At first glance, Cullinan Ranch isn’t much to look at. Bound by Dutchman Slough to the north and Highway 37 to the south, the Solano County property consists of 1,500 acres of low-lying fields, dotted with clumps of cattails and coyote brush. Only some earthmoving equipment parked on the site hints that this former farmland is about to become the largest restored marsh in the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
“The Cullinan Ranch project is the greatest effort for the refuge so far,” says Don Brubaker, refuge manager. Even more significant, this project is adjacent to the North Bay Salt Pond Complex, a series of evaporation ponds formerly owned by Cargill Salt Company that have already been restored. “The largest restoration in the San Francisco Estuary to date has taken place in the North Bay, but it’s been done without the pomp and circumstance of the South Bay projects,” says Marc Holmes of the Bay Institute.
Read the complete story at Bay Nature.
