After 10 years of planning and three years of site preparation, it took less than a minute on Sunday, October 25, 2015 for workers to scrape a hole in a levee and begin the renewal of 1,000 acres of former North Bay marshlands.
A man-made 285-foot wide breach in the Sears Point levee in southern Sonoma County on Sunday will allow high-tide salt water from San Francisco Bay to fill a 1,000-acre tidal marsh basin, restoring the land to the way it was 140 years ago.
Following a private morning brunch and program for elected officials, an excavator will create the breach just south of the Highway 37 and Lakeville Highway intersection at high tide and connect the newly-filled basin to San Francisco Bay. It’s expected to take 24 hours to fill the tidal basin, and the public is invited to witness the returning tides.
“We have turned a new page in the history of wetlands at San Pablo Bay,” Sonoma Land Trust executive director Dave Koehler said. “Returning the tides to Sears Point restores health to a natural resource that is vital to our future.”