Video:  Tour Caltrans’s wetlands restoration in Montara

Behind a chain-link fence Caltrans is in the process of restoring wetlands in Montara.  Tuesday afternoon, Caltrans took interested members of the Half Moon Bay City Council and Planning Commission, media, and a few citizens on a tour of the site.  The weather was perfect for an outside event, and Coastsider was there to take video of the tour for Coastsiders who couldn’t be there.

Caltrans is building the wetlands to mitigate the taking of some wetlands in the construction of the Devil’s Slide tunnel.  They’re restoring about 5 acres, roughly three times the size of the wetlands they’re eliminating.

The new wetlands are nestled between two existing wetland areas. This area was probably a wetland itself in the past, but was filled in at some point.  The plantings are all native species that were collected locally. The property is owned by the Peninsula Open Space Trust, which plans to sell it to either the federal government for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area or to a farmer with a open space easement.  The deed will include a provision to maintain the wetlands.

The project, which was six years in the planning, will take another three years to complete and cost about $2 million. Most of the planting has taken place, but the fences will remain until the completion of the project to give the plants time to establish themselves. The site will be monitored for ten years.