Custom Mitigation Solutions Plummer Creek

Local Government and Transportation Mitigation: Plummer Creek Mitigation Project

In the south San Francisco Bay area, both Alameda County and the Union Pacific Railroad needed to mitigate for tidal marsh habitat impacts caused by infrastructure projects. Wildlands designed, permitted, and constructed the Plummer Creek Mitigation Project, approximately 26 acres of tidal and seasonal wetlands in Newark, California, adjacent to the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Wildlands acquired the property from Cargill, Inc. and worked with the regulatory agencies to secure all required permits, and performed outreach to the local community to ensure project support. The site was designed to support species such as salt marsh harvest mouse and several bird species. The restoration plan was also designed to conform to the regional habitat restoration plan defined by the Baylands Ecosystem Habitat Goals report (1999).

The restoration plan, prepared in association with Wetland Research/ Associates and Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, required lowering a levee along an adjacent tidal channel and re-establishing tidal hydrology to the lower portions of the site, with some additional contouring of the upper terrace area to support seasonal wetlands. The project restored and enhanced approximately nine acres of tidal wetlands, three acres of high tidal marsh/tidal panne, and three acres of seasonal wetlands. It has received support from all the relevant federal and state regulatory entities including San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.