Salt Ponds

Beginning with the Ohlone people, who harvested salt for local use and regional trade, small scale salt production on San Francisco Bay expanded into one of the largest industrial solar evaporation complexes in the world. Salt production transformed the South Bay landscape and contributed to the loss of more than 85 percent of the rich tidal marshes that once surrounded the Bay. However, salt ponds can be a natural part of San Francisco Bay. Twenty-five square miles of former commercial salt ponds in the South Bay, now publicly owned, are being restored to a mix of wetland habitats designed to provide homes for a variety of wildlife. A portion of the salt ponds will be restored to tidal wetlands for wildlife threatened with extinction, including the salt marsh harvest mouse and California clapper rail. But many of the salt ponds will remain ponds. These ponds will serve as feeding and resting habitat for shorebirds and ducks migrating on the Pacific Flyway, and as places for American avocets and black-necked stilts to feed, nest, and raise their young.