San Pablo Bay

Highway 37 project wins permit from regional agency

Adrian Rodriguez, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A multimillion-dollar project to reduce gridlock and protect against flooding on Highway 37 between Marin and Solano counties has secured a key approval after more than 10 years of regional planning.

The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission voted unanimously to authorize a permit for the first leg of a three-phase construction project on a 10-mile segment of the highway from Sears Point to Mare Island.

The project, which also is intended to fortify a portion of the San Pablo Baylands, is an interim solution while planners work toward what they call the “ultimate project” to raise the entire 21-mile corridor. The undertaking is years away and expected to cost billions of dollars.

The first phase involves replacing the Tolay Creek Bridge at Sears Point with a longer and wider bridge, and widening the highway to four lanes east through Tubbs Island.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/05/12/highway-37-project-wins-permit-from-regional-agency/

Climate Change & Energy, Transportation, ,

Caltrans to hold Jan. 14 meeting on Highway 37 project, environmental opportunities

Mary Callahan, PRESS DEMOCRAT
Plans for an overhaul of Highway 37 between Sears Point and Mare Island to ease congestion and gird the road against the rising waters of San Pablo Bay will be aired at Jan. 14 meeting hosted by Caltrans.

The meeting will be held from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Jan. 14.
Interested people can participate remotely on Zoom, using the link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85317647303#success.

The hybrid meeting was scheduled to allow for discussion of a newly released draft supplemental environment impact report, now open for public review and comment. It incorporates changes to near-term road improvements, as well as the addition of a major marshland rehabilitation effort.

But there should be room for discussion beyond that, as well.

“The meeting on the 14th is going to mostly focus on the content of the draft supplemental EIR,” said Skylar Nguyen, senior environmental scientist with Caltrans. “That’s the focus, and that’s what we are presenting on, but we would be trying to answer as many questions as we can.”

The newly released environmental document relays in detail plans to restore and reinvigorate about 1,200 acres in and around what’s called the Strip Marsh East, a degraded area of tidal salt marsh west of Mare Island on the north shore of San Pablo Bay. The marsh provides habitat to multiple protected species and offers the chance for a nature-based buffer against sea level rise and flooding along about 3.5 miles of highway.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/highway-37-caltrans-environmental-report/?

Transportation, Wildlife, , ,

Spawning Chinook salmon return to Sonoma Creek in wake of recent storms

Martin Espinoza, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Copious early rainfall and efforts aimed at restoring local salmon and steelhead trout habitat have made such scenes possible, local ecologists say.

A female Chinook salmon swam steadily against the current in a shallow section of Sonoma Creek as several male fish splashed about behind her, jockeying for position, waiting for her to lay her eggs.

Just a few yards downstream on Wednesday, near the bank of the creek, another female rolled onto her side and smacked the gravel and rocks with her tail, doing her part to dig a “redd” or nest as the current flushed away silt and sediment that can be harmful to egg development.

This spawning scene for Chinook, or king salmon, in the headwaters of Sonoma Creek within Sugarloaf Ridge State Park is an uncommon sight for most local residents.

But since late November, hundreds of Chinook have traveled up the watershed from San Pablo Bay and been spotted in numerous tributaries that drain Sonoma Valley and its surrounding elevations.

Heavy rains in November and December have created ideal stream flows that have allowed spawning salmon to make their way into the region’s headwaters, said Steven Lee, research program manager of the Sonoma Ecology Center, which monitors the health of the Sonoma Creek watershed.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/spawning-chinook-salmon-sonoma-creek-valley/?

Habitats, Water, Wildlife, , , , ,

New Highway 37 planning structure elevates focus on environment, San Pablo Baylands

Mary Callahan, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

The people who are planning the long-needed improvements on heavily congested Highway 37 are faced with more than just the amount of time commuters spend in gridlock each day en route to and from jobs in Marin and Sonoma counties.

There also are climate and environmental concerns along the sensitive shoreline of San Pablo Bay — the focus of tidelands restoration investments topping $600 million already. The diminished marshes and wetlands that once lined the greater San Francisco Bay are productive habitats that foster wildlife, filter water, sequester carbon and can help buffer the land from sea level rise.

But the varying needs don’t always line up easily. What solves one problem could exacerbate another.

And there is distrust among some who believe a short-term plan to widen the eastern stretch of 37 between Sears Point and Mare Island on slightly raised berms does more harm than good, despite the cost and time involved in a long-term plan to raise the whole highway.

They include Congressman Jared Huffman, who has, as he attests, “been lobbying nonstop” to change the approach to the highway redesign, moving directly to a full causeway instead of a freeway widening project “straight out of the 1980s.”

But in an effort to assure environmental stakeholders that their interests are on equal footing as work on the 21-mile highway corridor goes forward, the multicounty State Route 37 Partnership, currently dominated by transportation agencies, will now include key leaders from “environmentally oriented” state groups.

And it will have a new name: The Baylands Restoration and Transportation Expanded Partnership.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/new-highway-37-planning-structure-elevates-focus-on-environment-san-pablo/

Transportation, , ,

Hwy. 37 could be under water by 2050. Here’s how Caltrans plans to keep traffic flowing

Colin Atagi, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

The favored plan also proposes the route have a 60 mph speed limit, as well as two lanes in each direction with bicycle and pedestrian paths. The plan is in its early stages and officials haven’t identified a cost or funding source.

Caltrans, in order to keep traffic flowing decades from now, intends to build an elevated road along Highway 37 to combat rising water levels, which are expected to eventually inundate the North Bay arterial.

The proposed project essentially stretches across the existing route along San Pablo Bay and through Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties.

It preserves travel patterns, allows landward marsh migration and is resilient to sea level rises, officials said in explaining its benefits.

Read more at https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/news/hwy-37-could-be-under-water-by-2050-heres-how-caltrans-plans-to-keep-tra/

Climate Change & Energy, Habitats, Transportation, Wildlife, , , , , , , ,

Op-Ed: Expand and restore Bay wetlands to fight climate change

Carin High and Arthur Feinstein, THE MERCURY NEWS

Report must spur us to look at actions we can take to reduce emissions and prepare our communities to adapt

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from the world’s scientific community leaves no doubt that we must take urgent action on climate change while we still have a chance to prevent the most destructive impacts to the globe’s communities and ecosystems. This report must spur every one of us to look at actions we can take in our region to rapidly reduce emissions and prepare our communities to adapt.

More than issuing a wake-up call, this report offers concrete actions that we can take and emphasizes the valuable role of nature-based solutions that reduce climate change risks, while providing numerous benefits to both our communities and the planet.

One of the most effective nature-based solutions is the expansion and restoration of coastal wetlands. Wetlands not only provide valuable habitat for fish and birds, acting as the base of the marine ecosystem, but wetlands have also been shown to be one of nature’s most efficient plant communities for capturing carbon from the atmosphere, trapping organic carbon quicker and better than forests, thus reducing carbon in the atmosphere.

Coastal wetlands also help to buffer our communities from sea level rise, acting as a sponge to capture flood waters before they reach our homes and businesses. In short, wetlands, if protected, expanded and restored, are one of the most valuable ecosystem tools for reducing the impact of climate change.

Read more at https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/04/30/opinion-expand-and-restore-bay-wetlands-to-fight-climate-change/

Climate Change & Energy, Habitats, Wildlife, , , ,

Sonoma Land Trust builds ‘living shoreline’ to thwart erosion at Sears Point

Guy Kovner, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Julian Meisler stood on a human-made levee at low tide along the shore of San Pablo Bay, surveying 1,000 acres of a dark brown, mostly barren mud flat.

“That’s exactly what we want to see,” said Meisler.

He is the project manager of Sonoma Land Trust’s 15-year campaign to restore wetlands intended to protect the Highway 37 corridor — with both a roadway and rail line — from flooding exacerbated by sea level rise.

And now the levee, a victim of erosion from wind waves, is being fortified by an unprecedented restoration project using hundreds of trees — some salvaged from wildfire burn areas — to blunt the waves and promote wildlife habitat.

It’s been six years since the Santa Rosa nonprofit’s Sears Point project breached the levee built 140 years ago to create farmland, and tides have since deposited two to four feet of sediment in the nascent wetlands.

At high tide, the mud flat becomes a lagoon up to two and a half feet deep, harboring shorebirds, waterfowl, river otters, bat rays and leopard sharks. People ply the water with canoes, kayaks and standup paddleboards, while hiking trails lead along the shore in what is now the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

The project’s ultimate goal remains years away, when six feet of sediment gives root to vegetation transforming the wetlands into a verdant marsh, teeming with wildlife and absorbing high tides.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-land-trust-builds-living-shoreline-to-thwart-erosion-at-sears-poin/

Habitats, Land Use, Local Organizations, Water, Wildlife, , , ,
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