EPA Grant Supports Nature-Based Solutions & Sediment Science for North Bay Marsh

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month announced that it selected the San Francisco Estuary Partnership and the Association of Bay Area Governments as awardees of a $13.9 million grant to restore and enhance some 1,500 acres of tidal wetland habitat known as Strip Marsh East along the State Route 37 corridor in Solano County.

Restoration work at Strip Marsh East is expected to begin in 2028.

Flanked by a flood-prone stretch of Highway 37, Strip Marsh East, is nestled within the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge and is vulnerable to habitat loss due to poor drainage conditions resulting in cycles of months-long ponding and evaporation, drowning wetland plants that leave super saline soils behind. This cycle of flood and salt has resulted in the loss of 800 acres of emergent marsh since 2000, reducing habitat for local species, including those listed as endangered.

"By enhancing our shoreline wetlands, we improve habitat for sensitive species and add resilience to vulnerable infrastructure and the communities and emergency services that rely on them," said Jeanette Weisman, State Route 37 Corridor Program Manager for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

The low-lying marsh is particularly vulnerable to flooding and a lack of drainage, leaving little habitat to support the local wildlife that relies on it. In addition, ongoing erosion and sediment loss contribute to native plant loss, such as pickleweed, which would otherwise help hold the marsh together. Therefore, the project design will include lowering intake berms, dredging a four-mile-long tidal channel, and the reuse of that dredged material to increase the elevation of Strip Marsh East and create dozens of high-tide refugia mounds. Through the restoration of Strip Marsh East, the marsh will once again be able to provide habitat for endangered and listed species, including the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, Ridgway's Rail, Longfin Smelt, and juvenile Chinook Salmon.

"The tidal marshes of San Francisco Bay are unsung heroes of our ecosystem – they are critical for our future climate resilience, are essential to protecting the region's biodiversity, and providing much-needed habitat for vulnerable wildlife, including over 100 bird species, like the secretive and endangered Ridgway's Rail," said Casey Skinner, San Francisco Bay Program Director for Audubon California. "Audubon is proud to be part of this innovative cross-sector project that will serve as an important example of how to design climate-smart infrastructure hand-in-hand with environmental restoration."

As large-scale weather and ocean events such as El Niño occur more often, projects like this are important for providing insight into how large-scale restoration efforts can improve the resilience of communities within the Bay Area. To better understand these benefits and advance the regional application of nature-based solutions, this project will undertake extensive monitoring and develop a case study of the State Route 37/Strip Marsh East project. The case study will demonstrate how major restoration initiatives can provide nature-based shoreline protection while enhancing the resilience of critical transportation infrastructure.

"Strip Marsh East is the first large-scale Nature Based Solution integrated into a transportation project in the Bay Area," said James Muller, Acting Director for the San Francisco Estuary Partnership. "This project pilots a funding, permitting, and construction framework that can be replicated through the region to adapt our vulnerable infrastructure while improving environmental conditions."

This grant will also fund an upper estuary sediment dynamics analysis that will provide critical new insights into the long-term sediment supply being delivered to the San Francisco Bay from the Delta that is needed to sustain and restore tidal wetlands throughout San Francisco Bay. Through stakeholder engagement, public outreach, and technical recommendations, the analysis will help advance sediment reuse strategies, support wetland resilience, and improve the effectiveness of nature-based adaptation efforts across the Bay Area.

The San Francisco Estuary Partnership/ABAG is working in partnership on the project with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Caltrans, National Audubon Society, San Francisco Estuary Institute, San Francisco Bay Joint Venture, and the University of California, Davis.

SOURCE Association of Bay Area Governments