YEARS OF PLANNING and millions of dollars pay off Saturday with the public grand opening of a restored Pacheco Marsh.
The 247-acre salt marsh, just southeast of the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, will be ready for visitors with miles of public trails, observation points, pedestrian bridges over tidal channels, an interpretive pavilion, a kayak launch, and more.
The celebration starts with a 9:30 a.m. ribbon cutting. The event lasts until dusk.
Contra Costa County allocated more than $11 million in early 2021 to the Lower Walnut Creek Restoration Project, the largest public works project in county history.
Once the major construction was done, native plants were brought in, the levees were breached, the water flowed back in, and wildlife returned to the area.
The John Muir Land Trust conservation group took over the project and added the trails, bridges, and observation points.
Until the mid-19th century, there were grizzly bears and elk in the marsh and salmon and steelhead spawned in Walnut Creek. No bears and elk have returned and probably not spawning fish, either. But bird lovers are expected to come out in droves.
The Walnut Creek watershed is Contra Costa’s largest, draining more than 150 square miles from eight cities into the area. Engineers have enhanced the area’s flood-carrying capacity, using computer models to design new tidal channels and a marsh that naturally adapts to sea level rise due to climate change.
There’s parking and easy access to the area, the land trust said. There will also be experts on site to tell the area’s story.
Pacheco Marsh is home to 10 special-status plant and animal species, including the salt marsh harvest mouse and the black rail — rarely-seen and on the list of avid birdwatchers. Nutrients and biological connectivity are being restored through soil quality rehabilitation and lowering of the levee. Visitors can see abundant wildlife thriving side-by-side with human communities.
Educational features will teach people how a marsh ecosystem functions and why it’s so important to the health of the Bay.
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