By Ariel Rubissow Okamoto, Bay Nature
It was the kind of January day where you could not see your breath, but the baylands were steaming. Puffs of smoke garlanded the spires of bordering oil refineries. Blue skies, green hills, white windmills and three bridges marked the corner of my eye.
With so much to look at, it was hard to focus on the precise place here along the Contra Costa County shoreline east of Martinez where 12-mile-long Walnut Creek empties into Suisun Bay. That day the moon intervened on my behalf — conjuring a king tide that flooded the low wide channel with so much water that the creek mouth emerged in plain sight. The scene even proffered the bark of sea lions from a channel buoy, a passing ship and a raptor. Spreading its black-tipped wings, this muscular harrier flew a wavy line across a run-down marsh as he scouted for snacks. The sight reminded me that wildlife does not have to be in a wilderness to thrive. Everything about this landscape has the makings of the kind of resilience our former creek mouths may offer as we reconstruct our shores to adapt to rising sea levels.
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