{"id":272245,"date":"2025-11-05T03:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T03:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/272245\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T03:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T03:47:10","slug":"what-birds-can-tell-us-about-the-health-of-san-francisco-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/272245\/","title":{"rendered":"What Birds Can Tell Us About the Health of San Francisco Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

But other groups aren\u2019t doing as well. Diving ducks such as surf scoters and common goldeneyes have dropped in number across open waters in the North Bay and Central Bay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the populations of shorebirds like sandpipers and curlews have declined baywide, signaling that tidal flats and shallow-water habitats<\/a> need more protection and restoration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decline definitely raises concerns about the amount and quality of our tidal flats and the other habitats that they depend on,\u201d Wood said.<\/p>\n

Local restoration projects are already showing what\u2019s possible. The Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project<\/a>, once an army airfield, is now a 650-acre refuge supporting 100 bird species, including endangered ridgway\u2019s rails and threatened Western snowy plovers.<\/p>\n

Other success stories featured on the website include the South Bay Salt Pond<\/a>, Sears Point<\/a>, and Sonoma Baylands restorations. Since 2017, more than 7,800 acres have been restored using funds from Measure AA, approved by Bay Area voters to support wetland recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirds are so tightly linked to habitat health,\u201d Wood said. \u201cWhen we invest in on-the-ground conservation that\u2019s guided by science, we see the positive results. And that is really impactful. With our long-term monitoring, we can see these diverse bird communities coming back and thriving. So that\u2019s pretty exciting,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"\"Foraging dowitchers at Tubbs restoration site. (Courtesy of Beth Huning)<\/p>\n

Healthy wetlands don\u2019t just benefit wildlife. They filter pollutants from water, reduce flood risks, and buffer shorelines against storms \u2014 while offering people recreation and access to nature.<\/p>\n

The website lists over 30 concrete actions <\/a>\u2014 from building island nesting habitats to expanding long-term monitoring and public-private partnerships \u2014 aimed at protecting birds and improving ecosystem health.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more that people learn about these birds and have an awareness about their role in the environment, the better we will be able to protect these populations and ensure that we have thriving bird populations in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But other groups aren\u2019t doing as well. Diving ducks such as surf scoters and common goldeneyes have dropped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-272245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}