I have had a fine time this fall exploring salt ponds immediately north of Alameda Creek. This area includes Salt Ponds E6B, E8, and E8X with the latter two scheduled for a return to tidal flow in the near future. While these are all large ponds in the way of modern salt production, they are also the location of earlier salt works of a much smaller scale. It is fascinating to see the relatively compact and complex traces of late 19th Century salt production, and the original marsh channels that preceded them, in the bottoms of these largely drained contemporary ponds.

Salt Pond E8X, slated to return to tidal flow.

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I have been on a bit of a binge lately with five KAP sessions in South San Francisco Bay during the last week. September is a special month for my work in the Hidden Ecologies project. There is always a month or so this time of the year when my six-month hiatus due to the nesting season is over and the winter rains have yet to arrive. This is when I have access to salt ponds in their most vivid state.

Views from Salt Pond E6B – a large contemporary pond that, like many others, holds the ruins of earlier works.

In any event I was struck by the contrast between two back-to-back sessions in a new section of the salt ponds at Eden Nature Preserve. The first trip was late in the day and I was making an exploratory hike over terrain I had not previously visited. Parking the car on a levee I launched the Sutton 16 in a steady 18 mph breeze and it soon lifted the dSLR rig with just the right amount of authority – sufficient lift but not much more in a wind that was as smooth as butter. I left my KAP gear backpack in the car and hiked a couple of miles while happily clicking away as the light faded. Toward the end the breeze faded too until the Sutton 16 could no longer handle the load. After a slow, controlled descent I packed up the gear and enjoyed the hike out.

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley where I have taught for 25 years. As part of the portfolio of activites scheduled to celebrate the occasion Wayne and I gave a presentation at the Alviso Environmental Education Center and then led a hike out to the Weep on Sunday, 27 September. This 12 – 4 pm outing was one of 15 different explorations offered that day. For more information consult the CED WWW site

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The Fall Stakeholder’s Meeting for the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project wrapped up on 17 September around 5:30. Rather than face I-880 traffic I made a detour to Salt Pond A23 for a quick KAP session as the sun was setting – an altogether sublime experience. I had been keeping an eye on the visual textures of A23 and they have been pretty interesting from the ground. My Special Use permit allows photography in the area between September and February and I have been eagerly waiting the Labor Day green light.

If A23’s borrow ditch was interesting from the ground it was all the more so from the air.

NASA Astrobiologist Dana Rogoff described Salt Pond A23 as being “Mars/Europa-like.” I take the point.

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As the summer waned I found myself waited for the snowy plover chicks to fledge. I cannot KAP at most of the South Bay salt ponds between February and September in deference of the plover’s slightly anxious nesting behavior. Last year I was able to KAP in late summer at the M-Ponds near Mowry Slough. Like last year I sought a permit addendum to allow this and after a few weeks permission was granted. I have since staged a couple of pleasant hikes to the area from the Warm Springs trailhead.

The Mallard II in Salt Pond M6.

In the first of these hikes I made my way out to the junction of Salt Ponds M3 and M6 where the Mallard II dredge was taking a Sunday off from levee maintenance. I always enjoy spotting the Mallard II in the field as it invariably gets me thinking about the straightforward mechanical ingenuity of Victorian era engineering. During the hike, a 9-mile loop, I was able to photograph Salt Ponds M4, M5, and M6 – high salinity ponds that range in tone from brown to red.

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On Sunday I made my eighth hike out to Drawbridge (permit required!), a deserted town in the middle of South San Francisco Bay where the only firm ground was manmade land. This little town, once home to a couple hundred folks, was situated on Station Island along the first rail line to cross the Bay. It sprouted from the cabin of the bridge tender that looked after the railroad bridges on Coyote Creek and Mud Slough. At its height between construction of the railroad in 1880 and the Depression, surrounded by open marsh and sloughs, Drawbridge must have been a delightfully rustic destination for hunters and fishermen. By 1930 or so the South Bay environment was under considerable stress. Expansion of the salt evaporation pond network reduced tidal flow and scouring and as the marshlands disappeared so did the outdoor life that was Drawbridge’s raison d’être. The injury of marshland loss was followed by the insult of raw sewage from San Jose and by 1960 life in Drawbridge was untenable. The place was abandoned.

Figure 1. Amtrak roaring through Drawbridge

What’s left of Drawbridge is returning to the earth. Most of the buildings have been vandalized or burned to the ground. The survivors are sinking into the mud with missing roofs and collapsed walls. Still, it is a fascinating place to visit. As trains roar through at 80 mph it is easy to imagine the good times that occurred thereabouts. Though as it turns out Drawbridge is not the reason I keep hiking out to Station Island. Instead, it’s the two salt ponds (A20 & A21) that flank Drawbridge and contributed directly to its decline.

In March 2006, the levee separating Salt Ponds A21 and A20 from Coyote Creek was breached to reconnect the former evaporation ponds to the ebb and flow of Bay tidal waters. At the time of the beach, the ponds were desolate, whitish beds of deposited gypsum devoid of flora. Over the ensuing months life has begun to take hold in the form of vegetation. The vegetation is growing quite nicely now – outlining the high ground along historic marsh channels. Each time I visit Station Island there is noticeable change in the breached salt ponds and it is most interesting to watch this progress.

Figure 2: Oblique views of the northeast corner of Salt Pond A21 taken in April 2007 and September 2009. The earlier view shows a relatively desolate plateau surface, although not as desolate as the pond before the levee was breached. The latter view shows a distinct pattern of new vegetation forming around the edges of the historic marsh channels.

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The ruins of the Alvarado Salt Works lie along what was once a channel of Alameda Creek outside of present day Union City, California. This was one of the first South Bay Salt Pond sites to catch my eye, in large part because of the ruins of an old trussed bridge that crosses what seems like a ditch. A bit of research with old maps revealed that this was once the navigable channel of Alameda Creek before massive flood control projects straightened its course.

A dilapidated bridge crosses an even more dilapidated creek.

This site once held a landing for the shipping of produce and the refinery of an early salt works. During my previous visits the adjacent Salt Pond E7 was always full enough to cover much of the ruin. This visit found the salt pond low and much of the ruin exposed.

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This Saturday Wayne and I led a hike sponsored by Bay Nature magazine out to the Weep, a ditch just north of Alviso, California. Wayne Lanier and I worked with editor Dan Rademacher on a photo essay “Out at the WEEP – a curious search for life in a ditch” for the last issue of Bay Nature and the hike was a follow up for that piece. It was a pleasant outing and our time at the Weep was spent looking through field microscopes and discussing the unique character of our modest ditch. Great fun.

Lisa Krieger, a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, came along and wrote a nice article for the Sunday edition.

I’ve posted a set of 40 or so aerial photographs taken during the hike to Flickr. You can see those images after the jump or just head over to the Flickr set.

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We have long been fans of Bay Nature, a lively publication serving naturalists in the San Francisco Bay Area. So, we were delighted when Dan Rademcher, Editorial Director for Bay Nature, approached us to develop an article based on Hidden Ecologies.

After several pleasant meetings, a fine Sunday hike to the Weep, and drafts aplenty, our article “Out at the WEEP – a curious search for life in a ditch” is now on the newsstands in the current issue of Bay Nature. Read on to learn about a public hike to the Weep later this month.

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Wayne Lanier, PhD, will be giving “Field Lectures” in Salt Marsh Microbial Ecology this summer at both Environmental Education Centers of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Please see SUMMER ACTIVITIES – pages 10-13, of Tideline Newsletter for the Summer 2009 schedule.

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