North Delta's Prospect Island

East side of Prospect Island, Solano County, California

Still stoked on the topic of habitat restoration in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, I went on a field visit to Prospect Island in Solano County, California, on June 17, 2015. A few of us state employees were privileged to go out with people who will conduct the restoration work once the plans are finalized. Prospect Island is about 20 miles southwest of West Sacramento, along Highway 84, which originates from Jefferson Blvd. The island, mostly owned by the Department of Water Resources, sits between the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel and Miner Slough. Highway 84 follows the eastern side of the island on the Miner Slough side until it makes its way south to the Sacramento River and the city of Rio Vista.

Miner Slough from the east levee road

On this bright, sunny day in June, we entered the island from the croplands to the north near the small boathouse community of Five Points on Miner Slough. As we made our way down the east levee road, we took a pause at the northeast location where a planned breach in the levee will be made so that tidal flow from Miner Slough will enter the island and create subtidal and tidal marsh habitat for native and endangered fish such as Delta smelt and Chinook salmon. The project is part of the Fish Restoration Program, designed to mitigate for effects of the state water project and Central Valley project on endangered fish. We continued south and stopped again at a beautiful spot with a view of the vegetated cross levee that separates the north property and the south property (top photo). We kibbutzed about permitting and such, particularly since there is good giant garter snake wetland habitat that could be turned into fish habitat--a tricky little dance between endangered species unless and until the project restores marshlands for the snake as well.

Wetlands that could support giant garter snake

At this stop, we were probably near a nest of the state-threatened Swanson's hawk, because the bird made a racket letting us known we should be on our way. Then there are people who own property here and call this island home. We passed by the very odd entry to "the Stringer property" along the slough, with a gated sign that said "Eden", a little island in itself meant to be a sanctuary from God and access to recreation for its owners.

Then we continued to the south side of the island from where we could catch a view of the deep water ship channel on the western side, then left the island to head east across Road 220 to move on to our next adventure.

Walking through a riparian grove on Prospect Island.
Photo by Brandon Amrhrein 

A year later, on June 1, 2016, I was on a boat trip through that section of the Delta and enjoyed a second visit to Prospect Island. The restoration project is still in the permitting stage and is planned for a start in 2018. We boated up Cache Slough and swung by the Miner Slough Wildlife Area, which is on the southern tip of Prospect Island. We then headed up the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel along the western side of the island. We docked our boats at the vegetated levee that separates the north and south properties, on the opposite side of where I had been driven to the year before. We started walking across the levee towards the eastern side of Prospect Island, stopping to view and enjoy the freshwater wetlands on both sides of the levee. The wetlands hosted a nice sized group of white pelicans, and other wetland birds, and it was hard to imagine the levee we were standing on would soon be breached. 

White pelicans on Prospect Island.
Photo by Brandon Amrhrein 

After fine photo ops and discussions, we headed back down the ship channel to continue our journey up Prospect Slough--the boat trip to be continued in a future blog.

It is an interesting preponderance when one natural community is converted into another to benefit particular species. One scene of beauty might segue into a different one; and as these restoration projects come online, the Delta is slowly being nudged towards the way it used to be before it was reclaimed for farmlands. But it will never fully return to its historic state, because it is now a place of deep human history and culture as well as natural wetlands that needs to also be preserved. It's a delicate dance indeed.