News and Upcoming Events

*Please note the WRP is currently not funded to maintain full-time staff. Please see the "Meeting Notes" page of this website for current contact information.

Next steps after June 9 Executive Council meeting

The San Francisco Bay Area Wetlands Restoration Program Executive Council met Wednesday, June 9, 2004. The meeting included a presentation of the WRP's first Annual Report and the Council discussed options for continued WRP funding. The meeting also featured presentations and discussion on West Nile Virus in California, coordination of the Bay Area's Invasive Spartina Project and an overview of progress on the South Bay Salt Ponds restoration project. The full meeting summary can be found here.

Monitoring Group invites Statements of Qualifications (SOQs) for participants on Monitoring Review Teams

The Wetlands Restoration Program Monitoring Group is set to begin staffing Monitoring Plan Review Teams and has released a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) seeking new participants. The Request for Qualifications can be viewed here . The Monitoring Plan Review Teams will be similar in their function and composition to the Design Review Teams of the DRG, yet with the focus on peer review of wetlands project monitoring. Those who participate on the DRG's review teams are welcome to submit their qualifications in response to this recent RFQ.

Current Design Review Group Project: Big Lagoon Creek and Wetland Restoration

Big Lagoon Creek and Wetland Restoration

The Design Review Group featured a presentation by Jennifer Vick, on behalf of the National Park Service (NPS), at its Monday, January 12, 2004 meeting. NPS is the project proponent for the Big Lagoon Creek and Wetlands Restoration project, located along the downstream portion of Redwood Creek in Muir Beach, located in coastal Marin County. This project has an extensive planning history of over ten years; further information regarding the project, including project documents, can be found here.

The proposed project would convert the 40-acre site to a mix of open water lagoon and wetlands habitats. The site presently supports a variety of habitats and species, including limited rearing habitat for juvenile Coho and steelhead, rearing habitat for red-legged frog, western toad, Pacific treefrog, California newt, the rough-skinned newt, threespine stickleback, Sacramento blackfish and foraging for wintering waterfowl and shorebirds. Over the past decade, sediment deposition rates have increased in the area, creating favorable growing conditions for dense riparian vegetation at the site (primarily willows and alders). These factors have led to a closing off of the creek channel mouth where it meets the beach, which in turn has contributed to rising groundwater levels. Heavy storm events now lead to flooding over local roadways and temporarily restrict access to local homes. The proposed project seeks to relocate the current parking lot out of the floodplain, while creating a mix of habitats and lessening flooding impacts.

The Design Review Group completed the Big Lagoon Creek and Wetland Restoration Letter of Review on February 11, 2004.

Wetland Tracker now available online

Participants in the Wetlands Restoration Program Monitoring Group have completed initial work on the Wetland Tracker. The Bay Area Wetland Project Tracker provides free public access to information about wetland restoration, mitigation, creation, and enhancement projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. Planned and completed wetland projects are displayed on an interactive regional map and summary information is displayed alongside the map. Each project can have a variety of files associated with it and anyone may submit files and make them available for others to download. Please see the website for additional details or just to explore the site's content. The Wetlands Restoration Program co-sponsored the Wetland Tracker workshop on November 18, 2003. Mike May of the San Francisco Estuary Institute led the 23 participants through all sorts of exercises with the Wetland Tracker and demonstrated how to upload project files to the system. Additional details from the meeting can be seen here.

Design Review Group RFQ Rereleased

The Restoration Program has re-released a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for paid members (non-agency staff) of its Design Review Group (DRG). In response to an increasing demand for DRG services, the group seeks experts in Bay Area wetlands and associated habitat restoration design and planning. We are seeking Statements of Qualifications (SOQs) from a variety of technical experts from consulting firms, academia, and science- and policy-based non-governmental organizations. Agency staff interested in participating on the DRG should contact the Program Coordinator for additional details.

To view the RFQ, please click here.

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