Lake Merritt Improvements on Hold
Lake Merritt in downtown Oakland was once a marshy tidal slough where four creeks drained into San Francisco Bay. In 1869, Oakland Mayor Samuel Merritt personally funded the building of a dam at 12th Street, which turned the slough into a 150-acre lake (around which he owned considerable land). A year later he persuaded the State Legislature to declare the lake a game refuge--the first wildlife refuge in the nation. The dam impeded tidal flow, a problem later aggravated by the construction of culverts, a pump station, and more dams.

Now the lake and surrounding parkland are to Oakland what Central Park is to New York. They are valued and enjoyed by the city’s residents, home to many birds and mammals, and the lake is an important stopover for migratory birds traveling the Pacific Flyway. Heavy use and stormwater runoff have long degraded the water quality of the lake, however, so a number of groups and agencies have made efforts to solve these problems.

In 2002, Oakland voters passed Measure DD to provide bond funding for habitat and access improvements at the lake and elsewhere in the city. In 2006, the Conservancy contributed $1 million toward restoring bird habitat on the lake’s five islands. In December 2008, the Conservancy approved $9 million of Proposition 50 funds from the Wildlife Conservation Board to the City of Oakland for an $83,187,900 project to widen the channel between the lake and estuary, create a demonstration tidal marsh and upland habitat along the channel, improve tidal flows, and do work to improve water quality, but these funds have been frozen since December 18, 2008. The City hoped that an expected federal grant would allow the project to proceed on schedule by using those funds first, but that grant will likely not come until the end of the year, so the project start will have to be postponed.

Wet Cushion to Ward off Sea-Level Rise
All permits are in place and construction work has begun on the 15,100-acre South Bay Salt Ponds Restoration Project, the largest tidal marsh restoration project on the West Coast, and a major component of a 40,000-acre wetland recovery effort on San Francisco Bay. Restoration of these industrial salt ponds to marshland will not only expand wildlife habitat and provide wildlife-oriented recreation opportunities, it will also serve to protect shoreline roads, highways, and other nearby structures against the expected sea-level rise. Look for a progress report in our Winter 2009 issue. Also see www.scc.ca.gov.