Clearing The Way to Restore Wetlands in Mission Bay, San Diego

The Commission approved the City of San Diego's De Anza Natural amendment to the Mission Bay Park Master Plan, first denying the plan as submitted and then certifying it with more than thirty suggested modifications. The amendment covers roughly 505 acres in the northeast corner of Mission Bay and sets aside approximately 262 acres for wetland and upland restoration, converting the Campland on the Bay leasehold and portions of De Anza peninsula into marsh, mudflat, and transition habitat anchored to the existing Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve. Mission Bay was dredged out of a tidal estuary in the 1940s and 1950s, and the 88-acre Kendall-Frost Reserve is close to all that remains of the original marsh within a 4,235-acre park. The Commission's modifications require technical studies before any dredging or channel construction, protect continuous public access, keep tent camping in the low-cost accommodation mix, and swap "should" for "shall" throughout the plan to ensure best outcomes as progress is made.

Rewilding this corner of the bay will provide multiple benefits. Restored marsh gives the shoreline room to migrate inland as seas rise, which is a durable alternative to armoring a park built on dredge spoils. It filters runoff from a 36-square-mile watershed that has left Mission Bay listed as impaired for bacteria, nutrients, and metals. It expands habitat for the light-footed Ridgway's rail, Belding's savannah sparrow, and migrating shorebirds. The Commission deserves credit for strengthening the City's plan without sacrificing the recreation and low-cost camping that make Mission Bay accessible. Credit also goes to the ReWild Mission Bay coalition, whose testimony persuaded Commissioners to add an artificial turf ban and further plastic pollution limits to the plan.