Agmt 2001 Environmental Science Associates

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non-native smooth cordgrass were identified and sprayed in North Marsh by the Alameda County Department of Agriculture in October 2000. Because Citation Marsh, Bunker Marsh, East Marsh, and Roberts Landing Slough are not managed for smooth cordgrass control, these areas are prone to substantial habitat loss as habitat is converted from pickleweed and mudflats to dense cordgrass stands. Bunker Marsh, for example, was opened to tidal. action in January 1995 and is estimated to be more than 50% covered with smooth cordgrass. ESA's management strategy for these area would be outlined in a comprehensive cordgrass Action Plan. ESA will identify the extent of the problem for the entire SLSM/Citation Marsh area, using remote aerial photography. ESA will obtain and analyze current color infrared photographs taken during the active growth period for smooth cordgrass. From these, ESA will be able to determine the extent of the invasion in the fully tidal Bunker Marsh, Citation Marsh, and Roberts Landing Slough. The aerial. photographs will provide the basis for developing a cordgrass Action Plan for SLSM which will address the management needs for each area. It is expected that the management plan for East Marsh will be similar to the current strategy employed in North Marsh. That is, hand application. should be sufficient to extirpate small isolated populations. Smooth cordgrass management in Bunker Marsh, Citation Marsh and Roberts Landing Slough is a more complex management consideration because of the large scale of species invasion and the fully tidal nature of these marsh systems. E5A will coordinate with leading researchers at the Spartina Lab at Bodega Marine Laboratory, U.C. Davis, and the California Coastal Conservancy to define a range of cost effective long term management strategies for the City of San Leandro. The resulting cordgrass Action Plan will coordinate the management needs of Roberts Landing Slough with regional. cordgrass management activities to avoid duplication of effort, where possible, and to help address regional concerns. The control of cordgrass in San Francisco Bay just outside SLSM (i.e., at San Lorenzo Creek and San Leandro Creek) would be factored into a section which considers the regional control of smooth cordgrass. Control of cordgrass is the Bay is important to SLSM because these areas provide the potential source populations for marsh reinfestation. By addressing cordgrass management problems in the Bay, the hope is to incrementally decrease the management needs and costs needed to control cordgrass in individual marshes. The final section of the cordgrass Action Plan would outline potential funding sources for cordgrass management beyond the current strategy of hand application. This could include potential. uses of the San. Leandro shoreline as a "mitigation bank" or mitigation lands for large scale projects that impact biological. resources in San Francisco Bay. Potential funding sources for larger scale mitigation work, such as herbicide spraying using boats, may include airport projects (e.g., Hayward Airport and San Francisco International Airport expansion plans), bridge construction projects (e.g., the Bay Bridge retrofit project), or the CalFed Bay-Delta Program through their Ecosystem Restoration Program. San Leundro Shoreline Marshlands 3 ~NVTRONMCNTAL SCINNCC ASSOCIATES Ongoing 13inlogicul Asscssmenl And Maiuigerncnt Services Suhmifla) gale: T)ccembcr 12, 3000