Here is an aerial shot of the extensive wetlands restoration project that’s happening at Chicken Ranch Beach on Tomales Bay in Inverness.
From the Point Reyes Light:
“The project is intended to restore what was once a flourishing estuary fed by Third Valley Creek. The work will involve removing a thick stand of invasive acacia trees, introducing native plant species, and dredging sediment to reconnect the wetland to the creek, which flows down Mount Vision.
“This restoration network will decontaminate the site through natural processes and enhance the connectivity in the wildlife habitat along the shores and interior freshwater wetlands at Tomales Bay,” said Tom Gaman, a Tomales Bay Foundation board member. “There are a lot of great blue herons, night herons, egrets, quail and all manner of bird life that use this habitat,” he said.
The beach was once a spit at the mouth of a brackish lagoon into which Third Valley Creek drained from Mount Vision. The namesake poultry operation was run by the Cavalli family on its shore at the turn of the century.
In 1953, the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company dredged the floor of Tomales Bay to lay an underwater cable from Millerton Point to the R.C.A station on the peninsula, and it used the resulting silt to fill in the cove, creating a low-lying triangular parcel between Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Camino Del Mar.”
