HAYWARD — Throughout her career in the US Senate, Dianne Feinstein has been a champion for the environment and conservation of California’s wild areas.
In 2003, Feinstein helped negotiate the purchase of thousands of acres of salt ponds from Cargill in San Francisco Bay with the goal of turning them into tidal wetlands.
Along Hayward’s Eden Landing are restored areas that teem with wildlife and provide a place for people to canoe — another part of the Bay Area that has Feinstein’s legacy stamped on it.
“This would not have happened without him. He was the main driving force behind the acquisition of 15,000 acres of salt ponds from Cargill,” said Dave Halsing, executive project manager of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project.
Halsing said they are almost done with the restoration.
It is the largest tidal wetland restoration project on the West Coast, according to the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project website.
Halsing said he often gives presentations on the history of the project, adding that it always includes Feinstein’s name.
The Eden Landing sites were some of the first to be restored.
“This is one of the earliest parts of the tidal marsh restoration that was in the restoration project. These ponds were open to tidal flow in 2008,” Halsing said.
The first completed part of the project arrived in September 2010 in East Palo Alto. Feinstein was there celebrating the achievement.
KCBS radio in San Francisco recorded Feinstein’s remarks from that day.
“It’s an amazing beginning. It’s probably the most expensive of all because of the different things that have to be accomplished here and accomplished,” Feinstein said.
Feinstein has advocated for the environment throughout her career.
In 1997, Feinstein helped inaugurate the annual Lake Tahoe Summit, a partnership between Nevada and California to keep the lake healthy and maintain the forest.
Back at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve, there is a trail and a place for families to come together and observe the abundant bird life displayed in the marshlands.
“One of the features is the construction of this non-motorized boat launch area here. You can drive in, launch your boat, park your car back in that lot, walk here, paddle right into the bay,” he said. Hoarseness.
Feinstein once said she wanted to see the restoration project done in her lifetime.
In 2010, he urged people to work together.
“We have to find the cheapest way to complete this work and you have to do it in the next 20 or so years,” he said. The audience laughed.
Halsing is one of the people who hopes that will happen.
“To be able to do something like this, in the area where I grew up and be a part of connecting people back to the bay and wildlife around it and making the habitats around everyone healthier, it’s a privilege. I stand on the shoulders of giants. , like Dianne Feinstein,” he said.
Jocelyn Moran
