Lessons on North Bay wetlands - without getting out of the car

By Mark Prado
Marin Independent Journal
Saturday, November 11, 2006

Caroline Warner, who scripted a wetlands audio tour of Highway 37, listens to the tour on CD at the wetlands in Petaluma. Special to the IJ/Kevin Hagen

The Novato-based Bay Area Joint Venture, which works to protect and save wetlands, has created the tour for Highway 37, the only highway in the Bay Area that travels through the nature areas. It is sometimes called the "North Bay flyway highway" because of the migratory birds in the area.

"A lot of people drive back and forth, and they have no idea these areas are being protected and restored," said Beth Huning, coordinator of the Joint Venture, which works throughout the Bay Area on wetlands projects.

The group has developed a downloadable audio tour of Highway 37 that can be found at www.yourwetlands.org. The tour is about 20 minutes long and runs from Novato to Vallejo and vice-versa, describing wildlife and features of the wetlands, as well efforts to restore them.

Creators hope people will use it as they drive on the highway. The tour can be downloaded from the Web site and used in an iPod or burned to a CD-R.

"There is nowhere else in the Bay Area where you have a roadway going through wetlands areas," said Caroline Warner, the Joint Venture's public outreach coordinator, who helped develop the tour. "There are a lot of people who drive through the area, from those going to NASCAR at Sears Point to those going to Napa for wine tasting. We thought this would be a good way to let people know about the wetlands."

In the North Bay, up until the mid-19th century, there were some 55,000 acres of wetlands, providing ideal conditions for migrating waterfowl, acting as a nursery for a variety of fish species and an incubator for plants. A potent mix of wetlands - tidal marshes, tidal flats, vernal pools, streams and creeks - provided optimal conditions for a myriad of life.

Many of those acres were lost to development and farming, but now groups like Joint Venture and their partners are working toward restoring them. The group is closing in on restoring almost 30,000 acres of land along Highway 37.

Warner hopes the tour will not only inform, but pique public interest and support of the wetlands.

"They have value for many species, they help with flood control (by absorbing water) and they are beautiful areas," Warner said. "People can use this to take an audio tour by simply downloading it. It's really simple. It gives the general public an idea about this wonderful resource."

Contact Mark Prado via e-mail at mprado@marinij.com

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