strategy, one that can increase the health of the upland watershed, which is marked by eleven miles of stream corridors. Parts of this watershed contain vernal pools and gullies that have been trampled by cattle for decades.

We’re working with ranchers on revising the grazing regime to control the impact of cattle over property. The regime excludes cattle from certain areas and, in other areas, uses the impact of the cattle to enhance wildflower fields. These changes help to control non-native plant growth and improve the quality of the watershed,” says Brosnan.

Seasonal wetlands on the Sears Point property.

Another “integrated efficiencies” project will mitigate the effects of climate change while remediating and reusing lead-affected soils. The strategy was conceived when plans to construct flood-control levees for future sea-level rise hit a temporary snag. Planners discovered that a skeet-shooting range operated by a local hunt club had left about seven acres of lead-affected soils.

“We knew that this area would have to be remediated before wetlands were reintroduced and levees were added to the site. Fortunately, soil analysis showed that lead levels were beneath the legal threshold for contamination and did not pose a threat to animals and wildlife,” Brosnan notes.

Working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game, and the San Francisco Regional Water Board, project partners devised a plan to use the lead-affected soil as core “fill” for the levees. “The buffer around this core will be lead-free and at least three feet thick on all sides, and the buffer structure is highly compacted,” notes Brosnan. “This option really works well for us, because it keeps us from having to excavate and haul away lead-affected soil, which would have been hugely expensive and also potentially hazardous,” says Brosnan.

According to Brosnan, a large-scale effort such as the Sears Point Restoration Project starts with committed stakeholders and supporters.

“To any other land trusts looking to incorporate several projects, do your homework to see what existing, completed plans are out there and use them as leverage in fundraising and gaining stakeholder support,” says Brosnan. “We researched county plans, Bay Area plans, and regional plans already in existence, and then we used these successes to pinpoint the significance of our restoration plans. If you can point out the consensus that’s already been developed to demonstrate the benefits of your project, you won’t have to go out and recreate the wheel.”

 

Photos courtesy of Stephen Joseph Photography 2004

 

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