News

Restored salt ponds are for the birds 
(Oakland Tribune - 1/1/2007)
The ducks are back in town. Millions, or so it seems, crowded along the Bayshore, the restaurant row for the waterfowl set. If there were a duck Zagat Survey, the old salt ponds ringing the South Bay would score high on decor ("request a levee-view") and food ("the invertebrates are to die for").

In the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, where scientists are monitoring wildlife as part of a huge salt-pond restoration project, the ducks started arriving in October from parts north. "Since we retrofitted the Cargill salt ponds we bought in 2003, the salinity is a lot lower, and we've had a 100 percent increase in duck use," says refuge manager Clyde Morris. "We've had as many as 10,000 ducks at one time in some of these ponds."