Habitat restoration for San Francisco Bay NWR

This week, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed a document that's the first step in planning wetland habitat restoration near Bair Island.

The soil will come from ongoing dredging efforts around the Port of Redwood City and will restore habitat in the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, one of the biggest urban refuges in the system and a host to 60 percent of the global population of the endangered California subspecies of Clapper Rail (above).

"This project will allow the two agencies to work together to create critical endangered species habitat while simultaneously benefiting the economic development of the Port and region," said Joel Plisken, the Corps' project manager in San Francisco.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service