Facts

The project is supported by many different agencies, many of whom are active participants in the restoration design process. These agencies include: the City of Novato, the County of Marin, the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture, The Bay Institute, Ducks Unlimited, Save SF Bay Association, the National Audubon Society, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Geological Survey, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

Despite the many natural benefits that wetlands have to offer, the United States continues to lose about 60,000 acres of wetlands each year.

The dumping of dredged materials from the San Francisco Bay into the ocean’s open waters has long been a controversial environmental issue for many years. The Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project provides the opportunity for dredged sediment to be mutually beneficial to the Bay as well as the wetland restoration project.

The San Francisco Bay Estuary which includes the San Pablo Bay is home to the only known breeding populations of the California clapper rail, a state and federally classified endangered species.

The San Francisco Bay Estuary is one of the largest and most significant estuaries along the western coast of the United States. Over 40 percent of California’s land area and 60% of the volume of the state’s runoff drains into the estuary.

Historical diking of the San Francisco Bay Estuary for purposes such as agriculture and housing has resulted in the destruction of approximately 90 percent of the original tidal wetlands.

The Hamilton Wetlands Restoration site is located along the northwestern shore of San Pablo Bay, in the northern reach of the San Francisco Bay Estuary.

San Pablo Bay is a large, shallow estuary. Typical water depths in San Pablo Bay are six feet at low water.

The salt marsh harvest mouse has been listed as an endangered wildlife species due to the reduction of their wetlands habitat at the project site and its surrounding areas. The completion of the Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project will enlarge the natural habitats for many of the area’s critical or endangered species.

Although wetlands cover only 5 percent of the land surface of the lower 48 states, they are home to 31 percent of all plant species.

Wetlands are beneficial to the national economy – in 1991 wetlands-related ecotourism activities like hunting and fishing, added $59 billion to the national economy.