Winter at the wildlife refuge

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Mar 29, 2009 | by Story

In 1974, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the first urban wildlife refuge in the country.

For more than three decades, the refuge has harbored and protected endangered and threatened species, and even a little ghost town called Drawbridge near Fremont as it slowly fades away. Among the wildlife are the endangered California clapper rail, a chicken- sized bird that rarely flies, and the tiny salt marsh harvest mouse, a nocturnal rodent that swims and can drink salt water.

Thirty-five years since its inception, the refuge complex is made up of seven distinct refuges spanning 120 miles and 44,377 acres, from Monterey County to San Pablo Bay.

The refuges are home to 18 endangered and threatened species, providing protection to their habitat.

In the Bay Area, 80 percent of tidal marshes are now gone, lost to development over the years. Without these urban sanctuaries, "there would be no habitat available for wildlife left in the Bay Area," said Eric Mruz, refuge manager for the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the largest refuge in the complex. Spreading along the Bay shoreline, it covers 30,000 acres in three counties.

"If the refuge wasn't here, there is no question in my mind that those species (California clapper rail and salt marsh harvest mouse) would be gone," Mruz said.

The California clapper rail and the salt marsh harvest mouse have been listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1970.

The wildlife complex offers more than protection to endangered species and their habitat. Four of the refuges offer public access, and hundreds of thousands of people visit them each year. Visitors can hike and bike on trails, and boat in the tidal sloughs. Fishing and hunting is allowed at several refuges.

In the next year, a series of photo essays by Media-News staff photographer Aric Crabb will explore the four seasons of the complex.

Today, winter is the theme of the first of four presentations.

Winter creates life at the refuges. Rainstorms turn the grasses green and fill vernal pools. Endangered tadpole shrimp and salamanders use the pools to reproduce. This year the rains came late, maybe too late for the salamanders. Waterfowl and shorebirds fill the marshes and sloughs, and raptors soar overhead looking for prey.

Now, as winter gives way to spring, the seeds of change take hold.