Save the Bay pitches in, helps New Orleans
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 THE SHORELINE at New Orleans City Park is being restored by Save the Bay director David Lewis during the National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat restoration. |
As the oldest organization to have success in San Francisco Bay shoreline restoration since starting in the 1960s, Oakland-based Save the Bay has strived to keep the tide of progress fresh.
This past week, three Save the Bay leaders met with guardians of other U.S. estuaries — from Puget Sound, which cradles Seattle, to the Chesapeake Bay that feeds the nation's capitol — at the Restore America's Estuaries third National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration.
An estimated 1,500 people convened in New Orleans to share expertise involving federal and state government, science and business. Other local groups that attended included the state Coastal Conservancy, based in Oakland, the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge and the regional National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.
Save the Bay organizers shared with fellow attendees how they are involving volunteers and monitoring results at the Eden Landing Salt Pond restoration project in Hayward/Union City.
"Most of restoration helps in natural projects," Lewis said. "There is a role for volunteers along the edges who replant levees with native plants."
As Save the Bay is involved with 10 restoration projects, Lewis said it was interesting to learn how other groups are technically monitoring their efforts to be able to quantify the benefits. Along Oakland's urban shoreline, the results of Save the Bay restoration at a former toxic dumping site can be enjoyed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline Park.
Though the annual conference had been planned for The Big Easy even before Hurricane Katrina struck, many attendees were especially interested in how the city's wetlands have recovered since.
Some 400 volunteers from the conference turnedout to restore the shoreline along City Park, a downtown area next to Lake Pontchartrain, much like San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.
Unlike concrete walls and paved streets, wetlands act like a sponge during floods by holding in a lot of water and releasing it slowly.
After Hurricane Katrina, saltwater flowed into the park's freshwater environment, killing the native plants. Conference volunteers from 22 states and six countries helped remove downed trees and install 10,000 plants, such as bulrush and other reeds, to stabilize more than 500 feet of shoreline and reduce erosion.
"It was good to feel like we're making a small contribution to also benefit people," said Save the Bay Executive Director David Lewis, who took part in the efforts.
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