By Dhyana Levey, Bay Nature
In a polluted industrial area in southeast San Francisco, city agencies and naturalists are carving out a series of oases along the San Francisco Bay meant to bring back wildlife and visitors.
With recent sightings of rare birds — along with the reintroduction of a near-extinct plant — birders and biologists say the restoration effort is flourishing. The restored marshy areas near Hunters Point now provide habitat for the California clapper rail and a recovered plant called Suaeda californica.
“I love the paradox: natural habitat with shorebirds amidst these factories and gravel pits,” said Kimberly Jannarone, a Golden Gate Audubon Society member and habitat restoration volunteer. “I see the plants getting healthier and birds coming in and thinking about nesting here.”
Jannarone was one of a smattering of bird-watchers out on a windy, sunny September day at Heron’s Head Park, a quiet stretch of nature providing 8 acres of wetland habitat along the southeast waterfront of San Francisco. While this park provides the largest area of wetlands by the city’s bay, it is just a slice of a project underway to restore and connect a 13-mile corridor of waterways and trails from China Basin to Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, made possible by state and federal grants and the 2008 parks bond.
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