Montezuma Wetlands On-Site Mitigation Preserve

Montezuma Wetlands On-Site Mitigation Preserve

The Montezuma Wetlands Project is using dredge material from SF Bay to restore tidal marsh within diked baylands at a site along the edge of Suisun Bay. This project incidentally impacted western burrowing owl habitat and several man-made seasonal pools supporting listed shrimp species. As mitigation, the project established a 400-acre grassland-vernal pool mitigation preserve just east of the baylands. The preserve supports vernal pool tadpole shrimp, vernal pool fairy shrimp, and several rare plant species. The preserve also supports a robust population of the very rare and endangered Conservancy fairy shrimp which we discovered on site in 2001. The upland grasslands have unusually dense stands of native perennial bunchgrasses.

Vollmar Natural Lands Consulting has been managing this preserve since 2001. We have designed and supervised the construction of several mitigation pools and are currently designing additional pools. Some of these pools have come to support target special-status shrimp and plant species. We conduct annual monitoring to assess and compare hydrology, water quality, aquatic invertebrate diversity and abundance, and floristics within created and preserved pools. We also conduct annual monitoring within the grasslands and are advising the project on appropriate grazing to benefit burrowing owls, upland rare plants, and native bunchgrasses.