Monday August 11, 2025
Marin Independent Journal —
A $1.3 million restoration project is set to begin on a wetland that neighbors Chicken Ranch Beach at Tomales Bay.
The former estuary is next to the beach, a popular county park along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard north of Inverness. The Tomales Bay Foundation and Marin County Parks are working to enhance the area as a wildlife habitat.
“This has been 25 years in getting it organized,” foundation president Tom Gaman said during a site tour.
The two-month construction project is slated to start at the approximately 1-acre site on Aug. 15. Work will be done by contractors with the Tomales Bay Foundation. Project organizers said that the beach will remain open to the public during construction, but nearby parking will be reduced.
The site’s lagoon was impacted by decades of dredged sediment. The beach was affected by spoils washed up from a 1950s construction project to install communications cables across Tomales Bay.
Planners seek to construct a serpentine wetland area that features thousands of new native plants along with an improved habitat for species such as the California Red-legged frog, the tidewater goby and the Western pond turtle.
A key action is to decontaminate “Channel B,” a man-made ditch that drains a nearby hillside and flows water close to the beach.
Channel B is contaminated with fecal coliform and E-coli bacteria that were tested as exceeding state limits for recreational water areas, according to a project report. Gaman said that water tests found that the channel contains nonhuman fecal DNA.
The project calls for filling 230 feet of Channel B and redirecting its water through a wide wetland area that includes three shallow pools in order to filter the bacterial contaminants.
“It’s just what wetlands will do to cleanse water,” said Michael Neuman, a Tomales Bay Foundation board member, as he stood by the channel that has pungent water.
Plans include having the restored wetland flow Channel B’s water into Third Valley Creek for further dilution.
Invasive plants such as acacia trees that crowd the project site will be removed. Gaman pointed out dozens of large seed pods hanging on acacia branches.
“Each one of those seed pods has a thousand seeds in it and they remain viable for years,” he said.
The Conservation Corps North Bay will spend four days eliminating acacias, Gaman said.
Most of the wetland restoration will be conducted on State Lands Commission property that is being leased and managed by the county. Other properties within the project site are county-owned land and two privately owned parcels.
Project funding includes $792,575 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and $206,760 from the California Coastal Conservancy, according to a Coastal Conservancy report.
County supervisors allocated $80,000 in Measure A funds to support the project.
“It’s a multi-benefit effort, which is how we like to leverage our Measure A dollars where it’s providing critical habitat for wildlife species and abating the water quality issue,” said Craig Richardson, a planner with Marin County Parks. “It will also create a much nicer outdoor space for the visitors at Chicken Ranch Beach, which is one of the more beloved swimming spots in the county.”
He added that swimmers visit the beach year-round and that the park “gets really busy with families” during the summertime.
Supervisor Dennis Rodoni, who represents the Tomales Bay area, praised the collaboration between nonprofits, county, state and federal agencies on the wetland restoration project.
“By restoring tidal wetlands, improving water quality and increasing public access, we are not only enhancing the ecological health of Tomales Bay, but also investing in the long-term wellbeing of our residents and visitors,” he said.
Following construction, more than 7,700 native plants will be installed at the wetland site in November and December.
Future plants include coyote brush, Oregon ash, willows and blackberry bushes. The planting is managed by the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, a Marin nonprofit.
SPAWN Program Manager Audrey Fusco said that the plants are being raised at nurseries in Olema and Richmond.
“Additionally, SPAWN staff have salvaged more than 100 plants from the site,” she said.
Staff members and interns will plant the site on weekdays. Volunteers are invited to Saturday events at the site, Fusco said.
Information on volunteer events will be posted on the Turtle Island Restoration Network’s website, seaturtles.org.