10th Anniversary Faces of the Restoration: Marge Kolar



Marge Kolar was manager of the US Fish and Wildlife Service's San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex, which includes the Don Edwards Refuge along the South Bay, from 1994 to 2005. She participated in the 2003 birth of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, when 16,500 acres of Cargill commercial salt ponds in the South Bay and Napa County were transferred to state and federal land management agencies to become wildlife habitat. Now, as Assistant Regional Director, she oversees all of the national wildlife refuges in California and Nevada. We caught up with her during her busy last month on the job -- she will be retiring in September.

• What was the first inkling you had that the San Francisco Bay Area might be able to gain the salt ponds for wildlife?
  In the late 1990's, many agencies, including the EPA, Fish and Game, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the Fish and Wildlife Service and others, were talking with Cargill about a number of issues. All of a sudden, Cargill said, "Why don't you just buy it from us? We'll sell 18,000 acres for $300 million." Federal and state appraisals were conducted, and the value of the land came up as being much greater than $300 million. But we couldn't afford it.
  
  That's when Senator Dianne Feinstein got involved. She negotiated with Cargill and convinced them to whittle it down to 16,500 acres for $100 million.
  
  Then we had to find that money. It ended up being funded by the state, private foundations, and with some federal money.



• What else stands out in your mind from that time?
  Under the agreement, Cargill agreed to lower the salt to a certain level prior to transferring the salt ponds to the agencies.
  
  But even after we acquired the property, we didn't want the ponds to continue to produce salt, since they were designed to do just that. Cargill staff and their contract engineers and hydrologists helped us redesign the whole system. They also helped with installing the needed water-control structures. It was very hard to get the NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) permit from the Regional Water Quality Board. Everybody was really concerned about what we'd be releasing into the Bay when we opened the tide gates. As it turned out, the salinities in the outflow channels were better than we expected. The initial flush, which everybody thought was going to be awful -- it wasn't.
  
  Senator Feinstein also put in time restrictions. She wanted the planning done in five years -- she wanted to see the restoration accomplished in her lifetime. The foundations that helped fund the acquisition also put that time pressure on us -- we knew we only had the funding for a certain number of years.
  
  At the start of those five years of planning, the question was how to organize ourselves. It was a very different process, with two landowning agencies working with the State Coastal Conservancy, which was handling the planning. Another pressure point by the funding agencies was that they wanted the planning to happen fast, and wanted to see the Coastal Conservancy involved, because they had some history with them. Establishing an organizational system, setting up the project management team -- that took a lot of effort. The changes were happening on the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Fish and Game lands, but we had to agree to give up certain amounts of control through joint decision-making.
  
  Then, there were big concerns at that time about how to proceed with the restoration. Were there going to be enough sediments? Should we create all tidal marsh, or reserve habitat for shorebirds? And it was affecting so many communities around the edge of the Bay that we wanted to make sure all had an opportunity to be involved, so we needed to create a way to involve them in the planning.
  
  
• With your upcoming retirement, looking at your career, where does that experience stand among all the things you have been able to accomplish in your work?
  This is a major, major project within my career. I really feel that 15 to 20 years from now, when I go back to the Bay, there will be such a change. It will be so remarkable to see what has happened.
  
  It's like the way the Don Edwards Refuge was created in the 1960s and '70s. When I came to the Refuge in the 1990s, we were so grateful that people years before were thinking so far in advance. I think that's what it will be like for this project. I think it's a wonderful legacy to leave.
  
  

• Are there any aspects or stories from that time you'd like to share with our readers?
  There was a big event when we signed the basic agreement in 2002. Department of the Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Senator Feinstein and Governor Gray Davis were there. There was a big ceremony at the Refuge at the top of the hill, looking out over the land. That was the first time that people thought, this may actually be happening -- it must be real. The fact that these distinguished guests all sat there and signed the agreement was an amazing event.
  
  I also remember, during the first years of our Initial Stewardship Plan, going very early in the morning, after daybreak, to check salinity levels and adjust the tide gates out on the ponds. Our NPDES permit required us to do daily checks. The employees who regularly did the work were off on weekends, so I would do it on those days. It was a wonderful way to spend a morning -- these are wonderful places. They are so isolated, and yet you are right in the middle of one of most urbanized areas of the country.



• You were there before, when the salt ponds were managed for salt production, and got to see the changes as the Refuge managers began managing for wildlife. How did you see the landscape change?
  I remember when we first opened up the outflow at Pond A2 [near Mountain View and Sunnyvale]. Thousands and thousands of herons, egrets and other fish-eating birds would wait for the change in tidal cycle, when the fish would come out into the Bay -- it was a feeding frenzy. It was quite a wonderful site, thousands of wading birds and shorebirds.
  
  During that time, you could see the ponds were changing. You could see different birds using them. And the tides began fluctuating up and down within the ponds. The industrial salt ponds attract species like phalaropes and grebes, they like brine shrimp and brine shrimp eggs. You can see small shorebirds going along the edges of the salt ponds eating brine flies. As the water became a little fresher, different species are attracted.
  
  I also have a memory: When we first let the tide gates open at Pond A3W, the water just gushed out [the pond is just north of Sunnyvale - see picture of Marge with John Krause, State Department of Fish and Wildlife manager of Eden Landing, at the 2004 pond opening]. That was our first feeling that we were in fact actually restoring the Bay. Just seeing the rush of water coming out --it really gushed forward, moving the sediments. You thought, whoa -- that's really big.
  
  Those are the moments that give you a chill.



• You'll be retiring soon - is there anything you'd like to share as far as your plans now?
  I plan on relaxing, and volunteering at a local state wildlife area, helping the Yolo Basin Foundation with environmental education programs for Sacramento area school kids.
• Any last thoughts for our readers?
  It's nice to see what's happening with the Project these days. I'm glad to see it keeps moving forward.