South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Design

Project Summary

The California Coastal Conservancy acquired 15,100 acres of former commercial salt ponds in South San Francisco Bay for restoration to tidal marshes, mudflats, and managed ponds. Integral staff were a key member of the early technical consulting team on what became the largest tidal and wetland restoration effort in the United States.

Location: Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Alameda Counties, California

Challenge

Restoring 15,100 acres of former salt ponds, the largest tidal and wetland restoration effort in the United States, required balancing competing ecological tradeoffs and stakeholder interests while integrating floodwater management and public wildlife-oriented access into the restoration design.

Our Role

Integral staff addressed all ecological issues encountered during development of restoration alternatives, analyzed biological resources impacts for compliance with CEQA and NEPA, led the first phase of restoration design, and guided the project through acquiring regulatory permits while monitoring pilot levee breaching conducted for the restoration effort.

What We Delivered & Results

Integral staff developed monitoring and adaptive management plans for the restoration effort, incorporated appropriate public access features into the project design, and helped develop the conceptual models used to guide the overall restoration design.

This early work became the cornerstone of Integral’s restoration ecology practice, which now has more than 40 years of continuous experience designing and implementing restoration projects, having delivered conceptual restoration design and secured permitting support across multiple regulatory agencies for the nation’s largest tidal wetland restoration project.