Learn about how creek flows affect restoring tidal marshes from Michael MacWilliams of FlowWest, who has modeled hydrodynamics where the Calabazas and San Tomas Aquino creeks meet the salt ponds in northern San Jose as part of Valley Water’s project to connect those creeks with Pond A4.
Learn about San Francisco Bay breeding waterbirds from USGS, which has looked at South Bay avocets, stilts and terns to understand how their abundance has changed since the inception more than 20 years ago of the Restoration Project, as well as the effect on birds of predators and of constructing nesting islands. (The talk may be rescheduled if needed based on agency staffing.)
In order to speed the growth of restoring tidal marsh at the Eden Landing Ponds near Hayward, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in late 2023 piled sediments off the Eden Landing shore for waves and tides to bring to the marsh.
Learn about the design and results of this Eden Landing Strategic Placement Project from Julie Beagle of the Army Corps and Jessie Lacy and Karen Thorne of USGS. (The talk may be rescheduled if needed based on agency staffing.)
Learn how wetland managers across the Bay Area are collaborating to conduct monitoring at a regional scale to save on costs and gain greater understanding of the factors affecting wetland restoration success. Christina Toms of the Regional Water Quality Control Board on June 10, 2025, joined Restoration Project Lead Scientist Donna Ball for a joint presentation on this Bay-wide collaboration, called the Wetland Regional Monitoring Program (WRMP).
We share the Earth with millions of other species. But, our planet is experiencing a biodiversity crisis in which a significant portion of these species are in danger of extinction in coming decades. While the Earth has undergone mass extinctions in the past—such as when a meteor strike doomed the dinosaurs—the current mass extinction event is caused by humans. This loss of species is a tragedy for the Earth’s ecology and non-human inhabitants, but will also have significant impacts on human societies.
Learn about Save The Bay’s cost-saving methods to revegetate and restore wildlife habitat at the Restoration Project's recently completed Ravenswood Ponds restoration site in Menlo Park. Jessie Olson, Habitat Restoration Director at Save The Bay, discusses the techniques the non-profit has developed that can be scaled up while reducing costs and labor. Save The Bay planted on our newly constructed habitat transition zone slopes (also called “horizontal levees”) bordering restoring tidal marsh at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
At this free virtual talk, Dr. Nathan Van Schmidt, Science Director at the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, will discuss the challenges of bird conservation, after birds displaced by development and human presence on beaches and former Central Valley wetlands have come to depend on man-made ponds in the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project lands.
Find out more and register here.
We have canceled the April Lunch and Learn. Please join us for the May presentation by Save The Bay on its work vegetating and restoring upland transition zones (also called horizontal levees)!
Scientist Nathan Van Schmidt of the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO) talks about his research on the challenges facing waterbirds of the Pacific Flyway within the Restoration Project.
Learn about water quality issues, such as low dissolved oxygen, that can arise in the complex environment of Lower South Bay sloughs and the Restoration Project’s gated and culverted pond habitats, as Ariella Chelsky of the San Francisco Estuary Institute discusses her research.
Learn the latest about one of the Restoration Project’s most charismatic megafauna, the threatened Western Snowy Plover, from Maddy Schwarz of the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO). Snowy plovers nest and raise their chicks on stretches of dry ponds, where their eggs and young are vulnerable to predators from the ground and above.
Dr. Levi S. Lewis, Director of the UC Davis Otolith Geochemistry and Fish Ecology Laboratory, discusses studies of South Bay fish and fish habitats, highlighting key findings regarding their status and trends, and how these results have informed the development of bay-wide fish monitoring under the Wetlands Regional Monitoring Program.
Drew Kerr of the Invasive Spartina Project discussed how managing invasive plants as tidal marshes develop and mature provides a critical foundation for successfully establishing diverse Restoration Project marsh plant communities.
Learn how restoration ecologists have helped Don Edwards Refuge maximize the amount of soil it obtains to build habitat and levees while ensuring that soil has low contaminant levels so wildlife and wetlands are protected. Gavin Archbald of H. T. Harvey & Associates discusses his work implementing and refining the regulator-required Refuge plan for sampling soil pollutants and managing which soils are clean enough to place onsite.
The Restoration Project launches its 2024-25 Brown Bag Science Speaker Series with a presentation on the latest research by Kevin Buffington of USGS on the potential sea level rise threat to South Bay tidal marshes and restoration sites.
Dr. Nathan Van Schmidt, Director of Waterbird Science at the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, will give a virtual presentation on the Restoration Project's dilemma of needing to offer habitat for species that have accidentally ended up in San Francisco Bay after their habitat elsewhere was degraded. The event is hosted by the Golden Gate Bird Alliance.
More info and access here.
The presentation description:
Join San Jose State University Professor Dr. Costanza Rampini for a discussion on whose values and voices are prioritized in climate change solutions. Dr. Rampini, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies, will inquire into who will benefit, who will lose, and who will be left out as different countries, regions, cities, and communities try to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and implement strategies to cope with the impacts of climate change.
Learn the latest about the life and times of our local burrowing owls from our own first Lead Scientist, Dr. Lynne Trulio of San Jose State University, at this free online lecture hosted by the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO).
Register here.
More than 70 members of the Stakeholder Forum and the public participated in this periodic public meeting to inform and dialogue about the Restoration Project's latest construction work and science.
The event began with a half-hour pre-meeting mixer for casual conversation. The formal portion of the meeting took place from 9:30 a.m. to Noon, ending with an optional open house to allow time for remaining questions and comments.
Wilson's and Red-necked Phalaropes are tiny but charismatic shorebirds that rely on saline lakes like Mono Lake and Owens Lake as their most critical gas stations on their epic migration to South America. Saline lakes are threatened worldwide by water diversion and climate change, and presumably phalaropes are threatened along with them.