These are the South Bay wetlands, a 5,000-year-old ecosystem that is home to hundreds of plant and animal species. There was a time when Sunnyvale residents around Murphy Park could see them from their backyards, but over the past 150 years, 85 percent of these wetlands have vanished from the South Bay.

These days, South Bay residents can enjoy strolling, biking and hunting in what is left of this natural habitat. But some fear this scene could one day disappear completely: which is why there's a massive restoration effort fighting to ensure that doesn't happen--a project that hopes to balance the needs of people, wildlife and land that will evolve over many years as issues arise.

The South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project is a collaboration of state and national environmental organizations hoping to turn 15,100 acres of industrial salt production ponds back into the ecological habitat that once covered the South Bay.

"We have this huge, wonderful place that is of tremendous value to the whole Bay Area," says Eileen McLaughlin, project director of Wildlife Stewards, a volunteer program and partner to the National Wildlife Refuges of the San Francisco Bay. "Now we get to turn it back into something we can celebrate."

The project's main focus is thousands of acres of salt ponds that, until recently, were owned by Cargill Inc., an international marketer of agricultural, food, financial and industrial products. The ponds, which have operated since the California gold rush, will be turned back into coastal wetlands. In addition, the restoration effort is working to improve flood management in the South Bay, along with opening up new areas for recreation.

"We're providing for the future," McLaughlin says.

But it won't be easy. A complete return to wetlands in the South Bay could take anywhere from 50 to 100 years. True restoration has only just begun, and a complete plan has not even been mapped out. For now, the project is in its earliest stage, a five-year initial stewardship plan aimed at developing and finalizing plans for the restoration.

Beyond the bay

Wetlands already exist in the South Bay. But McLaughlin says, "There is less interest in the South Bay about the San Francisco Bay. We don't see the beautiful vistas of the North Bay. It's just not very attractive."

Wetlands are land covered by water for all or part of the year. These can include swamps, marshes, mudflats, lagoons and estuaries, depending on the type and amount of water in the area. Sunnyvale residents are probably most familiar with seasonal wetlands, like those that make up 105 of the acres of Baylands Park.

In winter, wetland plants flourish in the rain-filled ponds, and waterfowl and shorebirds flock to the area. When the ponds dry up in summer, a different set of creatures emerges. The salt marsh harvest mouse, an endangered species found only in the Bay Area, makes its home in Baylands, along with the burrowing owl, a small bird listed as a species of special concern in California. The wetlands are home to a variety of resident and migratory birds, from ducks in winter to swallows in summer.

"The bay is a migratory stopover" for a number of waterfowl, McLaughlin says. Between 1988 and 1995, 38 species of wintering and migratory shorebirds were identified.

McLaughlin says this biodiversity makes the wetlands valuable and the restoration project vital, in the San Francisco Bay and beyond.

"We are actually connecting with other areas," she says. "These are hemispheric ecosystems."

Getting started

While the official purchase of the Cargill salt ponds is relatively recent, according to Marge Kolar, manager of the San Francisco Bay Refuge Complex, "We've been working on this [project] for a number of years."

Interest in preserving the bay dates back to the early 1960s, when a trio of South Bay women joined together to form Save the San Francisco Bay Association. The Don Edwards Refuge was established in 1972 by a group of South Bay citizens who pushed for its creation. The so-called "People's Refuge" purchased the first salt ponds two years later.

"There's been a history of South Bay salt ponds being purchased [for the refuge]," McLaughlin says. "The idea was not new."

In the late 1990s, the first seeds of the restoration project took hold, when Cargill decided to reduce operations in the South Bay.

"We decided ... we could produce salt on one-third of what we were operating on," says Lori Johnson, public affairs manager for Cargill. "We said, 'We don't need the properties; what's the best use for them?' "

The obvious answer was restoration, Johnson says.

Cargill turned to the Don Edwards Refuge, with which it has had a close working relationship for years, says Johnson. In October 2000, Cargill put more than 19,000 acres of ponds up for sale. Sen. Dianne Feinstein headed up a series of negotiations with Cargill, which led to the signing of a framework agreement for the acquisition of 15,100 acres of South Bay salt ponds and 1,400 acres of crystallizer ponds along the Napa River by the state and federal governments.

In February 2003, the state approved the $100 million sale, which was made up of $80 million in state and federal funds and $20 million from the Packard, Goldman, Hewlett and Moore foundations. The California State Coastal Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game form the core of the project management team.

With the lands secured, the restoration effort entered the next stage. The project management team hired a team of engineering and environmental consultants to work on developing a workable restoration plan.

"Right now, we're looking at what can happen at different locations" in terms of moving ahead with the restoration, McLaughlin says.

The project management team appointed the Stakeholder Forum, a group of local businesses, environmental organizations, community advocates, and public health and elected officials who would provide public input to the management team. Since last December, the forum has held public meetings in four areas of expertise: public access and recreation, flood management, habitat restoration and long-term funding. The forum has completed its first round of meetings, McLaughlin says, and more are planned for later in the year.

Public access and wildlife

The part of the project most relevant to South Bay residents may be the idea of public access.

"There is access [to the wetlands] now, but it is underused," McLaughlin says.

Sunnyvale City Councilwoman Julia Miller hopes to change this. She holds a seat on the public-access group of the Stakeholders Forum. When she heard the project management team wanted local elected officials to join the forum, the self-described environmentalist decided to fill out an application.

Miller has served on the board of directors for the Bay Trail, an organization working to complete more than 500 miles of continuous trail throughout the Bay Area. The Bay Trail is currently about one-third of the way toward its target length, and Miller's goal is to further its completion. At the moment, the trail ends at a levee behind Moffett Field and remains closed to the public for two miles north.

"I'm trying to get those gates down so people can go all the way to the Dumbarton Bridge," she says. As a forum member, Miller hopes "to move up the timeline for public access" during the restoration project.

Increasing public access is about more than just adding a place for people to hike or bike.

"One of the priority public uses is environmental education, observation and photography," Kolar says.

"A trail system in the project could accommodate a diversity of users," says Bay Trail Project Manager Laura Thompson. "It could provide an opportunity for the public to learn about the bay and its habitats."

But public access isn't as simple as just carving out a trail.

"The idea isn't to make big parks," McLaughlin says. "The idea is to put wildlife first and then arrange for access for recreation."

But, as project planners are learning, wildlife and public concerns do not always match up.

"The issues are in balancing everyone's needs," Kolar says. "Where do you allow certain types of uses? How do you get access to those uses?"

For example, Kolar says, duck hunters have traditionally used certain ponds. While Kolar says the practice is "something we want to continue to honor," some of those ponds may no longer be open to hunting, a decision that has lead to some conflict with the hunters.

"There are some changes people aren't comfortable with," McLaughlin says. "Some people seeing recreational opportunities were disappointed with some decisions."

Both Kolar and McLaughlin stress that such disagreements are minor, and Kolar says, "Overall, the project has been welcomed on all sides."

Another major part of the project is flood control, which planners are aiming to improve as restoration progresses. Currently, outer levees designed to control the salt ponds are providing flood protection in the South Bay. Planners hope to replace these temporary controls with "real engineered levees, as opposed to the small ones from Cargill," Kolar says. "These would provide a better layer of protection from floodwaters from the bay side."

Sunnyvale Communications Officer Adam Levermore-Rich says that, while flooding has never been a major threat to Sunnyvale, the project could potentially benefit the city.

"The project is lowering the level of the water in the ponds, so there could be less of a risk to the flood-plain areas," he says.

Sunnyvale currently operates 440 acres of ponds as part of its water treatment plant. These will not be included in the restoration project, but "the ponds around us are," says the city's public works director, Marvin Rose. He does not anticipate that restoration efforts will have any impact on the city's operations, he added.

Reducing salt in ponds

While much of the next four years of the initial stewardship plan execution (until 2008) will be spent on data collection and planning, there has already been some notable progress in the restoration process--the efforts to stop salt production and reduce the salinities of the ponds.

"Many of the [former] Cargill ponds are very salty, and if we let water escape, it would be too salty for the bay," Kolar says.

In the current salt production system, water is moved between the ponds in a closed system, and as a result "the ponds just got saltier and saltier," Kolar says. "If we didn't do anything, we would continue to produce salt."

Cargill has been working to stop the salt production process in the ponds. While most are still far from state-approved salinity levels, a few of the ponds' salinity levels have already been reduced, like that of pond A3W in Sunnyvale. In July, the pond was opened up, with its waters redirected back into the bay for the first time since the 1940s. To date, more than 4,000 acres of ponds have been opened, and more are expected to open by next spring.

"In a sense, the restoration has begun," McLaughlin says.

A flexible plan

However, those involved in the project admit they're not quite sure what form the plan will take. Beyond the initial stewardship plan, "the rest is not really planned yet," Kolar says.

"We want to do it gradually," she says. "We want to observe the changes being made and adapt our plan [to them]. As we are doing them, we may change our ideas."

Perhaps the only certainty about the project is uncertainty. Before the project can really move ahead, a number of issues still need to be addressed.

For example, one concern is mercury contamination. Sediment from the Almaden mines flows down the Guadalupe River and Alviso Slough, and project managers must be careful the toxins don't contaminate the ponds. Scientists are working to stop up the source of the mercury, but "it's another reason to wait awhile" on restoration, Kolar says.

Project managers are also grappling with deciding exactly what needs to be restored. The goal is to increase tidal marsh areas and reduce diked wetlands and salt ponds, along with preventing further filling of the bay. Not all of the ponds will be converted into wetlands. Over time, certain species have adapted to the salt pond environment, and planners are trying to maintain that habitat.

"There's already a lot of wildlife out on these ponds," McLaughlin says. "It's only going to become richer as we manage it."

Funding is another worry. The exact cost for the restoration has not been determined, but it could reach the hundreds of millions. The State Coastal Conservancy has committed $2.5 million for long-term planning, and the Hewlett, Packard and Moore foundations will provide $5 million more, but funds for the actual restoration have yet to be secured. The project management team is looking into financing options, but the question of money remains largely unanswered.

McLaughlin believes the project could eventually yield economic benefits, namely through tourism and flood control. But the financial issue still looms.

"How will the public pay for this?" McLaughlin asked. "How can we do this?"

The lack of a clear direction does not have those involved with the project worried, however. "The [five-year] planning period is about figuring out what to do," McLaughlin says.

The Don Edwards Refuge holds tours of the salt ponds Saturdays and Sundays. For information and reservations, call 510.792.0222, ext. 43, or visit www.desfbay.fws.gov. To learn more about the restoration project, visit www.southbayrestoration.org.