Sonoma County

Sonoma Baylands Restoration

Nature is reclaiming a historic ranch at Sears Point

We’ll see nature begin to reclaim her ancient home as a levee more than a century old is breached and water from San Pablo Bay rushes in to form a brand new tidal wetland on a thousand acres of what had been a dry land farm.  The old hay farm, next to Highway 37 near Sears Point in southern Sonoma County, had been owned by the Dickson family since 1937.  We’ll meet Fred Dickson and his sister, Nancy, who chose to sell their land in 2004 to the Sonoma Land Trust for wetlands restoration after deciding that Sonoma County needed open space more than development and that it was time for the Bay to regain a piece of land it had lost when levees were built and wetlands were drained in the decades after the Gold Rush… and 90% of the Bay’s historic wetlands disappeared. We’ll travel into the wetland to see new life already flourishing there and hear about prospects for its future as tides bring in more and more sediment over the years and allow native plants to take root and native animals to find safe refuge.  We'll discover that each of us will have have a front row seat to watch life emerge here on a new and accessible section of the San Francisco Bay Trail… and by kayaking into the wetland itself.  And we’ll find out that the next generation of Dickson family members is already immensely proud of its family’s legacy and commitment to nature and all of us.

HELPFUL LINKS

Sonoma Land Trust

San Pablo Bay Wildlife Refuge

San Francisco Bay Trail

Ducks Unlimited 

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