By Rob Mitchell
Marin Independent Journal
Friday, August 12, 2005
The Marin Audubon Society yesterday received a $100,000 matching grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Novato-based Bay Institute won $63,600 from the same program.
The Audubon Society will use the money to restore 375 acres of wetlands in the Bahia area of northeast Novato, and the Bay Institute will restore more than 3,000 feet of creek habitat in Marin and Sonoma counties.
The money was part of $5.7 million in funds from the federal Private Stewardship Grants Program distributed to private landowners and groups in 38 states for conservation purposes.
"The (Bahia) project will restore a historic landscape now found only in China Camp," said Barbara Salzman, president of the Marin Audubon Society. "And it will significantly expand habitat for wildlife."
Diked salt marsh and infilled wetlands will be returned to tidal wetlands, providing habitat for the endangered clapper rail and salt marsh harvest mouse as well as many species of fish and birds.
As part of its Students and Teachers Restoring Watersheds program, the Bay Institute money will support planting of native vegetation and creek bank stabilization along creeks on the Murphy and Mendoza ranches in Marin, as well as two sites in Sonoma.
The labor for the project is provided by elementary and high school students and teachers in a program started in 1992.
"The timing could not be better," said Grant Davis, executive director of the Bay Institute. "We just completed our 'Watershed Week' teacher training. Without the Fish and Wildlife Service funds, this (project) could have been jeopardized."
The 65 teachers trained this year will supervise more than 1,000 students at about 25 annual restoration projects coordinated by the Bay Institute. The four projects supported by the grant money will start in November and revitalize habitat for native birds, fish and amphibians.
Both groups must find funds from other sources - at least 10 percent of their grant total - to use the money.
The Audubon Society still needs to find about $300,000 to meet the estimated $2 million cost of its project.
The Bahia wetlands restoration is separate from the proposed lock and dredging project in the Bahia neighborhood.
In 2003, the Audubon Society closed a $15.8 million deal for 632 acres in Bahia that was slated for a 424-home development.
The land purchased includes a 214-acre blue oak forest, 18 acres of seasonal wetlands and 333 acres of diked salt marsh.
The Audubon Society retained 60 acres, transferring the rest to the Marin County Open Space District and the California Department of Fish and Game.
The Audubon restoration will restore the peninsula area it owns and all of the diked salt marsh owned by Fish and Game to tidal wetland.
"We have the plan mostly finished," Salzman said. "We're really excited."
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