Flows of Water and Waterbirds Across California by Dr. Nathan Van Schmidt

Water has always been at the heart of California, providing essential habitat for both waterbirds and people. After the Gold Rush, California experienced rapid and widespread destruction and modification of natural hydrological ecosystems and wetlands. This included the rapid conversion of Delta wetlands to peat farmland, development of many North Bay and San Francisco wetlands, and the conversion of much of south San Francisco Bay to commercial salt production ponds.

To recover endangered tidal marsh birds and protect communities from sea level rise, the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project is now restoring large swaths of tidal marsh habitat--but they are faced with a new dilemma: many bird species that had used wetlands lost or degraded elsewhere in California have come to use the salt ponds as accidental habitat.

Drawing connections across a decade of research on waterbird use of anthropogenic habitats in California and beyond, San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory's Director of Waterbird Science Dr. Nathan Van Schmidt will discuss the contemporary challenges and promising paradigms for conservation of waterbirds in ecosystems that have already been grappling with repeated dramatic transformations over the past 175 years.

This event is part of SFBBO's Birdy Hour Speaker Series. Learn more at https://www.sfbbo.org/birdy. Thank you to SFBBO donors for making this free event possible and to Karen Nguyen for editing the recording. If you'd like to donate to support our work, please go to https://www.sfbbo.org/give.

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The San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory is a nonprofit in Milpitas, CA, with the mission to promote sustainability in the Bay Area and beyond by engaging communities in avian science, habitat conservation, and education.