Salt Pond Restoration Project

Cargill Helps Restore the Bay's Edge

Landscapes usually evolve on a geologic time scale: not so in the future of South San Francisco Bay. Here, in the next few years, the most exciting wetlands restoration on the West Coast will take place. More than 16,500 acres of former salt ponds will be converted to an array of wetland habitats, restoring 25 square miles of shoreline to flora and contours that have not been seen in more than a century. In 2003, Cargill Salt donated and sold 53 salt ponds to the federal government and the State of California to make this restoration possible.

Since then, nearly 75% of the ponds have been turned over to the wildlife agencies in charge of the restoration. Since agreeing to the sale/donation, Cargill has been busy reducing the salinity of the brines in these ponds so they maintain and improve habitat quality during restoration planning.

Converting salt ponds into other types of wetlands isn’t a simple task. Biologists and hydrologists must determine the optimum use for each pond, and engineer ways to efficiently and cost-effectively guide it to that state. Sometimes that requires sophisticated intake structures to manage the flow of water and sediment; sometimes it demands extensive invasive species control or other management efforts. The one guiding principle is that the system can’t simply be left idle – the Bay’s edge is a dynamic system, constantly transporting salt, water, flora and fauna in and out of every nook and cranny. The management of the ponds needs to constantly be in motion, too.

Cargill Salt has remained an active partner in the first, crucial stages of managing the ponds for habitat rather than salt production. The company reengineered its entire Bay Area salt operation to produce salt from its 11,000 remaining acres of salt ponds and evaporators, freeing up the 16,500 acres of restoration land. And Cargill’s watermen – the undisputed experts of Bay water management – have played crucial roles in managing the ponds during the interim as final restoration strategies are being developed.

“We rely heavily on their expertise on how the ponds operate,” says Carl Wilcox, habitat conservation manager for the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG). “This isn’t something that’s written down in a cookbook – it’s a hands-on thing.”

July 2004 - The first salt ponds in approximately 100 years are opened to tidal action as part of the South Bay restoration. Pictured from right: Bob Douglass, Real Property manager; Terry Lewis; Pat Mapelli, project manager.

(Click photo to enlarge)

The Salt Pond Ecosystem
Associated Habitat
Protected Species
Restoration Project
Starting the Process
A History of Cooperation

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